Referrals

Introduction: The objective of this web page is to inform you about my business, and why you might consider referring a customer my way. Most of my new accounts are recommended by existing customers and professional acquaintances. About half of these new accounts are businesses starting out with their first web site. The remainder already have a site, which I overhaul and Langenbergize. These new relationships often develop when their in-house webmaster gets bogged down with other duties, or moves onto another company.

My Customer Base: Roughly 90% of my customers have chosen to outsource their web site maintenance to me. The remaining 10% maintain their own web content with in-house personnel, in which case I provide hosting and reliable EMail services. The number of mailboxes per site ranges from 0 to 25.

Why Choose Langenberg: The number one reason that customers pick me in the first place, is because they like the web sites I've created. They commonly surf some of my references and say, "I want mine to be similar to Site A, but borrow some concepts from Sites B and C". I have converted numerous sites to employ Langenberg type navigation, after which I assumed maintenance of the site. But I'm generally not a fit for customers requesting upkeep of an existing architecture.

Ongoing Web Site Maintenance is Included: Pure hosting by itself has been a free-to-$10 per month commodity since I started out in 1997. The main thing that differentiates me from hosting-only companies, is that I bundle one HR of ongoing web site maintenance along with my hosting service -- which should shed some light on pricing issues. My SAccount is $69.95 per month for 1 HR, 10 mailboxes & 200 MB. For sites with larger traffic or EMail requirements the VAccount is $149.95 per month for 1 HR, unlimited mailboxes & 1000 MB. Customers regularly solicit my Internet expertise, my knowledge of virus prevention, home vs. work EMail configuration and numerous other web related issues. Everybody has something a little different in mind. And one reason that I earn the business, is because I'm flexible enough to do what it takes to address their issues.

Langenberg's 10-50 Page Niche: My specialty is designing (or converting) then hosting web sites with between 10-50 pages. The more changes a customer wants, the easier it is for me to make them happy, because I'm responsive to their ongoing maintenance requests. Thus my focus is on a fairly wide band -- right in the middle of the rainbow -- but I steer clear of the outsides of the spectrum. At one end, I'm not really a fit for 500+ page web sites. At the other end, my services are generally too expensive for 1-5 page sites -- unless the customer has higher than average EMail requirements. So I'm not trying to be everything to everybody. I just do my best to provide the highest value possible in my band of the rainbow -- for customers who need a site in the 10-50 page range -- who want responsive service for ongoing changes -- and a snappier looking web site than most lay people would create themselves.

Flat Predictable Monthly Fee: 95% of my customers are comfortably accommodated by an SAccount or VAccount. I mail them a flat predictable monthly invoice which covers everything I provide -- even if serving them exceeds an hour for a few months in a row. In these cases it all averages out in the long haul. For the remaining 5%, who regularly choose in excess of an hour per month, I service their requests on a different basis. For these 5%, I log the actual time spent on their tasks, then itemize it on their monthly invoice.

Support: Some providers of technical services advertise unlimited support at a flat fee -- until you go to use it. But if you become too demanding, they often balk at how much of their time you're consuming -- which really doesn't sound like unlimited to me. I've encountered this situation myself as a customer -- and I have been denied support right a time when I needed it most. I took this fairly common scenario into consideration back in 1997, when I started my own business. My objective was to provide responsive service, especially at peak or problem times. I wanted the Langenberg approach to insure that every customer was served under all conditions, and that they felt appreciated. It's designed to be a system that makes it economically feasible to provide my undivided attention to everyone -- the 95% and the 5%. There is only one level of service -- the best I can provide -- and nobody ever feels rushed.

Toll Free Phone Access: If you dial 1-877-Langenberg (1-877-526-4362), I'll answer. But more important than a feel-good vanity toll free number, is the fact that I'm nearly always reachable. It annoys me when suppliers route their existing customers to voice mail for support, but immediately take phone calls from new sales prospects. I answer both types of calls with equal enthusiasm, however, an occasional caller will drop through to voice mail. My single phone number follows me wherever I go; car phone, home-office, or at the beach with my notebook computer. I've tried to differentiate myself by posting this number on each page at this web site. Most other businesses answer the phone too, of course. But this is often an exception for web designers -- where EMail on their timetable is frequently the only option available. The phone enables me to be more responsive, remove lag time and get tasks done on the customer's timetable.

Solution to EMail Tag: Some customers don't want to waste their time explaining requests via EMail. And it doesn't make sense to bounce numerous EMails back and forth over a period of days to clarify a 10 minute task -- which will happen from time to time, if EMail is the only option available. There's just nothing like a phone call to put an end to EMail ping-pong -- and immediately spell out and address the issue. Most people like the ability to reach me by phone, while others rarely use it. But I've never had a customer complain yet about me being too easy to reach. In fact, accessibility to me via the phone -- at the customer's convenience -- has tipped the scales, and won me business on a number of occasions. Each person that I deal with likes to mix it up differently -- so one size definitely does not fit all. So as it should be, the customer decides whether a phone call, EMail, Fax or snail mail is the desirable way to address their issues.

Satisfaction Guaranteed and Pay After-The-Fact: All four ways to contact me appear on each monthly invoice. While I'm on this topic, please know that I mail out invoices after services are rendered, on the last day of each month, on a satisfaction guaranteed basis. This applies to my web site design work as well as hosting. Most everybody else in this business charges in advance. But this policy of payment after-the-fact keeps me where I need to be -- on my toes. Let's just say that this is the method I use to discipline myself. From the viewpoint of a customer, payment after-the-fact is even better than a money back guarantee -- because the customer retains the leverage to delay payment until after they are completely satisfied, if they feel it's necessary -- or indeed not pay at all if they're not satisfied. I hope this approach demonstrates good-faith and that I'm in it for the long haul.

Initial and Ongoing Invoices: The initial invoice will include pro-rated hosting for the first month -- as well as the cost of the initial web site design. Sometimes though, I hold off on mailing out the initial invoice for an additional month. It just depends. Invoices after the first one, are either for the SAccount or VAccount.

Customer Direct Relationships: I've been approached by entrepreneurs who wanted to be a middleman; collecting for my services, factoring in discounts, markups and all sorts of formulas. Others have wanted to be my sales agent; with me paying them an ongoing percentage for each customer they've referred to me. Although I'm flattered by the offers, I do not, and have never engaged in these types of arrangements. I don't even let discussions like this get to first base any more. However, I do pay a flat one-time referral fee for new customers. Beyond that, there are absolutely no ongoing payments to the referrer, no contracts to sign, no forms to fill out, and no employees. I have no interest whatsoever in forming any type of a partnership, nor any other type of a special deal or arrangement. As a sole proprietor, I am a vendor seeking customers to serve and to deal with directly. Most importantly, the customer will receive the best possible service that I can provide -- because I won't engage with other parties in the middle of my services. I deal directly with customers of my SAccounts and VAccounts.

Interpreters: I've also had people attempt to add value by being an interpreter between the customer and myself. Of course they'd be creating the web site themselves if they had the know-how and the time. I understand that I need to listen to what everyone has to say. So it's not that I won't deal with middlemen. But regardless of who I speak with, I must be in a position to interact directly with the actual decision maker. And since everyone is able to view the progress -- as the site is being developed -- in a preview area on the Internet -- they're able to provide me with extremely pertinent feedback during the site development.

I have satisfied numerous customers since I became a webmaster for hire in 1997. Before that I spent 15 years as a data processing manager working directly with executives and end users. So I believe I'm speaking from an experienced point of view, when I make the statement that any layer of interpretation between the decision makers and the doer has the following adverse effects:

	Re-interpreting everything takes about twice as much time for the decision maker, middleman and myself.
	Pertinent information always, always, always gets scrambled.
	The web site completion date is prolonged by 1-2 months, and the actual amount of time spent by everyone involved is doubled due to rework.

The issues above are not cost effective on a 10-50 page web site design -- and they're not factored into the prices that I quote. And I've never yet met a customer, who was willing to pay twice as much for reinterpretation anyway. The web sites that I create, come in as quoted because I'm experienced, and I deal directly with decision makers and any employees they delegate. My objective is to build a quality web site at a predictable competitive price. I listen to all sources, and for these reasons, I really do need direct access to the actual customer beginning with the initial site development.

The Site Development Process: During the site creation, the customer observes how it will be maintained on an ongoing basis. Because once a site has been initially developed, that's not the end -- it's just the end of the beginning. Sites live on, they need changes. And when those changes are necessary customers call on me, the same guy who did the original development. So from the outset customers experience the actual process that will be used to maintain their site. Thus they see first hand how future changes in their business will be effortlessly reflected on their web site.

Ongoing Site Maintenance: My happiest customers are the ones who are able to spend the least amount of their time and get the most out of me. Once their site is live, they often call and say something like, "I want a new button named ABC in position 2 on the menu. While you're at it, rename button DEF to GHI and move it to the bottom of the menu -- and get rid of that JKL button, we're dumping that product. Gotta run."

And since my SAccounts and VAccounts include an hour of my time each month, I'd love to gab about cats, baseball or satellite radio.

Ten Page Site Design Promotion: Most customers take advantage of my $300 web site design promotion, which includes up to 10 average sized pages, plus $30 per additional page. While we're on this topic let me say, that a site can be kind of clunky if it has (for example) 18 pages of content globed into 10 extra-long pages -- just to come in at $300. I'm pretty sure the board of directors won't feel misled -- assuming they're informed in advance, that pages in excess of 10 are $30 each -- a price tag that's pretty easy to take.

Customization to Fit the Customer: Included with each site is a framework that's been customized to the company motif, logo and color scheme. There's a familiar menu down the left-hand side of each page, similar to this web site. A compliment that I hear often is that the sites I create are immediately understandable and easy for anyone to navigate. All sites include a sharp logo, and take advantage of my graphical talents, which are described and demonstrated on the LusterPix page.

The Langenberg Edge: My niche is to excel on two fronts; 1) Crisp web site designs at an unmatched value, and 2) Hosting service with exceptional responsiveness. When my customers call, I immediately answer the phone and I almost always know their voices. When they EMail, snail mail, or fax me -- I resolve their issues as suddenly as possible.

How I Provide Customers with High Availability and Reliability: Every provider on any layer of service in this business depends on other providers, in order to function themselves. I pay a premium for services which are backed up around-the-clock by phone support from live personnel; not voice mail, not EMail, not problem tickets. I only sell services for which I am able to speak personally on the phone with my upstream resources on a 7x24x365 basis. I do random spot checks on any supplier that I depend on -- and I make 3AM calls to wish staffers Merry Christmas or Happy 4th of July, and to thank them for their service.

Just like with cable, phone and electric companies -- web outages occur too. And when it happens, I am in a position to determine a problem source, and to speak with the accountable party. I never have to deal with an EMail support request of mine getting lost in a spam filter, or sitting in an inbox for who knows how long, responded to by a gibberish reply, from nobody knows who, a few days later, if at all. The end result of the deals I've made over the years, has been that my customers have viewed my services as -- available and reliable.

Referral Fee Overview: Let me start this fee section by stating the most important aspect; "The customer will receive identical price, quality and service -- whether they were referred or not." Beyond that, I did my best to incorporate good faith into my referral fee approach -- and I've tried to make it as flexible as possible for the referrer. The way I look at it, unless I find a new customer by myself, or they called me out of the blue, then I'm going to be mailing out a referral check to somebody. All I need, is to know who to send it to. As far as the referral fee goes; simply put, after a new customer pays the initial invoice, I immediately mail out a check to the person or company who initially referred that new customer to me. Incidentally, I established my referral system in March of 2001.

Personal Introduction: Personal introductions need no confirmation. Because in this case, everybody knows who introduced the customer to me. So it's easy for me to determine who I should send the referral check to. If you personally introduced someone to me, who eventually became a customer, then I'll mail a referral fee check out to you -- without your having to mention it to me. But please feel free to bring it up anyway.

Promotion Without My Knowledge: Some people just have a lot of contacts. In this case the subject of web hosting and design may come up during the course of a conversation. And so I'm trying my best to reward people for mentioning my name in these cases. This enables potential referrers to informally tell people about me without filling out some form, and without telling me beforehand. Some prospects make it easy when they call up and tell me that so-and-so mentioned me. But if there's no indication of who referred them, it's going to be tough to know who or if a referral fee is due. I always ask, but I don't beat an answer out of them. That said, I would not feel obligated to write a referral check if somebody says they told John Doe about me after John has already made his initial payment to me. All I need is to hear John Doe's name from somebody -- a phone call or an EMail -- from John himself or the customer -- even if it's after I've begun the web site design -- as long as it's before I receive an initial payment from him. It's unlikely that I have plans to serve whomever you have in mind. But one way to confirm this is to chat once in a while. And I always go out of my way to let referrers know the status, without them having to ask.

Fine Print: I will pay only one referral fee per any new customer, and I don't get into split payments. I will send the referral fee to the first person (or company) who mentions a new customer's name or introduces me to them -- as long as this was done before the customer initially paid me. I endeavor to pay a referral for all new customers, while avoiding any misunderstandings. And of course a good way for me to get future referrals is to be up front about everything. Speaking of which; if Company-A is an existing customer of mine, and their Employee-B generates some business for me, please know that I feel it's appropriate that I first receive the blessing of the senior person that I'm on a communication basis with at Company-A before I write a referral check. This is so they won't feel like their toes were stepped on. It's also intended to respect any policies which that company may have about this sort of thing, and which I would not likely be privy to.

Ronald McDonald: If you're offended that a referral check showed up in your mailbox, how about endorsing it over to your local Ronald McDonald House -- or some other charitable organization of your choosing.

One Time Referral Fee: At the bottom of the referral check I write, "Single payment for the referral of [customer name]. Thank you". The verbiage on the check, along with this supporting web page, makes it clear that the check completes any and all obligation to the referrer.

Referral Fee Based on Service: I pay two different flat referral fees depending on whether I host only -- or host as well as designed the web site. I don't pay based on percentages. And I don't pay extra for the referral of larger site designs. When a customer elects to have me design (or overhaul) their web site, and also has me host them, I immediately mail out a $250 check to the referrer upon my receipt of the customer's payment of my initial invoice (assuming that the payment included the site design). For the remaining 10% of my customer base (i.e. hosting and EMail only -- but no site design) I mail out a $100 check, immediately upon payment of their initial invoice.

Objectives: The $100 (hosting only) or $250 (hosting with site design) referral fee per new customer was a challenge to arrive at. It was imperative that I achieve each of the following objectives:

	First of all, and most importantly, provide the customer with identical price, quality, and service -- whether they were referred or not.
	Keep new and existing customers happy by not paying too large of a referral fee.
	Inspire the referrer as much as possible -- through a reasonable payment, but mostly my assurance that I'll take care of the customer they referred to me.
	Create a clear, concise and understandable system with a single one-time payment per new customer.
	Follow my own eleventh commandment and publish the fact that I do pay for referrals. And in my opinion, the existence of this web page satisfies that requirement.

Three Year Time Limit: Sometimes customers decide on the spot -- but it's very common for them to think it over for a year or two -- that's just the way it is. A couple years later they call up and say, Chuck's still there, I guess he's our man. But it just seemed prudent to put a time limit on how long my commitment is good for. So if I'm referred to someone who becomes a customer up to three years later, I will still pay the standard fee to the referrer. I would not pay a referral fee if they become a customer after that time.

Success Ratio: My batting average on hooking up with referred potential customers is around 50%. Sometimes there's a fit between us, sometimes not. But even when it isn't in the cards, I always go out of my way to arm that person with valuable information that they didn't know about. I never use pushy sales techniques, and I don't burn my bridges.

Summary: If you send a customer my way, I will take care of them. When somebody dials 1-877-Langenberg, I'll answer -- and do my best to address their web related issues. Because that's just the kind of guy I am.