Dear Kelly: How can I understand the web?

Question:

Question: I am really interested in providing additional services to my clients and am looking at technology to help me do this. I am a funeral director - I know my business and my people very well. But I am not a technology expert, and trying to understand different web vendors and select one is really overwhelming. How can I make this process easier to understand?

Answer:

Kelly: Thank you for stepping forward and asking this question. We live in a world of technology, but purchasing technology is not always simple - sometimes there are just so many variables that it can become just as you stated: overwhelming!

I've asked Eric Pierson, our Business Design Strategist at Beyond Indigo to provide some assistance.

Eric: To make things easier, my suggestion is to start the process by being as upfront as possible with yourself about what you are looking to achieve through the use of technology. You may have only some high-level thoughts on the matter, but then again you may have some very specific business objectives in mind. Regardless of your level of specificity, my suggestion is that you create a written list of what you want out of the technology. This list will become very helpful as you move forward.

With your list in hand, the next thing that you need is to be equipped with some apples-to-apples comparisons that you can use to evaluate your options. Not all vendors work the same - it is not a matter of just picking one. Vendors vary in what they can provide to you as an end product. But they also vary significantly in how they provide their services to you across the duration of your relationship with them. How can you make easy sense of it all?

You do not need to be a technology guru to be a smart consumer - you just need to have some skillful questions at hand to ask the vendors! By using these questions and having your list, the decisions should become much easier. Here are three question strategies that should illuminate your path.

First is the importance of asking "why?" questions as much as possible. When a vendor understands you and your business, they are able to answer any of your "why?" questions with clear answers that make sense to you - no matter how big or small the questions may be and no matter how many you ask. Be inquisitive - ask lots of questions about the technologies being offered. A vendor worth your financial investment can answer your questions clearly and can relate the answers back to you, demonstrating how the specific design of the technology will benefit your business. If you feel brushed-off when you ask these questions or feel uncomfortable in how they are answered, this is an important sign to you.

Second is gaining a feel of what your experience might be with this vendor across time. While interacting with the vendor, continue to ask yourself "Is this a person/company that I want to have a relationship with?" As you ask the vendor questions and learn about the technologies they offer - pay attention to how they offer them. For example, does a relationship with this vendor require them to make all changes across time - i.e. do they make you dependent upon them for all changes, updates, modifications, etc.? Or does the vendor provide you with a more flexible system that allows you to make frequent and basic changes yourself while they tackle the harder ones on your behalf? While having the vendor do all of the work might initially seem appealing out of a fear of technology, across time this may cause a bottleneck effect and slow your business down while you wait for the vendor to process each of your change requests. You may find that a vendor that offers easy-to-operate flexibility is a better relationship fit and more profitable for you across time.

Third is looking to see how a vendor can prove to you that their tools can provide a return on investment to your business. ROI can be very difficult to demonstrate - but technology vendors that have a strong industry background understand the need to prove value in order for their technology company to stay in business. To the consumer, this is one of those positive sides of the downfall of the .com era! It is very acceptable for you to ask vendors to demonstrate direct results through the use of their tools. Ask for this, and look for how they provide the hard numbers back to you as answers.

Now with these three strategies in mind, take your list of technology needs to the vendors that interest you and let them do some work to earn your business while you keep a sharp consumer eye!