Websites + Marketing Store Initial Call Guide
Greeting
Hi, is [customer name] available?
Hi, [customer name], this is [your name] from GoDaddy Website Design Services! How are you today? [PAUSE for response]
I’m calling you for your website consultation.
Our call today should take us about 45 minutes.
And you’re near a computer, right? You’ll need it in a few minutes.
By the way, before we get into things, I want to let you know that this call will be recorded and retained for quality and training purposes.
Ok, in order for me to open up your account, I’ll just need your PIN. [PAUSE for response]
Great! First, I want to thank you for working with us! I’ll be your main point of contact throughout the process.
[PAUSE for response]
[If there are multiple customers involved or if they ask about adding additional users]
I understand we have multiple people collaborating on the design of this website, is that correct? [PAUSE for response]
[If YES] To make sure things don't get held up in the process, I need one point of contact to avoid confusion. Who is that right person who will keep us on track? [PAUSE for response of the customer's name]
[Reconfirm contact details of main point of contact] Ok, to ensure we are all on the same page, [customer name], will be the main point of contact on all future communication and design decisions about the website.
[Verify main point of contact's information] [Customer name], I want to make sure I have your correct phone number and email address, is your phone number [say phone number] and your email address is [say email address]. Does this all sound right?
Great!
[If NO] Customer is still asking to add more than one point of contact
I understand that you want more than one main point of contact. What we’ve seen work for other teams is they collaborate offline, and they have a team leader who is also the main point of contact to us.
It’s a much easier and smoother process when we work with one person because it prevents delays and confusion with your project. Does that make sense? [PAUSE for response]
So, who will be the main point of contact going forward? [PAUSE for response of the customer's name]
[Reconfirm contact details of main point of contact] Ok, to ensure we are all on the same page, [customer name], will be the main point of contact on all future communication and design decisions about the website.
[Verify main point of contact's information] [Customer name], I want to make sure I have your correct phone number and email address, is your phone number [say phone number] and your email address is [say email address]. Does this all sound right?
Great!
Today, our call has 4 basic sections. First, we’ll talk about your business, then your design options, your store style and products, and then your content. Sound good?
[PAUSE for response]
[If the customer has completed setting up business profile and uploaded assets:]
I see that you have completed your business profile and uploaded a few files to the Media Library – we’ll talk about how you want to use these items on your website.
[If a customer completed profile but didn’t upload assets:]
I see that you have completed your business profile and we’ll talk about how you want to use this information on your website.
Just to give you an idea of the timeframe we want to work with, let me tell you a bit about our process, ok?
Our goal is to have a website designed for you within two to three weeks from today. Our designers will take all the info you and I are going to discuss today about your business (venture, organization, mission, etc.) and your needs, and they’ll use their expertise in visual design trends and W+M tools to create a site that looks great and works for you. Our team needs 8 business days to complete the initial draft.
After that initial design, if you have edits, you and I will discuss it together on our next call. During that call we can help set up your payment processor. We’ll need this information later on, but who do you use for your payment processing? [PAUSE for response]
[If one of the main (Paypal, PayPal for Business, Stripe, Square, Offline Payments) then:]
“Okay, good to know, we can definitely help you set that up after the initial design comes back. Be sure to have your login credentials handy when we publish your site.”
We’ll also help you set up shipping (USPS or UPS) and tax information ready by that time. I will be sending all this information & instructions for you in an email after our call today.
Then, we’ll have our website designers make those edits while we prepare to publish, which we’ll do on the next call after that. This should take us less than two weeks.
After we make your site live, you and I will wrap up our work together. During our publish call, if we need to finalize putting in your merchant account information, we’ll use Zoom (screen share) to do that, and then, we can publish your site live. At that point, if you have any additional small edits we will submit a ticket together & a team of specialists will follow up with you if anything else is needed. Or you can give them a call and someone on that team will help you out.
And then Marketing Services is there to help you maintain and continually improve your site's performance.
Our goal is to do all of that in about six weeks’s time. We do have some cushion built in there in case you have additional edits, but we want to make sure you’re able to move pretty quickly and that we don’t hold you up. Do you have any questions I can answer about any of that? [PAUSE for response]
If you’d like to move forward with publishing your site without reviewing it, we can plan for that too at the end of our call. Any questions about any of that? [PAUSE for response]
The Basics
[If YES]
[customer name], I found a website for you at [domain] — do you want us to use that site as a reference for your new website? Or are we starting from scratch? [PAUSE for response]
[If NO]
[customer name], do you have an existing website? [PAUSE for response]
[If yes, ask for the URL and look it up]
Great! Do you want us to use this site as a reference for your new website? Or are we starting from scratch?
[If yes, the domain is in their GoDaddy account, no further action is required]
[If no, the domain isn't in their GoDaddy account]
Do you want to transfer your domain to us? [PAUSE for response]
[If YES]
Great! Once we complete today's consult call, I'll connect you to the team that will take care of the domain transfer for you.
[If NO or unsure about it]
Transferring your domain name to your GoDaddy account helps us down the road when it comes time to publish your website. We can do this easily when the domain is already in your account. [PAUSE for response]
[If customer is still unsure about the domain transfer]
It's important for us to have the domain in your GoDaddy account because if we run into any issues or changes along the way, we can easily assist you. Plus, we want to help you move through the publishing process smoothly. [PAUSE for response]
[If the customer asks how long does the domain transfer process take]
The domain transfer authorization process takes only a few minutes of your time. However, the remaining steps of the transfer take about 7-10 business to complete. You should see your domain in your GoDaddy account around that time.
And just to confirm, the business name is [business name] and your domain is [domain name]. Is that correct?
Why don’t you tell me a little bit about your business?
What type of products are you selling?
Ok, great. Based on what you’ve just told me, the Websites + Marketing Store is gonna be a great fit for you, so let’s talk about what your website design includes.
Websites + Marketing Store, where we’ll set up 7 pages, including Terms of Service and Contact pages, and get you started on your [products that you’ve already determined]
Examples:
- customer has 100 products, no variants
- customer has 50 products with 2 variants (t-shirt X in red or green)
- customer has 20 products with 5 variants (t-shirt X in red, green, blue, pink, & purple)
Do you have a website you’d like to use as design inspiration -- it could be your existing site or maybe one for a similar business to yours?
[If YES]
Great, if you want to give me that URL we can look through that site together and talk about what elements you’d like to use for your new site.
[If NO]
Ok, no problem -- would you like to look through our gallery together and see if we can find some sites you like the look of?
[If you need to coach the customer to move on:]
I want to make sure we get plenty of time for the rest of our call today, so let’s just go through some questions that can help give our designers some insight into your preferences, ok?
Reactive Marketing Services Positioning
That doesn’t limit your site, that is just for the initial build, and you can update it any time. [PAUSE for response]
You have two options there. One option is where you can do it yourself, using our free resources that show you how to make updates to your site. If you want to take the do-it-yourself route, we’ll send you all those resources once we’re ready to publish your site.
The other option, which you may have heard about, is our Marketing Services plan, where we make updates for you. It’s a subscription service where you basically have us on retainer, and we make updates whenever you need them. The most cost-effective plan is the 2-year subscription where you do pay more up front, but then you’re covered for any updates you’d need for 2 years. We also have options for a 1-year plan, and some shorter term options if you just want to make a handful of updates at once.
[Confirm customer’s interest before moving on:]
Does our do-it-for-you option sound like something you’d be interested in? [PAUSE for response]
[If YES]
Great! I can tell you exactly what each option would cost and we can talk a little more about how it works.
[If NO]
Ok, no problem. If you ever want to add that, just let me know, and I’ll remind you about it when we’re publishing your website.
After this call, I’ll send a recap email about the plan type and expectations we talked about today, so you can refer back to it. Does that sound good? [PAUSE for response]
[Continue to the rest of the call:]
Design Consultation
[If the customer answered all 3 questions on business profile]
Let’s talk about the answers you sent in your profile.
[Walk-through profile and verify what they answered is correct]
[If something is unanswered from profile]
I see that we’re missing [name of missing item or items] and that’s ok. Let’s fill this in now.
[If they didn’t fill out the profile]
First, let’s start with trying to answer the questions in the profile. [PAUSE for response]
[If they’re struggling]
If you could come up with a mission or a vision for your business, what would that be? [PAUSE for response]
[If they’re still struggling]
It’s helpful for our content writers and designers to know a bit about your business’s goals or why you do what you do. For example, GoDaddy’s mission is to help everyday entrepreneurs achieve their goals.
I got a lot of great information about your business already, but let me just make sure we have everything we need for our designers, ok?
[If the customer indicates that this type of info could be obtained from any documents they’ve already uploaded, open the document now and scan through for answers.]
Does your business have a tagline or slogan you’d like to see incorporated? [PAUSE for response]
I want to make sure our website designers have a good understanding of what your business does, so we’re going to provide them with a brief description. I know that you’re a [business] that provides [service/product]. Tell me a little bit about what else you offer and what makes you unique.
Ok, and how long have you been in business?
[If they are a new business]
How many years of experience do you have in your field?
[If they don’t have an exact date]
It’s ok if you don’t know exactly. We can just provide a general time frame for our designers.
[PAUSE for response]
Tell me a little bit about your customers and who you want to attract more of.
Is there a specific area that you service?
And if you could choose one thing you’d want customers to know about your business, what would that be?
And what’s the main goal of your website?
- Is it to get new leads for your business?
- Is it important for you to showcase your work?
- Are you providing information or education?
- Is your main goal to sell your products and/or services?
[If YES]
Ok and I’ve already gathered some of the information that’ll go on your site, like hours and contact info, but I’d like to go through it so we can verify that it’s all correct, ok? [PAUSE for response]
[If NO]
I want to make sure we have your business and contact information the way you’d like for it to appear on your site, so we’re going to go through that together, ok? [PAUSE for response]
[If customer’s existing site isn’t hosted by us, offer free email linked to domain]
By the way, if you want to create an email address that’s linked to your domain to display on the site, which I recommend, we can get that set up for you after the call today. Maybe something like info@[domain].com.
You can tell the customer that you’ll transfer them to our support team that does this after the call.
[If YES]
For the sake of time, we can pull those products from your existing store, if they're up to date there. [PAUSE for response]
[If NO]
Ok, so for the sake of time, we're not going to walk through every one of your products (as much as I would love to!), so what I’m going to do is send you a sheet where you can add all of those product details, which you can upload to your Media Library, and we’ll make sure they’re added to your store.
Ok, thanks for all that info. That does it for our basic information here. Is there anything else you’d like for our website designers to know about your business when they’re putting your site together? [PAUSE for response]
Design Consultation: Logo
Ok, great! So now we’re going to talk about your design options!
[If YES]
I know you purchased a logo with your website. First, we’re going to talk about what you want it to look like.
How do you want your business name to appear in your logo? [PAUSE for response/discussion]
Do you have specific colors you want to use? [If yes, get the HEX codes for all colors] [PAUSE for response/discussion]
Do you have specific font requests, or would you like for us to choose for you? [PAUSE for response/discussion]
Do you have any ideas around the shape of your logo, or could we choose for you? [PAUSE for response/discussion]
[IF CUSTOMER COULD BENEFIT FROM SEEING EXAMPLES] How about I show you some examples of logos we’ve created in the past, and that way you can get an idea — we’ll share screens in a few, so we can do that then! [Reference ourlogostudio.com]
Based on what we discussed today, we’ll create three logo options and email them to you -- those will be ready on [5 business days from now]. Once you get that email, reply and let us know which one you like the most! We’ll use that one for your website, but you’ll have a chance to give feedback on it on our next call, too. Now, let’s talk about your website!
[If NO]
Do you have a logo that you’d like to use? [PAUSE for response]
[If YES]
Awesome! Do you have it handy now?
[If YES]
And do you want to match the website’s color scheme to the logo?
[Instruct customer on how to upload the logo to the Photo Library. If they need the link, tell them it’s in their Welcome email. You may use the Help article for bulleted steps for accessing and uploading, if the customer needs additional help.]
[If NO]
No? Ok, we can use your name and a font that fits your brand and lay it over a simple background to use for your site.
Do you have any sites that you like the look of that you’d like to use as inspiration?
[If YES]
I can also include this link for our designers.
Design Consultation: Colors
[If customer has chosen or provided an inspiration site whose color scheme they like:]
Our next choice is for your color scheme -- our inspiration site here has a [dark/light] theme -- would you like to go with that for your site as well?
[PAUSE for response]
[If no clear color preference has been provided so far:]
For your website’s overall color scheme, your designer will make choices based on your [inspiration site, logo, preferences]. All I need you to do is choose if you’d like to go with a dark theme, a light theme, or let our designer choose.
Ok, great so we’ll go with [light/ dark/ whatever our designer thinks is best]. In terms of the actual colors, we can choose colors that complement your logo, unless you have a specific color you’d like to see incorporated?
[If YES]
Great, do you have a hex code for that or should we find one online?
[If the customer provided a specific color choice, ask if they’d like to provide direction for how to use the colors, and enter that into the box below:]
Ok, it sounds like you’ve got a pretty good idea of what colors you’d like to go with -- would you like for me to provide any specific instructions for your website designer on how to use your colors? For example, is there one you’d like to use as the primary color?
Design Consultation: Fonts
Our final branding choice to make is the font. Unless you have a specific font you’d like to use, we’ll leave this up to our website designers.
Was there anything you had in mind, or should we base that decision on the rest of the design elements we’ve talked about?
[If customer has a specific font request:]
Ok, great. I’ll note that here for our designers. We use Google fonts, so they should be able to find one that matches closely.
[If customer doesn’t have a font request:]
Ok, great. Our website designers will find a font that perfectly fits with the overall feel of your website. Our main factor in choosing a font is that it’s modern, simple, and easy to read.
Design Consultation: Websites + Marketing Store Elements
Ok, let’s talk about your Store Elements
{Store style}
Finally, we’ve got the way we design your store. All we need to know here is what kinds of products you’re selling, and from there, our website designers can determine the best way to organize your store.
So, based on our conversation, I’m going to select [insert the product description that makes the most sense here]. Does that sound right?
[If customer says no, ask them to describe what kinds of products they’re selling, and enter that info into the Other box.]
Is there anything else you’d like for me to note for our website designers here? For instance, if you wanted to display your products like another online store, we could give them that link as inspiration.
Ok, great! That does it for our design consultation, then. In our next section, I’ll make sure we’ve got the content for your site, and then we’ll wrap up, okay? [PAUSE for response]
Do you want to enable product reviews? We recommend that you do enable those, as it’s sort of an e-commerce best practice today. If you look on sites like Amazon or any online retailer, they’ll have product reviews visible to shoppers.
Do you want automated checkout reminders sent to your customers?
[If YES]
When a customer leaves your website with items in their cart, how long do after do you want the email sent? 20 minutes, 1 hour, or 24 hours ?
[If they’re not sure]
{Lead Generation} — Grand Opening Email
As part of a successful launch, we’ll want to announce your website’s grand opening, so we’ll set up your first email marketing campaign to spread the word!
We can do this two ways: You can send us a list of up to 25 email addresses to send to, or we can send you the email campaign when it’s finished, and you can send it out once you have your list. Do you want us to do it for you, or would you like to take care of it?
- Yes, provide the list
- No, send when completed
{Email Subscriber List}
Do you have an email subscriber list that you would like us to upload to your marketing account for you?
- Yes, provide the email subscriber list
- No, do not provide the email subscriber list
{Email Subscribe Form}
As part of your build we’ll be including an email-subscribe form on your homepage, would you like to offer a promotion to sign up?
[If they don’t know]
We recommend something like a small discount for those who subscribe. You’ll see this on just about any e-commerce site today, and it’s a great way to encourage people to join your community.
Options:
- Yes, offer promotion
- No, do not offer promotion
- Opt out of email subscribe form
Design Consultation: Site Elements
Ok, we're making good progress, [customer name]. Let’s look at your theme options. First, I’m going to share my screen with you so that you can see the different layout choices you have.
I would recommend [theme] for your website.
[If customer has provided any photos to use for the following sections, address those as you go through the photo questions.]
Your Hero Image is the first thing you see when you open a site, and it should be a photo that represents your business.
Did you want to provide the photos for your site, or would you like for us to choose photos for you from our stock gallery?
Did you want to provide the photos for your site, or would you like for us to choose photos for you from our stock gallery?
[If customer is providing their own photos]
Images for this section need to be landscape and at least 800 x 800 pixels so that they’re big enough to fill the space without looking pixelated.
[If customer needs direction determining size]
Do you know how to determine a photo’s size? All you have to do is open the photo you want to use, right click, and select Get Info. That’ll give you its dimensions.
[OR]
[If customer wants to use stock photography]
Ok, great. We can choose some photos for you and start with those!
[If YES]
[If NO]
Ok, that's all we need to screen share for, so let me end this and we'll move on!
Gathering Content
Pick the “if” scenario below that best fits.
[If customer has copy/assets, but needs to find them and send them in]
What we can do is go through some questions now that’ll help our content writers get started on your website content today, and as soon as you’re able to send us your copy, we’ll use that to polish it up. How does that sound?
[If customer insists on holding off until they can send in their copy:]
If you’re not able to get them to me before [today + 1 week], I’ll send what we’ve collected today to your website designer, and they’ll use their expertise to create your site. We can then spend our next call fine tuning it, like I mentioned earlier.
[If customer has copy/assets, but needs to find them and send them in]
As soon as you can send me your materials, I’ll give it all to our website designers.
If you’re not able to get them to me before [today + 1 week], I’ll send what we’ve collected today to your website designer, and they’ll use their expertise to create your site. We can then spend our next call fine tuning it, like I mentioned earlier.
Next Steps + Wrap Up
So — let’s schedule our follow-up call. We’re looking at [site delivery date + 1 day] to [site delivery date + 3 days], since it takes our team 8 business days to get your website ready for you to review. Let’s see what options we have here.
Great, and we’ll email your website to you to review before that call. If you’re ready to make it live, reply to that email, and we can publish your site and send you an email with the next steps. Or, would you like to make it live without reviewing it? [PAUSE for response]
[If customer wants to review:] If you have edits to make, or you want to discuss why our designers made certain choices, you can email those to me ahead of time, and we can walk through them together on the call. Sound good?
Ok, we’re almost finished! I’ll be sending you a recap email with all of this info in it, but here’s what we accomplished today:
- We gathered business information and content for your website.
- We decided on all of your design details.
- We established our time frame and that we’ll get to work on your website on [date of send].
- And we scheduled our review call for [date of review call].
- Start setting up your merchant account now, so we can add this information by [date of review call]*. Once you collect this information please hold this until our next call, don't send this via email.
If customer wants to create a new email linked to their domain, let them know you’ll transfer them to that team now and that it should only take a few minutes to get that set up.
Any other questions for me before we wrap up? [PAUSE for response]
Thank you so much for your time today, [customer name]! If you need anything from me, please don’t hesitate to reach out — everything you need will be in my email recap, so look out for that!