One thing I like to do at Disneyland, other than fill up on sugary treats and ride stomach churning rides— people watch.
While in line for the Tea Cups I watched the humorous interaction of one family as they neared their turn on the ride. A pre-schooler wiggled excitedly with anticipation and handed their fluffy pink cone of cotton candy to his mother to hold while on the ride. The mother, already juggling a purse, a diaper bag, and an open bottle of water did a quick hand off to the dad behind her. The dad without missing a beat shoved the slobbery, sticky, unwrapped treat into an open backpack. I cringed as I considered the ooey-gooey mess that would await the mom or the boy when they next reached into the back pack!
It reminded me of a topic I’ve been dealing with the past few weeks—doing it right the first time. This story exemplifies the consequences of the hand-off. I have clients who tell me they have either thought about using or had been using a young computer savvy relative (the last one was their 15 year old son), an office administrator, or a college student earning extra cash in their spare time. It’s funny that when it comes to their web presence they have no qualms in handing off this specialized technology to someone who has no vested interest in the outcome and in some cases they hand it off to someone who may not even stick around for the outcome!
The analogy between the cotton candy incident and using a web professional is right on target. A web professional wraps it up. We make sure your website is done right because we are there to suffer the consequences. It will be our “hand in the backpack” the next time we work on your website. And we prefer to avoid those sticky messes.
When you work with a web professional, you’ll have a well designed site that properly represents your business online and is constructed to last. Don’t let a teenager or a dog trainer (yes, I had a client tell me they had a part time dog trainer build their site) muck up your Internet presence with poor design or construction.
You only get one chance to make a good impression and on the web, that’s about three seconds. Make those seconds count by relying on a professional. It’s like the difference between a Disney movie and the Blair Witch Project.
