A client-centric website is one that has useful information that educates and delights prospects and clients. Canadian-based international firm Stantec has an area of their website devoted to ?Ideas??client-centric information and stories produced by the firm?s practitioners.
The year was 2005 and I was a newly licensed architect at a small architecture firm. Some of the younger staff and I were excited when we convinced the firm principal to revamp the firm?s website. We could already hear the phone ringing in our imaginations with big-budget homeowners wanting to hire us to design their dream house.
The new website went live? and then? crickets.
No new phone inquiries. No emails about glamorous projects (at least none that we could trace back to the website redesign). I was left scratching my head wondering what went wrong. Perhaps you?ve done something similar?invested in a beautiful, up-to-date website featuring the latest web technologies and most eye-catching project photos. If you?re ambitious, you even included a blog. After the website failed to create new demand, you resigned yourself to the sombre thought that a website is just a branding exercise?something people find after they hear about your firm from other sources.
While it is true that a website is a powerful tool for conveying your firm?s brand, if that is all a website does, it is woefully underutilized.
Going Beyond the Brochure Website
Architects? websites have a predictable format: a prominent portfoli...