This patient has been seeing this dentist for 16 years, so you might guess that they were already happy with the service. However, having this secondary presence – a website with information about the staff, procedures offered beyond the basic cleaning, and several dental health articles, further cemented the patient’s happy relationship with the dentist.

The patient commented that the site (Carle Place Dental)  was overall “easy to navigate and very informative.”  They found the FAQs helpful and the articles about various dental health topics enlightening. So while the patient has been seeing this dentist for years, they now have more evidence that the dentist is knowledgeable and experienced.

This deepened trust can then extend to an increase in additional services. Maybe a patient has never considered teeth whitening – it doesn’t seem safe, it’s for celebrities, who knows – but when they see that their friendly and trustworthy dentist offers it… they might reconsider.

So, in addition to helping bring in new customers, a well-designed and informative website can also work to keep existing customers, strengthen the level of customer satisfaction, and increase sales with regular customers. And that’s something to smile about!

Considering this small business had been around for over 20 years, it was a surprise to hear, but up until now they had just gotten by on their reputation. This got us talking, it turns out the reason that the company was ready for a website now was because they had just lost a potential new client. After a few good phone conversations their client was impressed, but wanted to do a little more research about them before entering into an agreement. That’s when she headed to her computer to make her final decision. The companies lack of a website made the client nervous. In an age of technology how could any company rely only on what others said about them when they were face to face?

Even with a great reputation in your field without a website, new clients, especially ones who may not be able to meet you in person, judge you by it. Now I’m not saying your reputation isn’t important, rather your website helps to solidify your reputation.

Back to our clients dilemma, they spent the next few months working on their site with us, all the wile keeping what had happened in the backs of their minds and considering their clients reactions at every turn.

The result was a great, client focused custom website that even many months after the launch of the site, still receives rave reviews from their current and potential clients, including that very client who push them into creating a website in the first place.

We are offering three enticing incentives to encourage owners of websites that are in serious need of an upgrade. 1) A 20% discount of our normally competitive pricing 2) Free Web Hosting for 1 year and 3) Up to 80 % financing at 0% interest for 1 year to qualified upgraders.

The goal of our Cash for Web Clunker program is to make it easy for business owners to get that new 2010 model website. By now all business owners realize that their website is the vital to their success. And our aim is to reduce the economic barrier that might have created a roadblock in the past.

Just like the governments Cash for Clunker Program all good things don’t last. Our offer is on the table until the end of September.

For more details call me at 212 -679-1212 or go to http://www.csdesignworks.com/discountonwebdesign.html

One main thread throughout the evening’s discussion was that of “be true to the medium.” Many good ways of thinking about designing for the web were presented: print design gives “a speech,” web design has “a conversation” (Khoi Vinh, New York Times) and we’re not just designing stories, we’re designing “ways INTO stories” (Ian Adelman, New York Magazine). Could go on and on about those!

But what also came out of using either medium to its truest and fullest was what may be a printed piece’s strength: some of us (and this will no doubt change as younger generations grow more accustomed to reading more on a screen) still like to read longer articles and stories in a “hard copy” format, and not necessarily sitting in front of a computer. As one panelist put it, printed magazines are good for “lush feature wells” – really long articles with beautiful pictures. True, for now. However, since a lot of us haven’t bought a newspaper in some time – I agree that “an online newspaper is a better newspaper” because it does better at what a newspaper should do – I think our reading habits are going to keep changing.

Magazines will likely be around for awhile yet, and possibly become more of a niche-market, specialized thing. But it’s inevitable that reading preferences are going to evolve to more screen-friendly practices (Kindle, anyone?). In fact there’s a new book out, iBrain, about how technology is influencing “brain function and behavior” (with a lot about social interaction). Yes, that does sound scary. But I guess as designers, we can’t keep fighting the current, we have to find ways to swim in it.