Why the Internet Won't Solve Your Problems

Whenever I get delusions of living in a completely integrated, on-demand society, someone like Scott Ginsberg comes along to throw some cold water in my face.

I needed it.

Apparently he thought that finding a plumber should be pretty easy, so he googled it and found some listings in both paid and unpaid search that looked promising.

The problem was that none of the first three companies he called actually picked up the phone.

I know companies jump through a lot of hoops to perform well in unpaid search on Google, Yahoo! and other search engines, but if you aren't going to deliver when your prospects come calling, you're better off being unknown to them. Use those resources you would have spent on optimizing your website on staffing properly or on an effective automated answering system.

The best web designers, developers and marketers in the world might be able to get folks to come to your doorstep, but what you do with them once they get there is up to you. If you fall down out of the gate when the first wave comes, getting the second and third waves to bother (or getting the first wave to reconsider) through marketing becomes exponentially more difficult...and costly. - Cam Beck

Comments

[Paul Herring]

This happens to me all the time and drive me insane. It's often the small things that make a difference. One good site for finding local services is insiderpages.com. There are quite a few reviews of all types of service providers. There's no guarantee, however, they'll answer on the first ring.

[HELLO, my name is Scott]

Glad you enjoyed the cold water!

Thanks for the link love hommie.

[Lewis Green]

Cam,

It's the nature of the industry made up of contractors. Unless you call their cell phones, they aren't answering.

[Steve Roesler]

Hey, Cam,

This one couldn't have been more timely.

Yesterday my wife contacted 4 contractors and left messages with very specific details about the job.

One returned the call.

Guess who got the work?

[Karen Hegmann]

Cam

Your comments are so true. Whether or not we decide to buy depends on the nature of our experience. I've been to websites so horribly designed and so frustrating to use, that I gave up well before I even hit the shopping cart icon.
As Lewis said, it also boils down to the nature of the industry. In the trades, they often have so much business that yet another call means nothing to them.