By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com
May 26, 2005 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — It has, by now, become standard practice in the Web hosting business to offer a simple, template-based site-building tool as part of a hosting package, enabling customers to set up their own sites quickly and easily.
This week, domain registrar and Web host Register.com (register.com) went a little further - and in an unlikely direction among automation-fixated Web hosting providers – with the launch of a hands-on Web site building service called Build-It-For-Me.
Monica Hodges, Register.com’s general manager of retail says the new service is designed for the kind of small business customers that want to establish a presence online, but might not have the time or inclination to build their Web sites themselves.
“We saw the opportunity to fill that need by taking our own in-house template-based design tool and taking away the one obstacle that still stands in the way of getting your web presence done and launched - actually building the Web site for the customers. Using that tool, not only does that make it less costly - but it also is something that if the customer chooses to, they can take over themselves.”
For a fee of $249, the Build-It-For-Me service offers an initial consultation, a needs analysis to determine the customer’s requirements, a one-year domain registration, a five-page Web site build by Register.com’s staff using the company’s site building tool, WebSiteNOW!, along with hosting and an email package.
According to Hodges, the compatibility with the site-building tool makes it simple for customers to take over management of the sites once they have been completed.
For customers that aren’t quite prepared to maintain the sites without assistance, the company offers a “Web Fitness Program” for an additional $29.99 a month. The package provides up to 30 minutes of phone consultation about adding and editing content, search engine optimization and performance analysis.
Hodges says contracted design services don’t have to be limited to the complex or high-end Web sites. And those kinds of complex e-commerce implementations may far exceed the needs of your average small business.
“The vast majority of small businesses already recognize that they need an online presence, she says. “But they don’t need a fancy Web site that has a lot of functionality to it. They need a brochure - with some dimension, and that can be changed and upgraded. And most importantly, they need a Web presence that can be found on the Internet. And they’re generally low-tech and busy. ‘Low tech’ meaning that they’re a little bit intimidated - they just don’t understand what it’s going to take to develop a Web presence. And they don’t want to ? they just want one.”
While the focus of the Web hosting business tends to be away from the hands-on tasks and more toward automation, Register.com’s movement from site-building tools to a site-building service almost seems backward. But Hodges says hosting is a lot more hands-on than it would seem at first. In Register.com’s case, the company is simply doing more to embrace one of the elements of its services that customers truly appreciate.
“On the one hand, everybody would love for everything to be perfectly automated, and not ever have to be touched by humans,” she says. “And, of course, whatever we can, we continue to try to automate. But on the other hand, we’ve recognized the need for the human element. We’ve looked at what customers already respect us for, and taken it one step further.
“We’ve already practically been helping customers design and build their Web sites. Now we’ve made it a formal program.”
