Rick Nichols and The Web Designs Group have become one of the most trusted firms in web design for over a decade. Their clients have achieved tremendous business success while working with them, and they have nothing but good words to say about the company’s work.
According to several users, Rick Nichols and his team are “an absolutely fantastic group of creative and talented people.” They do an outstanding job of helping out their clients create engaging website design that pulls customers in and turning them into full-on conversions. The company also provides “solutions on one else could” come up with. Rick and his team could get any stalled project back on track and finished in the allotted time. With the company’s help, customers also get more than what they bargained for, since they also receive education about the nuances of developing amazing website design to get the most conversions.
Founded in 2000, the Web Designs Group used to belong to a Fortune 500 company’s in-house marketing team. Since becoming independent, and under Rick Nichols’ leadership, the company has completed projects for several of the most successful companies in the United States. These companies include Ace Hardware, Carl’s Jr., Chick-fil-A, Dairy Queen, Baskin Robbins, and GNC.
Rick Nichols also makes sure to give back to the youth. The company runs a student mentorship program that provides “year round opportunities for students to learn [our] business,” after which they also give out “employment opportunities” to the outstanding talented student of the batch. If you link up with The Web Designs Group, you’ll also help out students get a solid start in life.
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Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Rick Nichols: Don’t lose personal touch with your customers who are real people just like you, and value the personal contact and relationship you have to offer.
Jerome Knyszewski: None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Rick Nichols: Not really.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. The Pandemic has changed many aspects of all of our lives. One of them is the fact that so many of us have gotten used to shopping almost exclusively online. Can you share a few examples of different ideas that eCommerce businesses are implementing to adapt to the new realities created by the Pandemic?
Rick Nichols: We are seeing clients monetizing their existing traffic by adding product categories through affiliations with companies that tend to be the leaders in their niche. As an example I have a client who runs pet hotels. She dramatically increased her revenue when she added opportunities for her existing customers who were coming to her website to make reservations to order products from Petco and Chewy. This is the same marketing idea behind putting a Starbucks inside the entrances to grocery stores.
Jerome Knyszewski: Amazon, and even Walmart are going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise retail companies and eCommerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?
Rick Nichols: Join them don’t try to beat them. We encourage our clients to put their products on the virtual shelves of Wallmart and Amazon in addition to many others like Target to get invaluable exposure.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start an eCommerce business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Rick Nichols: They expect instant success. Every successful business can have an incubaton period measured in years. Don’t expect to be an overnight success. Traction takes time to build.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience, which aspect of running an eCommerce brand tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Rick Nichols: Fullfilment is the most overlooked aspect of ecommerce. Too much packaging is boring and little attention is paid to the actual presentation of the long awaited product when the customer opens it. How boring is a brown cardboard box! Great consumer companies like Apple are the classic example of amazing packaging. Likewise tracking and after tracking which means contacting the customer a few days after the product has been delivered to be sure ther are no disappointments so the customer feels their reason for the purchase has been validated.
Jerome Knyszewski: One of the main benefits of shopping online is the ability to read reviews. Consumers love it! While good reviews are of course positive for a brand, poor reviews can be very damaging. In your experience what are a few things a brand should do to properly and effectively respond to poor reviews? How about other unfair things said online about a brand?
Rick Nichols: Always answer all of your reviews especially the poor ones. A poor review is important feed back that you cn use to improve how you operate. Dont use the same canned phrases to answer negative reviews. Make them sound like they are sincere and from the heart. You may not turn the negative reviewer around but you will have a very positive influence on the next customer who reads your reviews.
Jerome Knyszewski: You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Rick Nichols: Everyone has a great idea for a unique product. I never cease to be amazed at people’s creativity in solving problems. Successful products are always great solutions to a problem someone has.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Rick Nichols: Simply visit our website at webdesigns.group to see what we are up to.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!