The story of one failure, or Why "Saytonyan" still wait
Our director Natalia Prokofiev looked at the calendar, saw Friday, the 13th, gave up on everything and decided to tell - for a change - not about success, but about failures. More precisely, about one failure to launch a new product.
We do not ask for repair money, we will fix it ourselves, but we will share our experience with you.
There are a lot of incomprehensible and confused sites on the RuNet, on which links do not work, pictures “about nothing”, texts are written illiterately and obviously not for them to be read. And we wanted to change that.
We sometimes communicate with owners of small Internet businesses when they come to us for consultations. They have to recommend the simplest things:
- put the phone number in a prominent place;
- correct errors in the links;
- make texts "for people";
- increase the font, etc.
')
In general, just keep an eye on the site so that it is well maintained, clean and alive.
In response, we hear about the same thing: “Who will do all this? The programmer is not interested, and the secretary does not cope. I have no time. Taking a staff member is expensive. ”
These "unkempt" sites just need a nanny. Some kind of Mary Poppins: so that she could watch that the scarf is knotted, her nose was wiped and the lessons were done.
We decided that Pavlov 's Dog could occupy this niche.
This is how “Sayonianya” appeared - a service for tidying up untidy sites.
First of all, we decided on the nannies: who will work and what they should be able to do. We needed each site-baby:
- competently wrote in Russian;
- not afraid of computer technology;
- was able to independently search for information and apply it;
- easily communicated with people;
- I understood that in such work I would have to learn something new all the time;
- I wanted to work on freelancing.
We did not see such performers on the market and decided that we would teach them ourselves.
For training, we called women 35 years and older with higher education.
Why women? In fact, the path was open to everyone, but - you must agree, it is not in the nature of men to seek out and correct endless minor errors without a chance for "career growth."
Why is over 35? We reasoned like this:
- when they studied, education was better, it will be easier to find literate people;
- they are more stable - life has already taken shape;
- they are not spoiled with money and are ready to work for a small fee;
- they are adults, independent and responsible.
We have compiled tests for selection for training. We watched the literacy and the ability to work with technology. Received interesting statistics.
Completed a test task 140 people.
Results:
Disgusting - 27
Average scall - 41
Just above average - 48
Good - 21
Excellent - 3
For training called those who received "good" and "excellent."
Technology:
- familiarity with the most popular types of CMS;
- creating your own website on one of the platforms;
- processing of photos in a graphic editor;
- the basics of HTML.
Texts:
- creation of texts "for people";
- what is clerical, and how to deal with it;
- correct design of texts: lists, paragraphs, tables.
Other:
- the basics of usability;
- attendance counters and statistics analysis;
- rules of business correspondence;
- Dropbox;
- SEO-hygiene: tags, titles, hyperlinks, keywords, etc.
Course duration - 2 months.
Classes 2 times a week for 2 hours plus homework.
At the same time, we formulated the concept:
- described the product: what and how we will do, and what we will not do;
- calculated the cost of work;
- decided on the price of works;
- made a commercial proposal, the contract and its annex;
- made the site;
- prepared everything for the launch of contextual advertising.
So, we learned the first group of students, launched advertising.
Send first customers. This was in April 2013.
What was the description of the service at first:
- our employee will view your site;
- make a list of urgent / important work on the site;
- Sorts the work into blocks: texts, photos, technologies, general hygiene of the site;
- agree with you the list and sequence of works;
- will begin to work on the list, starting with the most urgent;
- Every week will send you a report on the work performed and time spent;
- upon expiration of the hours paid by you, finish the work.
What the site nurse does not do:
- does not write SEO texts;
- does not engage in advertising and promotion;
- does not program.
They sold the service in packages that included a certain amount of specialist working hours.
The problems we have encountered can be divided into four categories.
Problems with customers:
- your own idea of ​​urgent / important work (“this is necessary for the SEO”, “grammatical errors are nonsense and not important,” etc.);
- lack of understanding of what takes time: accustomed to pay for the result, and not for the time spent;
- “light” attitude to someone else’s property (“take pictures from other sites”, “drag a text from somewhere, should you change a few words?”);
- communication difficulties: the customer does not have time to talk to the babysitter.
Problems with site monitors:
- lack of proactivity;
- self-doubt and as a result - a deflection under any pressure of the customer;
- fear of mistakes: they until recently hid tensions with the customer;
- lack of awareness and, as a result, lack of understanding of the consequences of their actions: they climbed into the code when they did not, did not do what they could.
Problems with the service:
- the customer did not understand the boundaries of the service: where are the problems solved by the site nurse, where is the work of a highly qualified specialist;
- to solve urgent / important problems requires the intervention of a programmer. Often the texts should not be put in order, but completely rewritten. And all this - other professionals and other money.
Problems with monetization:
- because of the novelty of the service - the high cost of sales and processing of the transaction;
- we had too personal approach for such a service (spending too much time on each customer after the sale).
We list the changes in the order of their appearance.
We transferred to a dedicated employee the compilation and approval of a list of urgent / important work on the site. The same employee should have indicated an approximate execution time for all works.
Found a freelance programmer and signed separate attachments to the contract for his services.
Began to sell the writing of new texts on another application to the contract.
Made to the contract additions:
- we do not use other materials;
- we are not responsible for the speed of work, if the customer does not get in touch;
- within two weeks from the day of the start of the work, you can change the site-nurse or get a prepayment back and close the contract.
Made a website calculator for work on a fixed price. The customer has a choice: to pay for the hours of work of the site monitors or to calculate the cost of individual works.
It was possible to put a lot of things into the calculator: how many pictures need to be added, how many links to put, how many texts to correct mistakes, etc. The calculation was based on the CMS on which the customer site was created.
Long and, as it turned out, no one needs work. Calculator not caught on.
Saitonian puts the site in order on the instructions of the customer, that is, without amateur performance, does what the customer considers necessary. The annex to the contract is fixed, what work it will perform and what will not do in any case. For example, it is strictly prescribed that web-nurse will not program and write SEO texts.
Conditions:
- site nurse works no more than 10 hours a week;
- the minimum period of work - 1 month;
- the customer has the right to return his money during the first two weeks of work;
- the cost of work - 20 000 rubles per month.
In total there were more than 40 projects, 12 of them were unsuccessful. Were very successful: customers returned and wanted to continue the work.
In April 2014, the sale of the Saytonyan service was suspended.
Two main reasons
The rest of the questions we decided. But the decision of these two required too much resources (people, money and time).
We calculated the costs and decided to cover the project for now.
We really hope for a while.
It seems to us that we had a cool idea.
And now we already have an understanding: what, how and who should be taught.
There is an understanding of how to build such sales "on the stream."
We will gather strength, find-hire special people for product development and make a “puppy” “ Pavlova Dog ”, which will serve small customers.
We do not ask for repair money, we will fix it ourselves, but we will share our experience with you.
How did we come up with “Saitonian”
There are a lot of incomprehensible and confused sites on the RuNet, on which links do not work, pictures “about nothing”, texts are written illiterately and obviously not for them to be read. And we wanted to change that.
We sometimes communicate with owners of small Internet businesses when they come to us for consultations. They have to recommend the simplest things:
- put the phone number in a prominent place;
- correct errors in the links;
- make texts "for people";
- increase the font, etc.
')
In general, just keep an eye on the site so that it is well maintained, clean and alive.
In response, we hear about the same thing: “Who will do all this? The programmer is not interested, and the secretary does not cope. I have no time. Taking a staff member is expensive. ”
These "unkempt" sites just need a nanny. Some kind of Mary Poppins: so that she could watch that the scarf is knotted, her nose was wiped and the lessons were done.
We decided that Pavlov 's Dog could occupy this niche.
This is how “Sayonianya” appeared - a service for tidying up untidy sites.
Saytonyani - who are they?
First of all, we decided on the nannies: who will work and what they should be able to do. We needed each site-baby:
- competently wrote in Russian;
- not afraid of computer technology;
- was able to independently search for information and apply it;
- easily communicated with people;
- I understood that in such work I would have to learn something new all the time;
- I wanted to work on freelancing.
We did not see such performers on the market and decided that we would teach them ourselves.
For training, we called women 35 years and older with higher education.
Why women? In fact, the path was open to everyone, but - you must agree, it is not in the nature of men to seek out and correct endless minor errors without a chance for "career growth."
Why is over 35? We reasoned like this:
- when they studied, education was better, it will be easier to find literate people;
- they are more stable - life has already taken shape;
- they are not spoiled with money and are ready to work for a small fee;
- they are adults, independent and responsible.
Selection
We have compiled tests for selection for training. We watched the literacy and the ability to work with technology. Received interesting statistics.
Completed a test task 140 people.
Results:
Disgusting - 27
Average scall - 41
Just above average - 48
Good - 21
Excellent - 3
For training called those who received "good" and "excellent."
Training program
Technology:
- familiarity with the most popular types of CMS;
- creating your own website on one of the platforms;
- processing of photos in a graphic editor;
- the basics of HTML.
Texts:
- creation of texts "for people";
- what is clerical, and how to deal with it;
- correct design of texts: lists, paragraphs, tables.
Other:
- the basics of usability;
- attendance counters and statistics analysis;
- rules of business correspondence;
- Dropbox;
- SEO-hygiene: tags, titles, hyperlinks, keywords, etc.
Course duration - 2 months.
Classes 2 times a week for 2 hours plus homework.
At the same time, we formulated the concept:
- described the product: what and how we will do, and what we will not do;
- calculated the cost of work;
- decided on the price of works;
- made a commercial proposal, the contract and its annex;
- made the site;
- prepared everything for the launch of contextual advertising.
So, we learned the first group of students, launched advertising.
Launch of “Saitoniani”
Send first customers. This was in April 2013.
What was the description of the service at first:
- our employee will view your site;
- make a list of urgent / important work on the site;
- Sorts the work into blocks: texts, photos, technologies, general hygiene of the site;
- agree with you the list and sequence of works;
- will begin to work on the list, starting with the most urgent;
- Every week will send you a report on the work performed and time spent;
- upon expiration of the hours paid by you, finish the work.
What the site nurse does not do:
- does not write SEO texts;
- does not engage in advertising and promotion;
- does not program.
They sold the service in packages that included a certain amount of specialist working hours.
Transformation Services
The problems we have encountered can be divided into four categories.
Problems with customers:
- your own idea of ​​urgent / important work (“this is necessary for the SEO”, “grammatical errors are nonsense and not important,” etc.);
- lack of understanding of what takes time: accustomed to pay for the result, and not for the time spent;
- “light” attitude to someone else’s property (“take pictures from other sites”, “drag a text from somewhere, should you change a few words?”);
- communication difficulties: the customer does not have time to talk to the babysitter.
Problems with site monitors:
- lack of proactivity;
- self-doubt and as a result - a deflection under any pressure of the customer;
- fear of mistakes: they until recently hid tensions with the customer;
- lack of awareness and, as a result, lack of understanding of the consequences of their actions: they climbed into the code when they did not, did not do what they could.
Problems with the service:
- the customer did not understand the boundaries of the service: where are the problems solved by the site nurse, where is the work of a highly qualified specialist;
- to solve urgent / important problems requires the intervention of a programmer. Often the texts should not be put in order, but completely rewritten. And all this - other professionals and other money.
Problems with monetization:
- because of the novelty of the service - the high cost of sales and processing of the transaction;
- we had too personal approach for such a service (spending too much time on each customer after the sale).
How we solved these problems
We list the changes in the order of their appearance.
We transferred to a dedicated employee the compilation and approval of a list of urgent / important work on the site. The same employee should have indicated an approximate execution time for all works.
Found a freelance programmer and signed separate attachments to the contract for his services.
Began to sell the writing of new texts on another application to the contract.
Made to the contract additions:
- we do not use other materials;
- we are not responsible for the speed of work, if the customer does not get in touch;
- within two weeks from the day of the start of the work, you can change the site-nurse or get a prepayment back and close the contract.
Made a website calculator for work on a fixed price. The customer has a choice: to pay for the hours of work of the site monitors or to calculate the cost of individual works.
It was possible to put a lot of things into the calculator: how many pictures need to be added, how many links to put, how many texts to correct mistakes, etc. The calculation was based on the CMS on which the customer site was created.
Long and, as it turned out, no one needs work. Calculator not caught on.
The last version of the service: “Saitonian for rent”
Saitonian puts the site in order on the instructions of the customer, that is, without amateur performance, does what the customer considers necessary. The annex to the contract is fixed, what work it will perform and what will not do in any case. For example, it is strictly prescribed that web-nurse will not program and write SEO texts.
Conditions:
- site nurse works no more than 10 hours a week;
- the minimum period of work - 1 month;
- the customer has the right to return his money during the first two weeks of work;
- the cost of work - 20 000 rubles per month.
Results
In total there were more than 40 projects, 12 of them were unsuccessful. Were very successful: customers returned and wanted to continue the work.
In April 2014, the sale of the Saytonyan service was suspended.
Two main reasons
- There is a famous bike about three types of sales: a long hunt for a large animal, a hunt for medium animals, or an attempt to shoot a lot of small animals.
We got that we equipped a large animal, and hunted for trifles. We are accustomed to working with large clients with the help of our usual bulky tools and could not restructure our business processes for other input. - We made a mistake in the selection and training site-ny. Some of the wrong people picked up and in the training put the wrong emphasis.
The rest of the questions we decided. But the decision of these two required too much resources (people, money and time).
We calculated the costs and decided to cover the project for now.
We really hope for a while.
It seems to us that we had a cool idea.
And now we already have an understanding: what, how and who should be taught.
There is an understanding of how to build such sales "on the stream."
We will gather strength, find-hire special people for product development and make a “puppy” “ Pavlova Dog ”, which will serve small customers.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/286658/
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