So many ideas, so much technology, so many photos, so many new things to share!
Our processes, our pricing, FAQ’s, stats, new reviews, new vision and mindset. Anne and I decided that although we liked our website there were a few things to add in and change up to keep it current and offer more information to our clients and real estate partners. We aimed to make it easier to find out if our services might be a good fit for potential projects. Naturally, being in the design business and having access to a pretty simple web builder it should be pretty easy to just whip it off ourselves right?
Not so much… It was a valuable learning experience and the takeaway is that we do not have the same skill set as graphic designers or website developers. It’s Official.
What we do have is a great collection of new ideas from our field work and new projects to showcase. We learned that trying to do the updates on our own took us away from what we do best – that simply cannot happen. We need to be helping people in their homes! It reminded us of how our clients often feel in their homes where they have a vision and a job to do but don’t have the skills or time to do it themselves.
The tables are turning. We found Continuum Software and our developer Alok Pathak, a Toronto company with an excellent track record and portfolio. He wanted to “take our website to the next level.”
We noticed an interesting dynamic right from the beginning. WE are the overwhelmed and frustrated clients turning to the professionals to get a job done, while we are still running our business as usual.
Our intention was to have a website that would give people a sense of who we are, what we do, as well as some perspective on how we do it and why. The feeling of calm, orderly and beautiful living spaces is even more necessary than ever these days.Decluttering and simplifying work wonders.
“Refreshing” our website became a process that is similar to what we do in people’s homes on a few different levels. We wanted to relay to people that it is possible to get your home refreshed and ready for sale or redesigned for your own liking so our website needed to exude those same concepts.
Sharing some key points along our journey helps to show people what values we bring to their table. On each footer of the website there are 3 words that we hope to embody on each and every project.
Calm. Capable. Caring.
It is no surprise that this is how we found our web developer to be, as he shared our values. Experiencing that type of care as clients was not only refreshing but enlightening. With an expert handling the task of expressing our vision digitally, we had the time to focus on the things that matter most to our business. How can we be better listeners and how can we onboard people more easily? What works well and where do we need to be more efficient? What services do clients find most /least helpful? Are there ways to make our services more cost effective? How can we offer more value to our clients?
Having the shoe on the other foot was such a gift and I’m glad that we had this experience with our website. Trying something new and failing has value. First, if you are only doing things that you already know, that means you are not trying new things. Second, if you are not stretching yourself and making mistakes you are missing out on the opportunity to learn.
It is our hope that one can see that if we don’t know how to do something for you – we will do our best to find someone who can!
All of this learning made us very pleased (although tired) since we ended up figuring out how to ultimately get what we wanted done. Trusting the professionals gave us a first hand reminder of the client experience and the parallel between a good website design and a well-designed home: the footprint, first impression, ease of use, clarity, functionality and useful features. Of course we cannot forget that beautiful style, images, colours, patterns, textures, line and shape populate each room in a home and each page on a website. We hope that you will have the same success (or even more) when you put your home in our hands just as we put our website in the hands of the pros.
