I was involved with a company doing that for banners a few years ago.
You let a client design the sign, you will end up with an unhappy client.
The best thing is to talk to the customer and develop a relationship.
Plus if it did catch on how long before your $1 per square competitor installed the same thing?
In the race to the bottom, everyone loses.
Ah dammi t, I have an earwig in my keyboard...! under the space key...how do you get rid of earwigs? plagues of them this year.
Anything that stand between your client calling you is bad. Anything that allows the bizz owner to turn a client into a paying member of the bizz is good.{/QUOTE]
+1 on this point.
A website (with design software or not) is just a tool. Just like a circular saw, you can use it to make money, or you can use it to cut your fingers off.
If we ever went retail again, I would use a website with design software to do the following:
A good website and customer contact policy can open the door. Just because part of the process is automated doesn't mean there can't be a follow up call or even messages in the software suggesting they give you a call so you can help them take their ideas to the next level.
- Refer PITA customers there. They deal with the design, they pay upfront with a Credit Card through the site.
- Use the site for add on products like business cards
- Upload simple existing products like yard signs and banners for easy reordering.
- Give the customers the ability to put an idea down, then have the ability to send it back to me for refinements. It gives everyone a place to start.
Why on earth would you want to do that? It hurts your business by removing a profitable service you could be offering, and it hurts theirs by allowing them to create what will most likely be a crappy sign.I was wondering what script or program does sites like signorama and speedysign use that allows you to design your own sign?
The best way we weed out PITA customers who don't want to pay for design work, is to tell them we charge for our design work.You could say that, or it's a way to weed out the PITA customers who wouldn't pay for a design anyways. Depends if you are a glass half full or half empty type of person.