Is Your Web Site Worth More than Cash Flow?

Connecting to Your Customers... Over the last couple of months I tested all 800 links to brokerage web sites listed at PikeNet.  I wouldn't exactly call it a fun experience, but it did get me thinking (again) about the purpose of a web site.  So I was interested to read the New York Times' E-Commerce Report on retailers' web sites (September 3, 2001).   Turns out that you don't actually make money on the web.  (That's news?)  "The bulk of the benefits accrue to traditional stores, in the form of more sales, operating efficiencies and better customer service."  Here's how Ken Cassar of Jupiter Media Metrix put it: "Retailers should indeed try to use their Web sites to better deliver more informed customers to their stores."

But after my lightning visits to brokerage web sites, I'd have to say that the real estate industry does little to promote knowledgeable clients.  At your site, start by telling me what you do, where you are located and who's at your company.  Put complete contact information on your home page.  Forget the flashing graphics, music and moving text.  Don't make me scroll down your home page.  Don't use a dark background.  Oh, and please don't tell me that you're "premier" anything. 

Amazingly enough, there still are successful real estate firms that have not yet developed a web site.  Two come to mind: CAC Group in San Francisco and D.G. Hart & Associates in New York City.  According to Bill Cumbelich, CAC, which represents major landlords and tenants (including JP Morgan's 300,000 sf San Francisco headquarters sublease), is "planning to create a web site."   And last week, my friend Bruce Weissberg, ex-RealtyIQ, reports that a web site is "on his agenda" as he seeks to expand Hart's New York operations. ... Wow, the pressure.  With 20-20 hindsight, what kind of sites will these two firms develop?

--Peter Pike / ppike@pikenet.com