Background
When my brother, the Owner of Set-Rite Plumbing, asked me about expanding their business through digital marketing, I was excited to take on this uncommon pro-bono project. Building him a website was a chance to reciprocate all the pro-bono plumbing he had done for me, and I was excited to help him grow his business.
Alex wanted to create a website where customers could book plumbing service times on his calendar. Like Jim was during the Ultimate Doorstop project, he was insistent about including his phone number on his website. It is a core tenant of his business to be authentic and transparent.
He also needed to manage/update the website easily. He may want to change his service area, offer promotions, or make other updates. He is not a big computer person, so he needed to be empowered to do it independently after the site was delivered.
Objectives
While working for an Electronic Components Manufacturer, I worked on a Squarespace website with one of the Senior Vice Presidents. He kept referring to himself as Zuckerburg because of how well the site was coming together, but apart from that, what stuck out to me was how easy it was for people to use. Squarespace is a tool like any other, and you should use the right tool for the job. For this project, Squarespace’s ease of use fits the requirements nicely.
One of the most fascinating challenges of this project was the ability to schedule appointments directly on the site. While I was aware of Squarespace’s comprehensive plugin ecosystem, I was uncertain if they had a scheduling service to meet our needs.
Another area Set-Rite needed help with was getting a presence on Google. To do this, we must develop a multi-media strategy to grow the business, likely something that unfolds in stages as they are ready to take on more work.
Challenges
The objectives were simple enough but still presented their challenges. For instance, Squarespace is not free and will cost even more for the capabilities we want to deploy. Cost may be a significant hurdle, especially for a small local business.
In my project for Simiyah Fashion, cost was a huge consideration when selecting the platform. So, I advised Kayann to start small and evolve her business as her Financial runway opened up. The strategy was to incur the lowest Operational Cost as she got off the ground.
Set-Rite is in a different position and requires a different strategy. Set-Rite has a strong customer base, steady work, and enough recurring revenue to justify the expenditure. That doesn’t make one business better than the other; it just means you fit the strategy to the business. This investment made sense for Set-Rite, but it doesn’t mean it will be an easy choice.
The multi-media presence will also be challenging because investing time in it takes time away from working jobs and generating revenue. However, if done right, you can get a return on that investment, so it is not entirely without risk.
Solutions
Squarespace partners with a company called Acuity Scheduling, which provides scheduling as an add-on and is pretty slick. I wanted to see how it worked during the testing process, and it was very easy to schedule time.
Reviews turned out to be something that didn’t come up during initial discussions but rather throughout the project. Having seen that Squarespace has a solution to schedule to a calendar, I looked around for an add-on to pull in Google Maps reviews. Still, I could not find good, affordable, embeddable aggregation tools. Since I don’t control the source code for this site, I had to devise a compromise. So, I created a link to their Nextdoor and a Coming Soon link to Google Maps since I couldn’t pull in the data like I wanted.
Another thing I helped with was writing the copy for the site. Copy like the home page, which states:
We believe in helping customers, not selling them. It’s hard to find a plumber that’s not a salesperson. We know if we treat our customers right and offer quality plumbing service at affordable prices, that’s worth more than any sale. We know how to properly install plumbing fixtures to keep you and your family healthy. We believe you shouldn’t pay extra for quality and personal touch.
Lastly, on the Contact Page, there are three different mechanisms to contact Set-Rite: a direct phone number, an Email, and a Contact Form.
The multi-media strategy ended up getting de-prioritized. Alex did not want to be overwhelmed with new work but wanted to grow sustainably and steadily.
Results
All these efforts together produced a great-looking website that his customers can trust. Despite using a site builder, it took a lot of customization and finagling to get it to where it was supposed to be—something that shows professionally and functions well but also doesn’t break the bank.
The site is suitable for an MVP and will evolve later when Set-Rite is ready for more explosive growth.
Lessons Learned
- I learned more about Squarespace’s capabilities and added it as an arrow in my quiver for clients.
- Google Maps verification is a complicated process. Alex tried to verify his business location three or four times, even recording videos, but Google rejected these requests. He could not talk to real people about his concerns because AI was pre-screening his requests for verification.
- User reviews were frustrating, but the solution implemented works well to accomplish the goal.