It is difficult to choose between the variety of web developers, designers and online marketers who are anxious to capture you as a client for creating or updating your home cleaning business’s web presence.

If you want a partner who cares about building your home cleaning business nearly as much as you do, ask these five easy questions of each potential partner. The “right answers” are the ones that will lead you to the service provider who thinks like a partner. The “wrong answers” will illuminate the difference in their outlook on your business.

1. What information will you need from me?

The right answer:
“Tell me about your business; tell me about where your time is spent, and how you communicate with your customers. Tell me what frustrates you and what frustrates your clients. Tell me about what you love to do, the places where you give the most value to your customers.”
The wrong answer:
“What do you want the website to look like?”
2. What’s your process for development?

The right answer:
“We’ll spend some time with you talking about your cleaning business. Then we’ll spend some time thinking about your business. Then we’ll show you what we came up with and give you a plan for achieving your objectives.”
The wrong answer:
“I give you three choices and you pick the one you can live with.”
3. How long will it take?

The right answer:
“We’ll spend at least a week, maybe two, on the planning process. Once you’ve signed off on the direction, we’ll have something for you to see within another two weeks. Then the real work starts; content, marketing, management. We’ll work each step together. ”
The wrong answer:
“As long as it takes. I’ll give you a call in a few weeks and let you know how I’m doing.”
4. How will you help me market the site?

The right answer:
“We’ll look at your competition and see what they are doing, then we’ll do it better. We’ll inventory keywords and track which ones perform. We’ll script the parts of your site that search engines monitor to produce the highest ranking possible. We’ll introduce you to Google’s AdWords program. We’ll audit all your collateral material to make sure the website is represented. We’ll give you suggestions for rolling out your new site to past clients as way to be re-introduced.”
The wrong answer:
“We’ll submit your site to the search engines.”
5. What if I decide to work with another developer later?

The right answer:
“It’s your site – you own it. We’ll provide you with the source code, all the content, any licenses for software you’ve purchased, along with any registration and contact information we have. ”
The wrong answer:
“It’s your content but our technology (or our design). Print out the pages and hand it off to that developer.”

The old adage “you get what you pay for” is often still true. The partner-oriented service provider may cost more, but they’re working toward meeting your goals for your home cleaning business, not merely delivering a product. Consider the value that experience and expertise can bring to your project and be sure to add that into the equation when you’re comparing costs and service offerings.

Jill Pullen, co-owner and Creative Director of Excelovation, Inc., a web strategy firm in Norcross, is an Atlanta native whose career has spanned advertising, sales and marketing and technical consulting. Her career has included writing, producing television and radio spots, creating motivational videos and defining user requirements for software development projects. She wins praise from her clients for being able to listen to their “verbal download” on their business and synthesize it into a strategy for defining, reaching and converting their target clientele. When not working on her business, Jill volunteers for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life, and is Event Chair for the 2009 and 2010 Adams (N. DeKalb County) Relay. Contact Jill at www.excelovation.com or by email at jpullen@excelovation.com