I can tell you exactly what their response will be. Your son or daughter will look at you like you’re an alien (you know that look) and say something like, “You don’t have a website?”
Out of the mouths of babes, eh?
Ask anyone between the age of twelve and twenty-one: the web makes the world go ’round. Whether it’s renting a summer house, buying insurance or choosing a dog groomer, the first thing most of us do these days is consult the internet. If you’re offering a service in a competitive marketplace and your prospects can’t find you on the internet you will miss out.
Professional service firms are no different.
And the website is not just there for anonymous browsers googling for “accountants in Sacramento”. These days you can bet that word-of-mouth referrals will have a quick look for your site before deciding to become a client. Referral sources will pass on your URL or perhaps even just say “they’re on the web”.
We’re beyond the time where accounting firms can get away with not having a website. Today, if you don’t have a site, people will wonder why.
Maybe you just can’t keep up?
And this will only become more and more the case – it’s never going to go back to the way it was before the world wide web came along, so go out RIGHT NOW and start looking for a good CPA Site Design Firm.
Jan Carlzon once said: “Any time a customer comes into contact with any aspect of your business, however remote, that customer has an opportunity to form an impression.”
If you look up a hotel’s website and the photos are dingy, the booking form looks unsafe and the ‘seasonal menu’ is two years old, chances are you’ll look somewhere else. The hotel itself might very well be a perfectly decent place to stay. But the first impression created by the poor website – the ‘moment of truth’ – is critical and irrevocable.
This applies to your website. In order to project a professional, reliable, reassuring image to your prospects – an image that reflects the quality of your work – then you need more than just a an accounting website. You need a GOOD accounting Website! There really is nothing worse than a site that looks like it’s been thrown together by an IT student. I’ve seen accounting firm websites with low-res scanned logos, amateur animations and ‘free reports’ and ‘Current Tax Rates’ that are four years out of date. Your website is a vitally important ‘face’ of your firm. Even if your website doesn’t bring in hundreds of new clients every month, at least make sure it doesn’t put anybody off!
As an Accounting Website Designer I have Identified a few of the worst traps to avoid.
Copyright CPASiteSolutions 2008
