Our client, Pat Hays, will be featured on CNN's Nancy Grace on Thursday, December 18th at 7 pm central.  We are excited to watch Pat speak on the national stage in front of millions of viewers about legal issue surrounding autism and the obstacles that many families encounter. Pat understands the hardships many families face and regularly shares her experiences on her blog.

The publicity she receives from her appearance on CNN will give her an excellent opportunity to connect with other families coping with autism and build on the community she is helping to establish with her blog.

For 20 years Ozark Angler has been Arkansas' premier fly fishing outfitter.  Now, OzarkAngler.com is Arkansas' and the nation's new premier online fly fishing resource and store.

In addition to carrying all the latest and highest quality fly fishing equipment they offer fly tying and fly fishing lessons, guide services to local or exotic locations and the latest river reports and fly patterns.  Plus, they're all fly fishermen themselves who are available and love to talk to you about their passion.

If you fly fish, you want to know the folks at Ozark Angler.  Visit the website, shop the store, give them a call or drop by to see them at their Little Rock or Heber Springs locations!

Today Arkansas Business recognized 1011Web as one of the best website design and development firms in Arkansas. 

We are proud to be the runner-up recipient of their Best of Business 2008 award.  Thank you to all our wonderful clients and friends for your inspiration and support.  And thank you to Arkansas Business for promoting all types of business and economic development in our great state.

Check out their report here: http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article.aspx?aID=110610.54928.122748&cID=l&view=all 

1011 Web Solutions and all our staff love helping businesses establish and grow a succesful online presence.  We design, build and market websites, ecommerce stores and custom software applications.  And because our focus is solely web-based, we do it all very well.

Thanks again to our clients, partners, friends and Arkansas Business for recognizing 1011 Web Solutions as one of the best website design and development firms in Little Rock and Arkansas!  To our clients, thank you also for giving us the opportunity to serve you.  We look forward to continuing for many more years helping busnesses in this great state and across our great nation to get the most value and highest ROIs from their online presence.

I'm of the opinion people naturally resist change, especially when it comes to "technical" things.  From this resistance spawns a huge myriad of logical and illogical reactions to change with which they are forced to cope.  But take courage ye ole implementors of technology change, there are ways to ease the pain.

#1 - Let it flow from the force.  In this case the "force" is not a mystical power but your employees or customers, the ones who will really be using this stuff day in and day out.  Involve them early and often in the development process.  You may think you know a lot.  But, I guarantee your end users will give you great ideas and perspectives that would have taken you much longer to stumble across.  If change is generated from their ideas then acceptance will be more likely.

#2 - Beware of the feature creep.  "Feature creep" is a term used to describe how a simple project turns into a huge project as those involved start requesting little additions here and there.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of not limiting ideas, thinking blue sky, etc.  As you involve your end users, just know that you shouldn't add everything that's suggested.  If you do, the end product may turn out to complicated to use or take so long that everyone loses interest.  Not good for helping your acceptance.

#3 - Train, train, train.  Remember that most your end users were not specifically involved in development.  So it is a mistake to assume they're playing on the same knowledge level you are.  When implementing a new website, ecommerce store or workflow automation be sure to budget plenty of time for bringing others up to speed.  Change is resisted most often due to lack of understanding.

#4 - Track results.  Whether it is sharing cost savings, increase revenue numbers or tying incentives to the new technology, encourage your employee or customers about it by letting them know about the success and how they have contributed to that.  Everyone likes a pat on the back and to feel as if they're making a difference.

New ideas, processes, techniques, software, etc. happen everyday.  Always continue looking for ways to improve and grow.  Just remember that when technologies do change it effects people and they are your most valuable asset.  So implement the change if it is the right thing for your business but also implement the support that will allow your end users to skyrocket the change's ROI for you.

Consumers have choices when it comes to where they spend their money, and people love to shop for deals, especially online. Unless you’re an oil company, you’ve probably already engaged in price wars with your competitors in a struggle to get more customers to buy from you, or at minimum compared your prices to competitors in your area. You may have even considered how to differentiate yourself among your pool of competitors that offer the same products, at the same MSRP price, in the same city. But, another factor plays a role when a consumer chooses to make a purchase from a particular business, and that is the reputation of the business.

Your online reputation is much more than a professionally designed website that reveals that you've made sufficient monetary investment in your website. It's also your time investment that you make towards making a customer's checkout seamless, the cost of shipping, how long they waited, and providing avenues for customers to request support and vent their frustrations. 

Reputable businesses are mostly honest, sincere, and humble in the face of adversity. They are usually transparent and open to customers who want to provide feedback, and they almost always resolve discrepancies when problems occur. They have to be responsive becuase it is incredibly easy for someone in this day and age to post unfavorable content online about you and your business and even recommend others not to buy from you.

Managing Your Online Reputation

I recently consulted a Chamber of Commerce member about our SEO services. While at a computer, we typed in keywords about his business. Not only was his website nowhere to be found, several other websites (including sponsored links) were listed that talked about how the nationwide services he sells is a scam. He was unaware of this situation. This SEO demo abruptly turned in to an online reputation management discussion.

Your online reputation may be just as, if not more, important than your word-of-mouth reputation. It’s also something you can combat, control, and at least minimize your negative exposure online. One thing you should do is monitor your brand. There are free services available that can notify you when information about your business is posted online.

• Google Alerts - google.com/alerts
• Yahoo Alerts - alerts.yahoo.com
• RSS feed subscriptions to search results Technorati, Feedster, Yahoo & Google News, BlogPulse
• Social Media via tags: tagbulb.com, tagfetch.com, keotag.com

If a crisis arises, engage it. Research the situation to find out if is there merit behind the claims or negative statements. If not, tell your side of the story and ask for corrections. If the claim has merit, offer to discuss your side of the situation, and always be honest taking blame when blame is due. And, if you have your own blog, respond with haste, and be sure to list positive testimonials on your website.

Not all people are going to be happy no matter how hard you work to dedicate yourself to customer satisfaction. It is inevitable that someone may just have a bad day. However, being vigilant of your company's online reputation will only increase your credibility in an age of stiff competition.