In marketing and advertising, enduring relationships are as elusive as they are valuable. Especially these days, when businesses often feel no remorse for “taking things in-house,” going with an unverified offshore source, or–both comical and insulting–simply telling their loyal, long-term agency, “We found a guy.” So it lifted our spirits to get a call from AMS.net recently with a request to overhaul their website, a site we had designed and built nearly ten years earlier. They hadn’t contacted us for a number of years, and that was fine. We have clients that come and go, based on their immediate needs. Some go and never come back. Some go and realize, based on the pump-priming project we just completed, that they need more. And others, like AMS.net, drop away after a completed project and return only when that same project falls out of date. That was the case here.
AMS.net’s Marketing Manager, Colleen Jones, didn’t even realize it had been so long since we’d delivered their original site. We’d like to think it’s because the site was doing everything it was supposed to do, without trouble or interruption. When we design and build websites, we do so with as much future-proofing as possible, to anticipate how, where by whom the site will be used for years to come. Ultimately, Colleen and her staff decided that while the site was indeed coming through for them on a daily basis, it was showing its age. In their field of IT and tech solutions, older websites are not uncommon, since the focus is on providing tech solutions for paying customers. Internal needs often take a back seat (a syndrome we and our sporadically updated website know well).
After selecting one of our provided designs, Colleen and her team provided all new content and helped select appropriate photography. It was important to the company that the site be structured logically and be easy to navigate. AMS.net offers a wide range of products and services, and without careful planning, information overload was a distinct possibility. So we helped them determine a way to organize the content based on what customers might be looking for rather than how the company viewed itself. It’s the same approach we take when we incorporate Search Engine Friendliness into every website.
The new site has been very well received, both within AMS.net and with their customers. Colleen passed along this bit of praise: “Everyone loves the new site! You guys are great to work with. We’re hoping to get this done at least every five years moving forward, so don’t leave the company or retire!”
Colleen, we’ll be here when you need us.
