Biohazard Cleanup Website Critique

[scottelkin]

A friend of mine needed some help with some HTML for her website selling her services for biohazard cleanup. Although this is almost comical if it didn't just happen one hour ago, I thought I would share the experience.

You can view the attached mockup of the site she made:



After answering her questions about HTML, this was our basic conversation:

Me: "From a marketing perspective, who are you selling to?"

Her: "I'm not sure."

Me: "I would find the top competitors in your niche to see how there site looks. I don't know if focusing on the blood and the biohazard style will increase sells."

Her: "Yeah, I thought about that."

Her: Here are some sites I found, but they are boring:

Crime Scene Clean Up Training and Services
Trauma, Death, Suicide, Blood, Biohazard and Accident Cleanup Los Angeles - Caldecon
Texas Crime Scene Cleaning TX Crime Scene Cleaning New Braunfels Texas Crime Scene Cleaning

Me:

"Yeah, its all about what you want to convey I guess. Those sites, although boring, focus on the hard work, the cleanliness and the after effects of things being cleaned up. That first one felt a bit sympathetic even.

"Yours is like a horror movie.

"I have a feeling that the people that would be calling you are going to be a bit upset having to deal with whatever the trauma was that happened.

"So although you don't get upset by the site of this stuff, I think you have to be sensitive and try to do things that don't further upset your potential clients. Further upset and traumatized people most likely won't buy your services - however boring that is to you.

"But as TheRichJerk.com has proved, you can successfully go in the opposite direction and be successful. But it will take some testing and trial and error. If you are willing to fail, you can definately try it.

"But I like to look around to see what other successful people are doing and start there."

[st_hart]

Yes, I agree with you to focus on after effect of things being cleaned up. The people who are using the services need to be comforted. They don't need another horror. They need someone who say "I will help you to get rid of this situation...." and not "Beware,..."

[peteny]

From the first site, I think the image of the grieving family would be very effective. I'd relate to that if I were unfortunate enough to be a customer needing a homicide or suicide cleanup. Not gory, but gets the point across. But then the first site loses me as a customer because it goes into some training course info. Huge mistake. What are students going to come scrape what's left of my Uncle Jack off my ceiling? Hit the Back button...

Crime Scene Clean Up Training and Services

The bullet points were very effective in these next two sites. Short and sweet, I knew right away if the would handle whatever cleanup job I was searching for...
Texas Crime Scene Cleaning TX Crime Scene Cleaning New Braunfels Texas Crime Scene Cleaning
Trauma, Death, Suicide, Blood, Biohazard and Accident Cleanup Los Angeles - Caldecon

But, I don't really want to see the men in their bio hazard suits going through a home. That's a scary unpleasant sight/thought. I just want my problem gone so I can move on with my life.

And I'm sure the company owner is proud of his shiny white truck, but I don't need to see it. My thought would be, great all my nosy neighbors are going to see this truck in front of my house and wonder what's going on.

I thought a very effective image was the before and after of the hoarder kitchen cleanup. It's one of the changing header images, but I think it would be more effective stagnate on the page and not changing. The shot isn't gory, but makes me feel that these people can make any mess go away...
Trauma, Death, Suicide, Blood, Biohazard and Accident Cleanup Los Angeles - Caldecon

I agree with your thoughts on your clients mockup jpg. It's too horrorish. I think a more clean professional approach is appropriate. Don't worry about boring these clients, worry about reassuring these clients.

Hope that helped,
PeteNY

[drexel]

that's quite funny actually. but sooo true. she should try split testing maybe 3 different home pages if she needs proof that that blood and gore theme isn't going to work. That's just awesome, Scott. I just imagine the nastiness inside that bag and want to stop looking at is as fast as humanly possible.

[betsyparsons]

I agree with a more subtle approach. It is a time where people are set off by many different things due to the stess of the situation. You can go to www.webpagesthatsuck.com and get an overview of what a LOT of people think. Be careful. They can be brutal with their honesty. There is a lot of good information and Vincent Flanders wrote the first books on webdesign asthestics! I always check here for articles and how-tos.

Cheers,
Betsy

[monkette]

That was a very helpful read. As the business owner of Caldecon, Inc., I appreciate the comments especially about perhaps a picture of someone grieving and less gore on the pages. Beyond what is put out in the media, the crime scene cleanup business is difficult and you have to be ready for most anything. I recently put up some picture of some needles we had to dig out of a garbage can, what are your thoughts when you see this?