How many times have you heard someone say they are just going to ‘Google’ it? Access to goods, services and information has never been better and is improving all the time as the internet expands. In many markets and certainly the financial services one, physical location is becoming less important and an effective web presence is key. But how many firms have secured their place on the internet?
There are still a surprisingly high number of firms that do not have a website and who have not even registered a domain name to prevent others from taking it. This should be an absolute priority. Even if an intermediary has a strong book of business with steady referrals, eschewing the internet has to be a mistake in the long run. Most of a firm’s business may be done on a face-to-face basis, but looking to the future, it is almost inconceivable that intermediaries will be able to satisfy their clients without the basic services a website offers.
Leaving the door wide open
In the same way a business would not leave its premises open after hours and let squatters take over, it is incredible that so many firms have not seen it appropriate to register their domain name on the web. Even if there are no plans to use it at the moment, not registering the appropriate name could leave it open for others to take advantage of.
Given that a registration of a name costs a matter of pounds on an annual basis, not securing the name a firm wants to use immediately can end up being very costly indeed. Already there have been many high profile cases where individuals have registered the name of a larger firm and then sat back and demanded huge sums of money to sell it back.
Not only are individuals doing this on a purely speculative basis as a means to make quick returns, rival businesses are also doing it as a way of directing enquiries from a competitor’s clients to their own services.
If an intermediary were to register the domain names for five or six of their leading rivals and divert all traffic back to their own website it is easy to see how they could quickly begin to win new business that they would otherwise never have seen.
Protecting your reputation
It is important that firms protect the reputation they have worked so hard to build up, by ensuring their web presence is not abused and that clients get what they expect when they go looking for the firm on the internet. The last thing any intermediary wants is to find that when a potential client puts in their name as a web address, either a totally unrelated company comes up, or that client is immediately redirected to a competitor’s website. Not only does this mean business is being lost, but also that reputationally the firm is suffering, with clients seeing them as incapable of protecting their own brand. If a firm is unable to protect its own brand and offer at the very least an information only site on the web, then how effective is it in catering for a client’s needs?
The need to protect a firm’s web presence becomes even more important when one considers the level of competition that is now in the market. Large high-street brands, such as Tesco and Sainsbury, have now established themselves as financial services providers and for clients looking to access these websites they are unlikely to run into any problems.
While many smaller intermediary firms do concentrate on a localised market, increasingly business is being done over the telephone or internet, meaning that a firm’s reach is wider than it has ever been before. Making sure this opportunity is not lost is essential and if the most is not made of it in the present, then firms should still be looking to have a domain name secured for the future. Leaving things to the last minute will only create problems for firms trying to register the name they want, finding it is gone and having to use a name that is not directly related to the trading name they use. This is confusing for clients and again will make them question why a firm they are looking to trust with their mortgage needs is unable to protect its own needs and have an effective website in place.
A Europe-wide problem?
Recently, the problems have been best demonstrated by the increasing use of .eu internet addresses. This has particularly been a problem for some of the bigger firms that work across Europe, or those who specialise in providing advice to foreign clients. Many firms have found that even though they may own the .co.uk address they want, the .eu address has already been bought by a third party. At worst this can lead to an expensive purchase of the name, and ongoing damage to future business and reputation until the matter is resolved.
Any firm that is serious about the image it presents and the services it offers clients has to be serious in protecting its online image and ensure that the internet remains a channel that can deliver for them into the future, even if they are not using it at the moment.
Allowing others to buy up their domain names is little better than failing to pay the rent on a firm’s premises or allowing squatters to take over. What firm that is serious about its business would let that happen?
