SUCCESS STORY

New Web Design Showcases Home Remodeler's Best Features

Challenge

Hopkins & Porter, a successful home remodeling company in the Washington, DC suburbs, stresses customer service through a lifetime guarantee for their clients. The company is also built on a build/design model that seamlessly coordinates design and construction through a team of in-house architects.

Hopkins & Porter's original website offered company information and photos of their best projects, but it was not truly representing the company's excellent record in customer satisfaction and award-winning design. Consequently it was not setting the company apart from its competitors.

The process for updating the site was a collaborative one. Employees from all levels within the company were encouraged to offer input for the redesign. After several meetings TGS Communications organized this input and recommended the following changes to better meet website goals:

Solution

• Navigation: The navigation was entirely reworked in the new site. Previously site navigation prominently featured three tabs representing home remodeling, handyman services, and new home construction. This made sense internally since the company was divided along those lines, but for the visitor who was unfamiliar with the company, a more cohesive approach seemed in order. Now navigation is contained in one integrated box and leads off with a link to a new page on Design/Build. The original one-page portfolio is now separated into categories for Additions, Kitchens, and Baths— the company's core business—which allows for more photographs—always the most popular feature on the site. Finally come links for Handyman Services and Custom Homes—secondary services for the company. Information about the company and its employees are separated in a second column.
• Prominently featured Testimonies from satisfied customers stress the excellent customer service.
• A new Resources section offers free help in the home remodeling decision process.
• The design uses a new color scheme—a natural green and warm orange—that conveys the warmth of a well-designed home and of the personal relationship the company develops with each customer. The page layout itself is split into a grid like a blueprint of a house, denoting the quality design inbuilt in their work.

Result

• The website has received positive feedback from customers and average monthly visitors to the site have increased from 1,500 to 2,000
• The site has generated company involvement and hence is updated more often.
• The site now supports company print advertising. Ads entice readers to the web through free offers. Unique “landing pages” build on the marketing message and allow the company to track the response.