[Editors Note: This news brief is in response to John R. Hall’s Sept. 29, 2008 column about the need for contractors to have their own Website.]

“I couldn’t agree more with the need for HVACR contractor Websites,” said David Heimer, COO of the Service Roundtable. “I’d add to that the importance of business e-mail addresses sharing the same domain as their Website. A business appears less credible and less technically sophisticated when their business e-mail address is with Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, SBC Global, etc.

“One of the things we’ve discovered is that moving to the Web is intimidating for some contractors. They’re worried about what they don’t know, worried that they’ll make mistakes, and are worried about the cost. So we decided to make it easy for them and introduced a low-cost, entry-level Website service for Service Roundtable members.”

For $20 per month, Service Roundtable members get:

• Their own Website domain name;

• A professionally-designed, customizable, one-page Website (it’s one page, but that page can be as long as they want, and it’s fully editable by them);

• A “Contact Us” function;

• Four e-mail addresses of their choosing using their domain name;

• Spam filtering;

• Web hosting;

• E-mail hosting;

• Tech support; and

• An easy upgrade path, should they ever want a more complex Website.

This allows the contractor to be found on the Internet, provides a clean professional look, allows them to explain their unique qualities, and provides professional e-mail communications.

“We exactly agree with The NEWS’ article,” Heimer said. “We’ve been telling our members without a Web address their business just doesn’t exist for many potential customers.”

For more information on Service Roundtable and its member benefits, visit www.serviceroundtable.com.

Publication date: 10/27/2008