E-BUSINESS:

Company name: Air Central HVAC; this company started about a year ago. Before starting this business the owners (a husband and wife team) stated they did a lot of research and reading before launching their business.
A1: The public needs a business with the knowledge and integrity to service their heating and air systems. The company’s mission statement is to provide the highest quality service with integrity as a provider for residential and commercial customers. This company initially did a basic website to start, now they are interested in updating the website and make it more appealing to viewers. The website will also serve as a source for gathering information regarding what the customer wants and will help compete with other competitors as well. Additionally, the website will offer another way to get in touch with us besides calling. The advantages for going online it allows for a broad access to varying populations, especially in this technologic age. One of the challenges for online is how consuming it can be to maintain the website, to make sure pricing is updated, adding any specials or promotions for new or existing customers, and can be costly.
A2: Current online competitor assessment a. The trends in HVAC industry depend largely on the economy. The economy influences whether a customer is going to repair or replace problem and in some cases ignore the problem until there is no other choice but to take care of the problem. Another trend is the seasons, or time of year. When the weather is nice and no heat or air is needed, most do not think about getting anything fixed or looked at for preventative reasons. It is only when the heat or air is needed in the extreme cold or hot that people think about what is needed. Another trend includes the customer being focus on energy efficiency and indoor air quality. The concepts include being paired with equipment providers such as Carrier, Rheem, etc. Another concept is to encourage customers to have routine maintenance to prevent major problems that can be costly and inconvenient. b. Competitors websites:
A1 Dallas AC Repair: This Company’s website is simple notating what services they provide as well as how to contact them. Although the site is simple, it is impersonal, no name of any employee, tech, etc for someone to contact directly or at least address in an email. There site does not have a lot of color and is not flashy. The downside to this website is that there is not a testimonial page for future customers to read or current customers to express their selves. They also do not mention what brands they use, so the customer has a choice. This company also does not appear to be associated with any social media such as twitter or facebook. Since there is no link to any social media outlets, that can cut down on the number of potential customers.

ABC Heat & Air: This Company’s website is also simple, but a little more personal. No direct contact person to address, but the website has a picture of a family sitting comfortably in a family room reading and watching TV. This company does provided what services and brands they use as well as offering specials online. They also have a testimonial section where future potential customers can read, and the different methods of payment are also indicated on the website. According to the website they are also accredited by the BBB (Better Business Bureau).
One Hour Air: This website is very bright and busy. It has a lot going on just on the home/main page. On the home page, the website talks about how long they have been in business, the locations they serve, the forms of payment that are accepted, and what social media they are linked to, such as twitter, facebook, MySpace, linked In, and a few others. The website has tabs that the consumer can click to find more information such as a learn more section. The learn more section supplies the consumer with energy saving tips, indoor air quality, what it is and how to take care of it, as well as general information about what to look for when your system starts acting up or shows sign of failing. In addition a testimonial tab, this company is also on Angies List. Angies List is a national database where consumer can log in to get reviews on a medical or dental provider and many different services, such as heat and air companies. The down side to this website is the fact that it is very busy and bright. When looking at this page you don’t know where or what to look for first. The brightest on many things can be distracting especially for a new or young consumer looking for the first time. Luckily, the busyness appears mainly on the home page.
There are two things that all these companies/websites have in common; there is no ability to pay online and there are no international considerations to be made as these are local businesses providing local services.

A3: Online Marketing Suggestions and Strategies
The market that we are entertaining is the residential and light commercial area in the Dallas and Collin County area. We chose this area because it is close to home and will help keep our overhead down. In addition, with a smaller area, we can get to know our customers as people, not as a job. With that said, if we get a referral that is out of our target area and within our expertise and knowledge we will not turn the job down. We will call the potential customer and discuss what needs to be done and how soon it needs to be completed, and if it is doable, we will accept the job. The way we can set ourselves apart from our competitors is by having a flexible schedule. We will try to meet our customer needs through extended evening and weekend hours. We will have no high pressure sales tactics. We will encourage customers to obtain quotes from other companies before purchasing equipment. We will also offer quote matching if reasonable. We can improve customer service by offering financing. A large amount of customers cannot pay in full up front, having financing will allow more customers and put those customers at ease as to where they will get the money to have their units fixed. We also plan on having a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section that customers can go through non-sales driven information to educate themselves and identify potential issues with their HVAC systems. We also encourage the customer to contact us directly with any questions or concerns. When we make changes to our website, there are several ways to let out customers or potential customers know about the changes. First is through the various social media outlets such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook, and LinkedIn being the most popular. This strategy benefits the company as well as the consumers as it has the potential to get the notice to many different people; those who are need HVAC service and those who may need it the future. Another way of letting the consumer know about changes to the website is through emailing current customers and informing them of the change and encouraging those customers to pass along the new website information to potential customers, as in a cascading effect. However in order for email advertising or promotional emailing you need to be direct and geared at attracting the consumer’s interest. This strategy benefits the company and it helps keep us in touch with current customers and by them know that just because we serviced their needs doesn’t mean that is where our connection ends. This is also a benefit to consumers, it shows the consumer that we care about them as people and they are not just a job. Informing consumers about out new website or changes to our website through popup ads, scrolling or flashing ads could be another option of letting the consumer know. This strategy can benefit the company as this way can reach many different people at varying times. The benefit to the consumer is like a subliminal message. The consumer may not be thinking of any HVAC concerns at this time, but may have a family member in need or it may also spark a reminder that they are due for maintenance, and could encourage them to contact us. Although online advertising can be beneficial to both the company and the consumer, the company or business must be careful as to not overly inundate consumers as to drive them away due to being “pushy”. The use of online advertising informs the consumer in a direct and to the point what is being offered and gives them the opportunity take advantage of the service. Especially with being a new company any way of putting ourselves out there will help the company as well. Some online advertising can be tracked and monitored for success, to see what is working and what is not working. This information will help the business improve or change the way they advertise.
A4. Search Engine Considerations & Optimization Strategies
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a way the website is ranked and found. This is important because when a consumer is looking for a particular product or service all that is needed is type in a keyword or words and list of sites that closely match their keywords will appear. These keyword or phrases are entered using a search engine like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. The website is only as good or valuable if there are hits and those hits are turned into sales and/or services. In order for our site to be indexed properly, our website needs to have content that is related to the business. The search engines use a software program referred to as spiders and are sent out to obtain information to use in the search engine. Techterms.com defines a spider as “a software program that travels the Web (hence the name "spider"), locating and indexing websites for search engines.” (2012) the better the site content or keywords, the better it will index, meaning the higher it will be on the results of the searched product or service. There are three parts to increasing a business’ search results; they include keywords, website design, and site popularity. These spiders can help a website improve in their rankings on the web, not just with the use of keywords. These spiders also go to other sites that are linked to another through hyperlinks. Another way of increasing the website/business popularity is through buying web links or through a web link exchange. This can be done is different ways, such as commenting on relevant blogs, creating your own blog, and by having a question and answer forum that can include your website link as in Yahoo Answers! As a new company, we cannot buy web links, so we will look into the blog format and the question and answers format. We will also research and talk to vendors or realtors about possibly allowing the use of their web link on out web page and allowing them the use of our link on their web page. This will also provide advertising for both businesses which can be reached out to even further consumers.

A5. Social Media Integration
Technology has changed the way we can do business. With popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google+, and Pinterest, to name a few, has really broaden the way businesses can reach out to potential customers. In today’s society, just about everyone is using the internet in some form, so it would make sense for businesses to do the same to reach out to consumers. Social networking is also an inexpensive way on reaching out to potential customers and maintaining current customers by easily providing updates. In addition to customers looking for the product or services they want and it also provides businesses with information on what they are doing right or what needs to be improved. The benefits of these networking sites, are the cost savings, the ease of use, and improve efficiency.
Facebook: We decided to use Facebook as one of social media way of contact and advertising. Facebook is simple to use, you can add what you want to your page, including contact numbers. In addition, there is an opportunity to like others pages and others to like ours. With this being a fairly new business, only about a year old, getting started with friends and friends of friends liking our page is a good way to start. This is a good fit for us as most consumers are of the technologic age, and those that are not, as in the older generation, they more than likely have family that are and can make referrals for them. Twitter is another social networking site that we chose to use. Twitter works a little like Facebook, in that it can reach many potential customers, and also helps us stay connected to existing customers. On Twitter, you can advertise up to the minute specials, updates, incentives, etc. With both sites, you can tag existing customers with updates; those that you tag, whoever they are friends with will also be able to see what you have to offer which potentially means more customers. This is a benefit for both our business and the consumers.
A6: Online Customer Relationship Management: Businessdictionary.com defines CRM as “A computerized system for identifying, targeting, acquiring, and retaining the best mix of customers” (2013). Customer relationship management (CRM) helps businesses understand the consumers’ needs; helps build relationships with the consumer by providing what they want and/or need, and by enhancing customer service. Finding a CRM program for small businesses is the way to go. However, before choosing a program we must research different ones to find what will suit us best. The software we are using now is intuit. This is economical and a good place to start. However, I would like recommend Infusionsoft software for this business Air Central HVAC. I chose this software because the owners plan to stay small and not become a huge conglomerate. With that said, this program does allow for expansion if they ever change their minds. This product appears to do it all for this small business, it attracts customers, has automated marketing, allows selling on line, e-commerce and also has product training and support for the owners. The attracting customer is simple by giving step by step instruction on how to create web pages and forms and will share these with social media. In addition it will track performance with an embedded tracking link and web activity is monitored. The tracking and monitoring is done automatically. This software also includes automate marketing with maps out strategy from the start to finish by creating triggers based on timing, behaviors and/or demographics and delivers the right message at the right time. Basically it allows you to set it up and forget it, as it is automatic. Email marketing is included in this software, which allows a drag and drops to design the mail and also has a spam scoring system, which informs you if you content will be considered spam. With a rate of ‘0’, they have a 99% delivery rate to the inbox. Once a business gets customers, it is important to remain in contact with them, and this program helps with managing contacts all in one place. This helps build relationships, has lead scoring, shows web activity, purchases, etc.

A7 E-Commerce (ability to pay online) Infusionsoft also allows for e-commerce and the selling of products online. However, we provide a service at this time, and have no need for selling online, maybe in the future. If or when we decide to use the e-commerce part of the software, it will be beneficial to both the consumer and us as a business. The ability to pay online will be quick and convenient for the customer and allows them to pay from home or work, without having to make a trip or mailing the payment which can take a few days to deliver, then needs to be posted, that is a lot of unnecessary time that is wasted for all involved. With Infusionsoft, once a payment is made online, it automatically credits the customer’s account, and if the customer is late paying, it automatically sends out a reminder message, and aids in collections. Infusionsoft has the ability to allow the customer to pay online with the option of automatic credit from a credit card or automatic withdrawal from a bank account. Allowing automated payments will give convenience to consumers and one less bill or payment they need to worry about having to get online to pay, it will be automatically done for them. A8. International Considerations
Air Central HVAC is a local business that provides a local need. We have no intention of doing any international business. With that said, we can incorporate into our website the ability to have the website translated into another language. The United States has become multicultural and multilingual, so having a website that can be translated into another language could help reach potential customers. We would have to be careful, since we do not speak another language, therefore, we will need to make sure that is mentioned on the webpage that only English is spoken, and translation was a courtesy. However with that said, we can look into options or programs that will allow us to email in another language. This will allow us to answer any questions and to promote our service. This will increase out potential to reaching out to varying cultures.

A9. Projected Web Development & Maintenance Cost Projected Cost: Updated Website w/ CRM | | | Air Central HVAC | | | | | | | Category | Service Provider | Description | Annual Cost | Domain | godaddy.com | 1 Year Domain Registration | $9.99 | Host | Intuit.com | Website Business Lite Package: ($7.99/mo) - Includes website & 10 pages | $95.88 | Development | Graphic Designer | Redesign logo | $300.00 | Maintenance | Self-managed through Intuit | Updates managed in-house at no cost through webhosting package | $0 | CRM Hardware | Microsoft Dynamics CRM | Multichannel campaign management: (30-day free trial, followed by $44/mo) | $484.00 | | | Total | $889.87 | | | | | Future options to consider: | | | Development | Infusionsoft | Full Service package includes website design, search engine optimization, web hosting, contact mgmt, web monitoring and tracking, email, social media and multimedia, marketing automation, post sale/service automation, affiliate programs, lead scoring and routing | $1,999.00 |

B1. Organizational Chart

B1. Website Index
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