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Website Ideas


Madmanacrossthewater

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We are in the beginning stages of designing a new website for our dealership. We also have an in-house fiberglass repair facility, which will be incorporated into the new website.

I have been doing some serious surfing of late, trying to get ideas. As consumers and boat buyers, I would appreciate any ideas/comments The Crew may have, to help us make the best website.

Tell me what was useful to you from an internet standpoint, when researching your boat purchase. What did you like, what helped you out, what p**sed you off, what what useless, etc.

I look forward to any and all replies, and appreciate your input in advance.

Thanks,

Madman (Wes)

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Cool! One thing that I see frequently is that dealer websites aren't kept up to date. It's a great idea to have a listing of your inventory on the site, but it's useless & sends a bad message to potential customers if it's only updated twice a year (unbelievably, this is not uncommon). Better to just have a static page with contact info & nothing else than that IMO. But yeah, if you have the resources to have inventory posted & kept up to date, that's incredibly valuable to the buyer & shows a really proactive approach on your part. If you have a pro shop, then an online shop would be a great tool as well, but you may or may not have the resources for that, I don't know.

The biggest things, IMO, are to make the site fast, reliable/stable, & easy to navigate. People get put off by slow connections & sites that are difficult to find info on.

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Stay away from Flash!!!

Ditto that. Also, there are still enough people out there on dial up that you may want to take that into consideration - either a choice between a low & high bandwidth site, or just optimize one site so that everyone is happy.

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--There will be no Flash on the new site, that was numero uno on my list too, but I was waiting to see what you folks thought, so I didn't mention it.

--The current (soon to be old) site was maintained "out of house". It is a long story, but I had no control over it (in a nutshell). We are spending a significant amount of money to be able to maintain it in house, so that covers the inventory suggestion (thanks W.G.). Boats come and go so quickly sometimes, that it is tough to keep inventory accurate. But keeping it current is a MUST, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Keep 'em coming.

Madman

What about service ? Anyone have any suggestions? Online schedule ? Rates ? Storage ? Anyone ever use the internet to schedule service ?

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--There will be no Flash on the new site, that was numero uno on my list too, but I was waiting to see what you folks thought, so I didn't mention it.

--The current (soon to be old) site was maintained "out of house". It is a long story, but I had no control over it (in a nutshell). We are spending a significant amount of money to be able to maintain it in house, so that covers the inventory suggestion (thanks W.G.). Boats come and go so quickly sometimes, that it is tough to keep inventory accurate. But keeping it current is a MUST, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Keep 'em coming.

Madman

What about service ? Anyone have any suggestions? Online schedule ? Rates ? Storage ? Anyone ever use the internet to schedule service ?

Sounds like you've got a good plan. Honestly, I subscribe to the KISS principle, scheduling online might be difficult to manage. Personally, I always like to talk with someone (ie, a live person) on the other end. You may over time want to compile a FAQ, whether it's just about your business or for boats & troubleshooting as well.

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--There will be no Flash on the new site, that was numero uno on my list too, but I was waiting to see what you folks thought, so I didn't mention it.

--The current (soon to be old) site was maintained "out of house". It is a long story, but I had no control over it (in a nutshell). We are spending a significant amount of money to be able to maintain it in house, so that covers the inventory suggestion (thanks W.G.). Boats come and go so quickly sometimes, that it is tough to keep inventory accurate. But keeping it current is a MUST, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Keep 'em coming.

Madman

What about service ? Anyone have any suggestions? Online schedule ? Rates ? Storage ? Anyone ever use the internet to schedule service ?

If I'm scheduling service I want a real person, to avoid confusion when I take off work, and show up with my boat.

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I've never had much luck with scheduling service via email. I think mainly because the people working service are too busy to check their email..... and in some case don't know how. :P

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I've never had much luck with scheduling service via email. I think mainly because the people working service are too busy to check their email..... and in some case don't know how. :P

I agree, that's why they email the Salesman. We have nothing better to do than read email. Biggrin.gif

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Lots of pictures and lots of detail on the boat. Keeping the site up to date is also really important. As well as people sales men knowing whats up on the site. Last year when we were shopping for a boat I hated finding a boat for sale on a dealers web site only to find out that they sold it 3 weeks ago and never updated the site. Or when I would call about a boat on their site and the sales men had no idea what boat that was.... Mad.gif

Maybe some quotes from people who bought similar boats could be used. Example: when you click on a WVLX their could be a quote from the Smith family saying how much they love their boat and how great your service is...."

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--There will be no Flash on the new site, that was numero uno on my list too, but I was waiting to see what you folks thought, so I didn't mention it.

--The current (soon to be old) site was maintained "out of house". It is a long story, but I had no control over it (in a nutshell). We are spending a significant amount of money to be able to maintain it in house, so that covers the inventory suggestion (thanks W.G.). Boats come and go so quickly sometimes, that it is tough to keep inventory accurate. But keeping it current is a MUST, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Keep 'em coming.

Madman

What about service ? Anyone have any suggestions? Online schedule ? Rates ? Storage ? Anyone ever use the internet to schedule service ?

I kinda like the idea of service rates, storage rates, and the possibility of accessories such as board racks, wedges, speakers, etc...

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LINKS to great sites like www.themalibucrew.com Thumbup.gif:)

I have to agree with the photos and more photos. If you have a boat listed, a few photos - big pics but low res - would be ideal. Up to date inventory and 'CLICK FOR PHOTO'

- a picture says a thousand words. It's also a way someone can shoot a picture to a friend, spouse, etc. to get approval for a purchase. Or use as wallpaper until they buy it.

A good source of info will keep people coming back to the site... My car dealer offers coupons for service for being on their dealership email list. Monthly(or quarterly, or seasonally in your situation) they send out different coupons. In the email give people a LINK to the web site so they can go there to print out a .pdf document to bring in with them when they get the service.

Or have a spot on your home page that list coupons. Have the coupons change every month. People getting ready for service will go to the site and that way you can show them new boats or special offers on financing, etc. which your service dept will not be showing them.

Internet pro shop would be near impossible to compete with the big internet shops and their prices. I'd not go there to keep your in store margins higher. Otherwise you'll have people walk in and say they want the price they saw on the internet from your site...

As much contact info as possible. Also as much personal info about yourself as possible. The more 'real' you make your store and the more personable you are with people, the more likely they are to do business with you, and to tell their friends about you - IMO.

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I've never had much luck with scheduling service via email. I think mainly because the people working service are too busy to check their email..... and in some case don't know how. :P

I agree, that's why they email the Salesman. We have nothing better to do than read email. Biggrin.gif

I've had great success in emailing your service department and scheduling things... haven't had any problems yet. I do like the idea of posting the service rates online, as long as they're kept updated. Oddly enough, I always seem to find time to surf sites for info, but have a hard time trying to remember to make a phone call.

JV

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--There will be no Flash on the new site, that was numero uno on my list too, but I was waiting to see what you folks thought, so I didn't mention it.

--The current (soon to be old) site was maintained "out of house". It is a long story, but I had no control over it (in a nutshell). We are spending a significant amount of money to be able to maintain it in house, so that covers the inventory suggestion (thanks W.G.). Boats come and go so quickly sometimes, that it is tough to keep inventory accurate. But keeping it current is a MUST, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Keep 'em coming.

Madman

What about service ? Anyone have any suggestions? Online schedule ? Rates ? Storage ? Anyone ever use the internet to schedule service ?

If you are serious about online service scheduleing check out this company Timehighway. It may be more than you need since it is designed for auto dealers service shops but of all the companies that do thing sort of thing they are by far the best that I have seen.

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I really like a customer section with photo, comments of previous customers and the options/accessories section.

I also think information on local board/ski events is helpful to current and potential owners.

Possibly some kind of comparison chart that makes the tradeoffs between different models obvious more quickly.

Things to look for on a demo/test drive.

Sounds like you're on the right track looking at it from the customer's perspective! Good luck. . .

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Here's my pet peeves, and what I like when I go to sites. I've done internships in web consulting before when I was in college, so hopefully this incorporates ideas I've learned. May be a little redundancy.

- Contact information on first page, or on a header and footer of every page.

- Keep it simple!!! Don't make it look like a high schooler made it where they try to include every single web technology/idea out there.

- Use tables, don't use Frames.

- Pictures speak a thousand words, but I prefer thumbnails (decent size so I know whether or not I want to see that picture - see boattraderonline.com

- I hate seeing this next to a product on a website "Please call for Price" - The reason I went to your site is to find the price because your probably not open to take a call when I'm on your site. At minimum, list boat price MSRP, and list ALL used boat values!!!! If its a promo, make sure to list it was a promo boat, this way a person knows why they have to call for a price.

- If you carry accessories, list them on your site with your price. If you don't list it, I'm more likely to search online.

- Capabilities of having an online store - very conveinent, but also a little more complex logistics

- Customer references/reviews. Tough to swallow if something comes back negative, but this can be used as a learning tool for your business.

- Having a Discount/Closeout section is a great way to attract customers.

- Keep the site updated, you said your paying a lot of money, make sure you get the most of it.

- Boat inventory

- Maybe a page for services offered and price. I.E. Winterization - $200 - includes A,B,C, and D (E & F can be added at $000.00 additional cost)

These are just off the top of my head, hopefully something can be of value to you. I'm a very picky website shopper, and if I don't see something I like or can't find, its usually easier for me to check another site than call you.

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- Customer references/reviews.  Tough to swallow if something comes back negative, but this can be used as a learning tool for your business.

The flip side of this would be to have a questionaire/feedback form for a customer to fill out on the site, but not actually post the results of that form, rather send the information to the owner/manager/sales person of the shop.

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