Case Study – Value Proposition and E-Commerce Site
Background
Trash chutes are something we rarely think about, yet they are a necessary part of many multi-story buildings. It is important for odor control, health, and fire safey that they be well maintained and function properly.
The Chute Doctor is a regional leader in the chute business. The company president originally contacted us seeking help developing a unique value proposition for the company. That lead to us also helping them develop a whole new e-commerce website both for their service business and for parts and equipment sales.
Issues
When we started working with the company, they had gone somewhat overboard with the doctor metaphor, to the point where the terms they were using were confusing and added friction to the buying process.
The "Doctor" cartoon they'd had created was also being overused on the development site that was in progress.
Before
This full-screen capture shows no information other than the old taglines "above the fold." Only five oversize versions of the doctor cartoon were visible.
Solution
First we helped the company clarify its unique value proposition and developed the tagline, "The right prescription for your trash and laundry chutes, since 1975."
Next we tackled the e-commerce website, designing a whole new, more professional look with a greatly improved interface. We strengthened the focus of the site on the service and parts businesses, dropped the confusing doctor-related terminology, wrote the customer-focused site content, and did the search engine optimization (SEO).
We worked closely with the client and their developer to finalize the content, product, and shopping cart pages and functionality. Special chat and sign-up page links were added to the interface.
In the chute diagram at the right, different parts are highlighted according to the navigation element being moused over and the shopping page being viewed.
The SEO results were terrific! After less then two months, for the site's four of the primary keyword phrases, the site had the top spot on Google with two other results on page one, plus two on page 2!
After: The page that presents clients with their customized
service plan options.
The service ordering page was a particularly complex and important page. Numerous options had to be presented for selection in a clear and simple manner in order not to lose prospective clients.
