Customer Care Service Center AKA website

Paul Freeman

New member
I've decided to use vBulletin for ECRC’s new website. In the past it probably wouldn't have been practical, but with the advent of the new Content Management System, I think it is.

To initially get potential customers to the site, they'll see a message on their estimate that says: "Mention the key word of our current discount offer as advertised on the Emerald Coast Roof Cleaning, Customer Care Service Center website and we'll gladly honor the discount". If they mention the discount at all, they’ll get it. It’s just a tool to encourage them to visit the site.

My thinking is to give very customer a user ID and password on their invoice to encourage them to post a comment on the site after the job is done. Maybe even offer a small rebate on the invoice to entice them to post a comment.

I could use the CMS to prevent customers from ever seeing the forums or needing an ID/PW, but then we’d have to create an Article on the Home Page of every job we do and the customer would have to find their job in a long list of articles. For now, we’re going with the forums approach.

The risk side of using forums software is that a dissatisfied customer will write a negative comment regardless of what we do to satisfy them. The flip side of that coin is that we have an equal opportunity to reply to a negative comment as to exactly what we did or offered to do to remedy the problem.

The site is still in its infancy. I haven't added any graphics or content, yet. Right now, I’m just stubbing it out by naming the forums and considering the structural mechanics of the site. The forums will be used for customers only, so traffic volume isn’t an issue.

I estimate my total cost to get this site customized and fully functional will be 1.5 – 2k, most of that being one-time expenses. I have a full complement of server tools including cPanel, mySql, and full FTP access to the root directory of the (our) server. Pretty good deal for $120 a year plus the annual renewal cost of the SEO license.

I/We would appreciate your opinion, from a customer perspective and/or a business perspective: http://www.emeraldcoastroofcleaning.com

As I mentioned above, the site is in its infancy. It’s small and hopefully easy to get an idea of where I’m going with it.


Thanks,
Paul
 
Great Idea, I use V on some other sites as well
I've decided to use vBulletin for ECRC’s new website. In the past it probably wouldn't have been practical, but with the advent of the new Content Management System, I think it is.

To initially get potential customers to the site, they'll see a message on their estimate that says: "Mention the key word of our current discount offer as advertised on the Emerald Coast Roof Cleaning, Customer Care Service Center website and we'll gladly honor the discount". If they mention the discount at all, they’ll get it. It’s just a tool to encourage them to visit the site.

My thinking is to give very customer a user ID and password on their invoice to encourage them to post a comment on the site after the job is done. Maybe even offer a small rebate on the invoice to entice them to post a comment.

I could use the CMS to prevent customers from ever seeing the forums or needing an ID/PW, but then we’d have to create an Article on the Home Page of every job we do and the customer would have to find their job in a long list of articles. For now, we’re going with the forums approach.

The risk side of using forums software is that a dissatisfied customer will write a negative comment regardless of what we do to satisfy them. The flip side of that coin is that we have an equal opportunity to reply to a negative comment as to exactly what we did or offered to do to remedy the problem.

The site is still in its infancy. I haven't added any graphics or content, yet. Right now, I’m just stubbing it out by naming the forums and considering the structural mechanics of the site. The forums will be used for customers only, so traffic volume isn’t an issue.

I estimate my total cost to get this site customized and fully functional will be 1.5 – 2k, most of that being one-time expenses. I have a full complement of server tools including cPanel, mySql, and full FTP access to the root directory of the (our) server. Pretty good deal for $120 a year plus the annual renewal cost of the SEO license.

I/We would appreciate your opinion, from a customer perspective and/or a business perspective: http://www.emeraldcoastroofcleaning.com

As I mentioned above, the site is in its infancy. It’s small and hopefully easy to get an idea of where I’m going with it.


Thanks,
Paul
 
My thinking is: Everybody has a website, but how many companies have a Customer Care Service Center where they can communicate with the people they do business with, in real time? I think allot of consumers today would post a comment if it meant getting a rebate.

Jeff, I could be total wrong about all of this. That's why I asked for your input and I truly appreciate it.

If I had to go buy this software today, I probably wouldn't have gone this way, but I've owned it for a long time so I didn't have to pay what it sells now. I've also learned from experience how to maintain this software and put hooks and modifications into it. I'm not a graphics guy though, so I need to hire somebody for that.
 
Thanks for the replies, Ron. I think I might have come across one of your other sites recently while I was searching for something PW related.

I like V, and for the money, I think it's the best canned software out there.

Mine will never be open to registration, so I don't think we'll have the security issues. Only way to get on is by us adding you through the admin function.
 
PHP code can easily be seen by a 9 year old with the hack installed. They are free and availiable.

Thanks for the replies, Ron. I think I might have come across one of your other sites recently while I was searching for something PW related.

I like V, and for the money, I think it's the best canned software out there.

Mine will never be open to registration, so I don't think we'll have the security issues. Only way to get on is by us adding you through the admin function.
 
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think that's a concern. Everybody can see the source code of any webpage on the internet. Seeing it and getting into the hosting server to do something to do it are two different animals.

Edit: Here's another thing I just thought of... If you use any of the hacks from v.org be very careful about who's hacks you use. Personally, I wouldn't use a hack from there unless Paul M wrote it.
 
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