As an auto repair business owner, your website is one of your most important assets, and as such it serves a lot of purposes. It serves as a representation of you and your automotive brand, reflects the quality of your service, and provides that oh-so-important first impression to new visitors. That’s a tall order, so it goes without saying that it needs to be better than just good. It needs to be great. That’s why communicating your vision to your designer effectively is just as important as the website design itself.

Challenges in Communicating with Your Website Designer

Communicating your auto repair website’s needs to a designer might present a few challenges. You may or may not know exactly what you want. You might not know the options or the “lingo” to describe your requirements. To help make the process smooth and successful, try these helpful hints on communicating with your web designer:

Communication Tips

• Don’t just say “Make it pop”. Try to be specific about what makes a website stand out in your opinion. Giving your website designer specific elements about other designs that you like will go much further than simply rejecting each new design you see.

So, instead of rejecting your first website design, go ahead and point out what you didn’t like about it. Was it the colors? Did you not like the font or style of text? Maybe you’d like to see a background featuring an image, instead of just a solid color. Suggestions like this will go a long way to helping explain what you do want.

• Find your inspiration. In order to get the best out of your designer, spend some time finding auto repair website designs you do like, and try to notice what you like about them. Sometimes it is hard to describe features about looks or functionality. One way to overcome that problem is to provide links to examples of what you like or do not like. List the specifics of what about those sites work or do not work.

If you aren’t able to find examples of auto repair website designs that you do like, you can ask to see your designer’s portfolio. This will show you work that they’ve already done and are capable of, and should help give you more of an idea of what you like.

• Remember to have patience. Designers can’t just click a mouse and, it’s done. Creating customized designs takes time, research, thought, and execution. There are creative processes and meticulous, design-construction processes at work throughout the creation of a new website or logo.

• Trust your designer. They make design choices for a reason, whether it be new trends in automotive website design, user experience, or color theory.

• Deliver actionable feedback. If there are aspects about a design that you don’t like, communicate what doesn’t work for you and what could work better. Knowing specifically what doesn’t work helps the designer know how to make changes quickly and efficiently, and helps them learn your style preferences- leading to smoother communication and design projects down the road.

All work that is a service to client requires communication, and web design might top the list. Translating the core of your business into a design isn’t easy and requires much more than copying and pasting. It takes communicating and gathering the right information throughout the process to create a website that meets your goals and style.

For more automotive marketing tips and articles, follow CarCareCONNECT on Facebook and Twitter!