For CIO Frank Steinocker, the importance of having a Web site for Shumate Mechanical, a Duluth, Ga.-based heating and air-conditioning company, is as mundane as it is crucial to the business. “It’s another form of communication with the customer, but an increasingly important one,” he says.

Most critical is that the Web delivers information to the customer when the customer wants it. “We’re all busy,” he says. “A Web site enables us to reach customers in the comfort of their own homes — at 11:30 at night, after the kids are in bed” if they want. Then, he says, customers can gather all the information they need and send an e-mail requesting more information or asking a technician to call them.

As simple as it sounds, a Web site is just that: a marketing and communications tool — but one that, when smartly designed, is hard to beat. Indeed, these days customers expect companies to have at least some presence on the Web. During the past 10 years, consumers have learned to use the Web to educate themselves about a particular good or service, then choose a small number of businesses to call based largely on the image those businesses project via their Web sites. If your company doesn’t have a Web site or has a poorly designed one, chances are you won’t get the call.

Designing an artful, informative, and efficient Web site — or, as Steinocker puts it, one: “that gets you to call us,”— is easier than you might think. Too often, companies fail to design an effective site simply because they rush. This results in Web sites driven by the technology, not the business. They look good, but fail to communicate what the business is all about.

To avoid this, follow these guidelines:

1. Don’t forget basics. When asked what he thinks is the most important element on an effective Web page, Tim Moran, Steinocker’s colleague at Shumate who oversees marketing to residential customers, quickly asserts: “Your phone number.” Add to that, say Web marketing experts: Make sure that any text on the site is easy to read and helps visitors better understand what you do — and why your firm should be the one to do it for them. Do you service new construction? Offer replacement parts and upgrades? Repair all brands? Then make it easy for potential customers to quickly and easily get the details of each specific offering. Shumate, for example, provides click buttons for each service it provides on its home page, www.shumatemechanical.com.

A survey of hvacr-company Web sites turns up other routine information that should be featured. If you serve both residential and commercial customers, for example, you could create Web pages specifically for each, and clearly direct potential customers to the appropriate information. For example, Lee Company, of Franklin, Tenn., offers its audience a clear choice on its home page, www.leecompany.com, ensuring that busy customers don’t have to search through information that doesn’t address their needs — and that probably will confuse them.

Customer testimonials, a FAQs area that answers your customer’s frequently asked questions, and request-for-service buttons are other important elements of an hvacr business Web site.

2. Keep it simple. Most important in effective Web site design is ease-of-use, Steinocker says. “Our Web site doesn’t provide a lot of detail,” he says. “We want a quick read, so we provide bits of information, and provide links to sites with more detailed, in-depth information” for customers who want it. “We want to make a complicated problem simple.”

He suggests using your own experience as a consumer researching a complex purchase on the Web to help evaluate your site.

3. Aim for speed. A corollary to keeping the design simple is creating a design that loads quickly onto your customer’s computer. Avoid making your Web site a technological homage to yourself or your Web designer. Flashy pictures, animations, bandwidth-hogging 3D and the like all have their productive uses. But keep in mind that each new piece of multimedia generally forces your site to load slower and might prompt some visitors to click away in frustration. The ideal is to create a site that downloads quickly.

4. Provide general information — or at least links to it. For example, with rising energy costs top-of-mind for most consumers, you could feature articles and information on your site that explains how consumers can keep a lid on those costs. Likewise, if you serve a specific commercial market, you may want to run continually updated news stories pertinent to that market to attract repeat visits from those potential customers.

In addition, you may want to provide information that educates the consumer. MillerMan & Sons Heating and Cooling LLC, based in Brandon, Fla., dedicates most of its home page, www.millermanandsons.com, to providing general information about “What to look for in a quality heating and air conditioning contractor.” They also provide prominent links on the home page to information about “Air Conditioning Tips” and information on “Indoor Air Quality.”

Remember, you don’t have to create all the information yourself. Rather, you could link to an OEM’s site to provide equipment descriptions and specifications, or to a specific article on magazine or newspaper’s Web site.

5. Integrate the Web site with other marketing efforts. Web sites work best when they work in concert with your other marketing and promotional materials, says Shumate’s Moran. Among other efforts, Moran changes the “specials” button on the company’s Web site to correspond with radio, print advertising and “some television” campaigns. If, for example, an OEM is offering a rebate, the other media describe the terms briefly and direct the audience to the Web site, where they can find more detailed information.

Moran adds that coordinating the campaigns helps the company target customers in the specific geographic regions it serves. In addition to Duluth, the company serves the cities of Atlanta, Athens and Oconee, Ga.

Offering geographically targeted information for the smaller cities helps position the company, so customers see it not as “that company from Duluth,” but as member of their community, Moran says.

6. Show who you are. A Web site is a chance to “give the customer a chance to know us,” says Moran. “The images should reflect the personality of the company, and the site should tell about the company’s history, explain the divisions, that sort of thing.”

Is your company family-owned, or has it been in business since 1953? Let your Web audience know with well chosen pictures and words. Is your company NATE-certified, or has it recently won an award? Post the certification or award logo. Do you have a well-appointed showroom, staffed with friendly, qualified employees? Post some photographs of them and a map showing directions to it — along with the prominently displayed address and phone number.

7. Keep learning and trying new features. Once you’ve designed a site based upon the fundamentals, keep exploring other Web sites, both hvacr-related and others, to see other features that you might want to add to your site.

Joe Dysart is an speaker and Internet business consultant based in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He can be reached at: (805) 379-3673 or joe@joedysart.com. His Web site is www.joedysart.com.

Patricia Panchak is an editor, writer, and public speaker specializing in management and manufacturing issues. She can be reach at ppanchak@adelphia.net

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