Before arguing about websites and ads, agree on which customers the business wants next and what work it should do. Then decide what the website must do, who looks after it, and keep every login in the business's name.

Two generations, one argument

A daughter joins her parents' business after a few years elsewhere. Within a month she has a list: a new website, a Facebook page, an Instagram account and an AdWords campaign.

Her parents built the business over thirty years on referrals, repeat customers and a phone that rings. They hear her list as money spent on strangers.

The conversation goes in circles because it is about tools. Underneath it sits a question neither side has asked out loud: which customers the business wants next.

What each side gets right

The parents are right that referrals bring the best customers. Someone sent by a satisfied client arrives already trusting the business, and that trust is hard to buy.

The daughter is right that referrals now pass through a search. The friend who was told about the business looks it up before calling, and what they find decides whether they call.

She is also right that a business relying on one source of work is exposed. If the people who refer it retire or move away, the phone goes quiet.

Questions to settle before any tools

Before choosing a website or an account, sit down together and agree on the answers to a few plain questions:

The answers settle much of the argument about tools on their own. A business that wants the same customers as before needs different things from one that wants new kinds.

When the next customers resemble the last

If the business wants work like the work it already has, the website's job is to back up the referral: confirm the name, show the work, and make the phone number easy to find.

That calls for a clear, quick site with real photographs and plain descriptions, and an accurate Google+ Local listing, before a long list of social accounts.

Social media can still help, as a way of keeping in touch with existing customers rather than a hunt for strangers.

When the next customers are new

If the business wants new kinds of customers, in another town, another trade or another generation, they will not arrive by referral at first. They will arrive by search.

Then the site needs pages that answer what those customers search for, and advertising may be worth testing on a budget the parents agree to in advance.

Tie each new channel to one test: whether it brought the customers the family agreed it wanted. Anything nobody can judge that way is a hobby, not marketing.

A worked example

A hydraulic hose shop in an industrial park makes up hoses while customers wait, and runs a service truck out to job sites, farms and logging operations.

The founder's son joined after a few years in sales elsewhere. He wanted a new website, a Facebook page and ads; his father, who had built the shop on contractors' loyalty, wanted none of it.

Their consultant set the tools aside and asked where next year's work should come from. The father named the same contractors. The son had noticed farms in the next valley with no hose shop nearby.

That settled most of it. The website was rebuilt around the service truck, showing the area it covers, the hours it runs and the phone number at the top, with a page for farm equipment.

A small AdWords campaign reached farm searches in the next valley only, on a monthly budget the father set. Facebook waited.

Each piece now answers the question both of them agreed on, so it can be judged against that rather than against the other generation's instincts.

Deciding what the website must do

Write the website's job down in a sentence or two before anyone designs anything. For a referral business it might be: confirm we are the people you were told about, and make it easy to call.

For a business after new kinds of customers, the sentence changes: explain the service to people who have never heard of us, and make a first call feel easy.

Every page and feature is then measured against that sentence. A blog, a gallery or a booking form earns its place only if it serves the job.

Who looks after it

The person who argued for the website often becomes its keeper by default. Agree on that openly, along with the hours it takes and where they come from.

The domain, the hosting and every login belong to the business, registered in its name with a note of who holds each, and never tied to one family member's personal email.

Agree, too, on what the parents approve. Prices, promises and anything said in the business's name may need their sign-off, at least at first.

Keeping what built the business

Whatever changes, keep what the business was built on. The website should sound like the people who answer the phone.

Referrals can be helped along rather than replaced: a page a satisfied customer can forward, a short note asking for a review, a card that carries the web address.

The counter-case

Some family businesses have all the work they can handle from referrals and no wish to grow. For them, a small, accurate site that confirms the name may be all that is needed.

The next generation's instinct still deserves a hearing. The question of where future work comes from arrives eventually, and it is easier to answer before the people who refer the business retire.

Agreeing before building

  1. Name the customers the business wants next.
  2. Agree on the work that pays best.
  3. Find out where those customers look.
  4. Write the website's job in a sentence.
  5. Choose tools that serve that job.
  6. Decide who looks after it, and for how many hours.
  7. Put every login in the business's name.

Step one ends most of the argument. Once the family agrees on who the next customers are, choosing tools becomes a practical question rather than a test of loyalty.

With the site's job agreed, setting the website budget for the year ahead lists what it costs to keep running.

Frequently asked questions

Our son wants a new website and ads. Where do we start?

With the customers, not the tools. Agree as a family on which customers the business wants next and what work it should do, then decide what the website must do.

Does a referral business need a website?

Yes, though its job is modest: confirm the name a friend recommended, show the work and make calling easy. Referred customers often look the business up before they phone.

Should a family business be on social media?

Only where it reaches customers the family has agreed it wants. For a referral business, social media mostly keeps existing customers in touch rather than finding strangers.

Who should look after the website?

One named person, with agreed hours and a clear idea of where those hours come from. Often it is whoever argued for the site, but decide that openly.

Whose name should the website accounts be in?

The business's. The domain, hosting and logins should belong to the business, with a note of who holds each, rather than sit on one family member's personal account.

What if the parents do not want to grow?

Then a small, accurate site that confirms the name may be enough. Where future work comes from still deserves an answer before the referrers retire.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Two generations, two ideas for the website?

Bring both to a meeting with us, and we will start with your customers before anyone talks about tools.

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