When you think about it, every human experience is an effect. Whether you laugh, weep, experience joy, or attain success is an effect of some cause.
However, not all experiences of life are easily traceable to their primary causes. Some effects even have multiple causes. The following fictional story illustrates how the quality of a website can have an effect on business.
A Bad Website Can Be Disastrous
Joe Lawyer is a successful personal injury attorney. He has owned the back cover of his local phone book for a number of years, and has never really been that concerned about his Internet presence. In 1999, he decided to get a website for his firm. Since then, he has not made any major changes to the site.
Everyday his firm gets a number of calls from his expensive phone book ad. However, he has noticed that he is starting to get a number of no show appointments. He decides that it must be the fault of his Legal Administrator who handles the calls, so he fires him. He hires a new Legal Administrator and several months later, he decides to fire him for failing to convert the leads into clients.
He decides to take the calls himself, but he still seems to be losing case opportunities to his competitors. He assumes that it must be because of the increasing number of lawyers competing for the same clients.
He never once thought, that his problem was his website.
You see, his website made him look unsuccessful. It was out-of-date by today’s web design standards. He did not think that his prospects would judge him by his website because it was simply an afterthought to him.
A Good Website Can Really Help
Joe Lawyer frustrated with his drop in client intake decides to hire a new Legal Administrator. His new Legal Administrator, Linda Legal, is a sharp girl fresh out of law school. She suggests to him that he should get a new website and recommends her friend’s web design company.
He decides to take her up on it.
She gives her friend, William Website, a call and he says that he can do a great website for $5,500. She says that her boss will only pay $2,000 because he believes for some reason that anyone can design a website.
Her friend tells her this. “If you pay $2,000 you will get a $2,000 website. If you pay $5,500, you will get a $5,500 website. The choice is yours. But you should know that you should spend enough to get a great website because if you don’t, your prospects will wonder why you have a cheap looking website when you are advertising the fact that you have gotten $40,000,000 verdicts in the past. If you want them to believe your story, spend enough to get a really good website. In fact, you should probably spend at least $10,000 for your website.”
She decides to take his advice, and gets Joe to reluctantly approve a bigger website budget. Linda contracts a web design project with William for $3,500. William tells her, “You made a good decision increasing your web design budget. We will make you a good looking website for what you have given us. But remember, a website is never finished. The web is always changing. You need to keep investing in your website if you want it to really work for you. The bigger and more impressive your site is, the better your firm will look. A good site will help you beat the competition.”
Two weeks later, Joe’s new website is finished. A few weeks later Joe calls Linda into his office. He says, “I am impressed with your work. You are already performing better than my previous Administrators. Client intake is at a good level. Keep up the good work.”
Linda leaves his office and gives William a call. She tells him, “I owe you one. Thanks for saving my job. I know I could never have gotten those leads to show up here with that old ugly website.”
William says, “Maybe I should be the one thanking you. Since I did your firm’s website, a number of other lawyers have contacted me to do their sites. It seems business is really starting to skyrocket for both of us.”
THE END
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