Is Your Website Self-Service or Self-Serving?

Most Entrepreneurs are well aware of the importance of having a website. If you wish to have any sort of online presence, you need a place for your customers to look you up, learn what it is you offer and take some sort of action. But is your website serving your customer or your own ego?

In Gerry McGovern’s recent post, Web professional: Are you ready to serve?, he nails it right on the head. In short, Gerry explains that a website is a self-service tool. Self-service is made of two words, “self” and “service”. If the customer is the “self”, who is the “service”? It is the organization, or more precisely, those responsible for managing the website.

Before starting my own business, I’ve been part of several different web teams and in each case, we had limited interaction with customers and in some cases, even the rest of the company staff. The web team was usually part of a larger IT department, which tended to have their own culture and usually didn’t mix all that well with the rest of the employees in the company.

When we would brainstorm new ideas or develop new functions on the website, the focus was always on how ‘cool’ something was or how it would save the use of internal resources. Very rarely did we ever talk about to better serve the customer. In fact, in some cases, when customers sent emails about having difficulty with something on the website, it wasn’t viewed as valued feedback, but rather joked on how stupid the ‘user’ (not customer) was for thinking or doing what they did.

Changing the culture of a large IT department is a pretty big task. Fortunately for the small business owner, we either are the IT staff or are in direct contact with those who are. And this can really be to our advantage.

If you’re planning on building a new website or re-vamping your current one, don’t look to your largest competitor because you assume their bigger IT staff must know what their doing. Instead study your customers, then use technology, content, and graphics around the context of creating a more effective self-service environment for them.

Reader Comments

Patrick Badstibner says...January 31st, 2008

Given that most entrepeneurs are small business men or women, some even solo-preneurs takes this post into a whole different light. That when you consider two things the biggest obstacle that every small business must deal with and encounter is cash flow. Secondly, considering that only 2% of small businesses will ever see a paper gross of over one million. Embarks the question is the web really affordable for the small business owner.

Taking the above into consideration, then applying the following that if a small business owner does not take the time to learn S.E.O. and S.E.M. because most will not have their own it departments. Then the small business owner must also take the time to learn how to build a graphic, keyword riched content, and well laid out site plan before his site can be effective. Raises the question of is a website really practical for the small business.

At current rates one can get a shell built for $300, content developed for $200 a page and then can be promoted for unlimited funds, and take into effect this is bare mininumum, at best one may be able to get a website built and promoted for under $2000, basement bottom price that is. Most small business owners are left with no choice but to paste just another spammy brouchere site on the web. Accepting that few will take the time to accomplish the tasks of paragraph two, after all in a small business someone has to do the work.

So, yes your article raises a unique question but what is a local mom and pop business or small business to do. If this is going to be the year of local, somebody better find a solution and quick.

Thanks for raising an intresting question and post

Pat

Tim Paulino says...February 1st, 2008

I do agree that small businesses are challenged by tight budgets and limited cash flow, but I don’t think that necessarily means the only choice is a brochure-style site.

For example, one can start a blog and have it hosted for free, or at most a very nominal fee, much less than getting traditional business cards printed. There isn’t even the need to know anything special about SEO or how to create graphics to get started. In many cases the blog software itself handles these issues.

In the offline world, business owners are encouraged to network to help grow their business. Same concept applies online, but the difference is the time you invest online continues to work long after you’ve finished.

As the Internet progresses, our online and offline worlds will become less distinguishable. For example, our cell phones may become the primary tool used to search for local services. If mobile search is powered by an online resource, then it raises the question - can a small business survive without a web presence?

Tim Paulino says...February 5th, 2008

[...] Peter wanted to use a self-service tool to make his desired changes, but the online options were poorly designed and he was left frustrated and unable to accomplish his goals [...]

I believe this is the problem. Poorly designed self-service tools don’t exactly help the selves serve. It just leaves customers fustrated and their time wasted. But, since the above scenerio of Peter is referring to a pretty big organization, the IRS, it also helps make my point.

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