Would appreciate your feedback RE: one of the worst breaches of ethics I've seen in my profession.
Some of you know me, some of you don't. I used to be "Amerigo Vespucci" on DU until my computer died in October 2013 and I lost my User ID / PW (and didn't remember the email I used to sign up), so I became Miles Archer. I'm a Web Designer.
A couple of days ago I was using Google to come up with a prospect list for sales calls. The concept was simple...the vast majority of Web Surfers do NOT click past page one of Google's search results, so I started making my list on page 6. These are sites that dropped the ball on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or haven't updated their content in a long time.
Also, Google is going to start penalizing sites that are not mobile friendly. They have an online tool that you can use that delivers a "report card."
So here's the point.
I found three dental offices in my town with the exact same Website.
The three Websites are virtually identical other than the names of personnel, phone numbers, and addresses.
Now, if the three practices were owned by the same individual, it would would not be a matter of ethics. One of my dental clients is in the practice with his wife, and he requested two identical sites...one with her domain, one with his.
But this is a "Web Designer" who used one GoDaddy template three times for three different clients and sold each of them identical content, and each site's home page has the same stock photo woman with the hideous neon death grin as its centerpiece.
I've done this long enough (since 2001) to know that one, two, or all three of the practices may say "SO WHAT?" when I contact them.
They've been ripped off, though, and this kills their online credibility.
Obviously I am calling to pitch my doing sites for them, but I'm also willing to alert them to the fact that an unscrupulous individual took their money and ran.
I plan to keep the calls simple and brief and do not intent to inject drama or finger-pointing...just stating the facts, "Two other practices in town have sites identical to yours," and then I will see if a broader conversation can take place.
Your thoughts?
If you were one of the dental offices in question, would you appreciate the call, or consider it one more annoyance from a salesman?
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...one of my dentists is very active in providing care in Third World countries. He brings his equipment and a generator and goes deep into the heart of places that have never seen a dentist. He is also very active in the community...I was the guest speaker one week at Kiwanis Club, and he came up after the meeting and asked me to take a look at his current Website.
His wife is the office manager, and she has nothing bud disdain for the "smiling happy tooth" template sites. That's what they had before they met me. The first thing I did was ditch the extremely generic and posed headshot photo of the Doc they had on their site, and vowed to use NO STOCK PHOTOS. We got a really nice shot of the Doc sitting at his desk, looking very kind...exactly what you want to see when shopping around for a person who is going to be putting surgical steel instruments into your mouth.
I also made the decision to play up all of the info I listed above, because let's face it...a lot of people who are not nice people have the ability to go to dental school.
The day...the FIRST DAY...that MY new site launched, they got a call. A patient committed to getting a veneers procedure. The result? It paid 100% of what I charged them for the Website AND gave them an additional $500 profit.
...I just sent you a PM with a link to my Website so you can see some of the work I've done.
Much better than those damn robo calls I get about my Google maps update. 
But...here's a question I have. Will this mean you would be working for the competition of your other Dental clients? How do you deal with that?
Also,
...seriously.
Regarding the competition and my other dental clients, the reason why I don't allow myself to be commoditized is that I spend a significant amount of time with my clients before I write a single line of code. I have four dental clients...including my own former dentist from California. If you looked at the four Websites you MIGHT know they were done by the same guy, but I doubt it.
I work very hard to make each site unique and stand-alone. It all comes down to someone who is shopping for a dentist selecting the one that makes them feel most at ease, and that's a really intangible thing. The client I mentioned further up in this thread threw repeated hints at me to switch to his practice and I told him I couldn't because my dentist took care of me, and I repay that with loyalty.
So the answer is that SOMEONE has to build those sites and it might as well be me depositing the checks. My moral compass signs off on sites that have quality code and a good solid marketing message that conveys the uniqueness of the practice.
They could easily be web-naive and not realize what their site should do for them. Even if they knew they were buying a template, they probably expected more customization than name and address. If they got exactly what they asked for, it isn't working out for them.
I'd be mortified if TWO competitive businesses had Websites identical to mine.
This is why I waited a day before calling, to make sure I thought it over completely and didn't damage anyone's ego by turning a light on it.
...but that sounds hilarious. I have to play catch-up.
You will be stunned, just like I was.
Feedback: Based on what you said, you should familiarize yourself with the concept of the "unique selling proposition." Each one of those dentists has something unique about their practice, and that is what you can help them determine and subsequently, what their site should focus on.
Cher
The other problem with template Websites for Dentists is that the designers throw everything in but the kitchen sink because they fluff that up as "value." Problem is that the average person shopping for a Dentist online is not a Dental student studying for finals. They want to see the people in the practice and have some level of comfort with walking into that office.
I don't do "templates," I'm a marketing professional and I try my best to do exactly as you suggested. Unfortunately, in the era of Webbly and Wix and GoDaddy, it requires a greater intensity of sales effort to convince people they are going to get something better than if I sat down for an hour and tweaked something already built. But sales is as much a part of my job as building the actual sites, so I roll with it.
..."At least you're still showing up." That's shorthand for the old sales axiom that "Showing up is half the battle." He's been a very successful salesperson for decades, and when you get a vote of confidence from someone at the top, it gives you a much needed second wind.
Thank you for your encouragement.
Is that repeating three sites does little for their USP. I think you could show them that three unique selling propositions could get them more clients. You'd have to know quite a bit about dentistry, though, to come up with it--or if they understood the concept, they could provide you with enough information for you to come up with the three USPs.
In other words, each office would have something unique to offer. One might specialize in techniques that help overcome fear of going to the dentist, etc., I'm sure you get the idea.
Cher
Got a laugh out of one reviewer referring to them as "Perfect Devil Society."
I could have asked Skinner to help me out but I didn't remember which email I used to sign up.
...BUT they all had a pretty immediate reaction of staying the course.
The branding is the value proposition...I had some very bad experiences with dentists in my mid-teens. It was my own damned fault, I didn't brush regularly and no one even talked about floss when I was a kid. So in a one-year period, I had a ton of dental work done. When I moved to California and had to choose a dentist...as I have said elsewhere in this thread...I was basically looking for someone who wasn't straight out of "Marathon Man" (and one of the first dentists I went to WAS, a terrible, mean old bastard).
You want to brand the dentist as qualified (that's a no-brainer), but also as a multi-dimensional, well-rounded human being. I don;t think most people care about someone having a degree as much as what that person did with their life AFTER they got it.
So yes, I did take an approach similar to the one you suggest, and got met with the blast furnace of "WE DON'T CARE." That's kind of hard to tackle in a cold call, but that doesn't mean I can't take a different approach somewhere down the line. Right now I am in a "generating income" mode, so the prospects who show resistance on the first pass go on my "I will call them some other time" list.
