First posted to E-Web Marketing.
E-Web Marketing is excited to introduce our HSF Guarantee, which goes into effect as of today. We hope that this will be a great step forward in the realisation of our Company Vision, which is to bring HSF (Happiness, Success and Fun) to everyone we encounter.
So what exactly is our HSF Guarantee? It is this following commitment to you, whether you are a client, partner, supplier or employee of E-Web Marketing:
At E-Web Marketing, we guarantee that you will only be working with people who care about your Happiness, Success and Fun.
Furthermore, we guarantee that all our interactions with you will be guided by our Core Values:
- Act with Integrity
- Pursue Growth and Learning
- Commit to Excellence
- Surpass Clients’ Expectations
- Build a Positive Team
As well as the following set of team standards:
- Seek constant feedback from our staff, clients, partners and suppliers on their experiences in dealing with E-Web
- Set out a plan for at least 3 months ahead to ensure we are progressing in attaining growth and success
- Treat our peers and clients with respect, and do our best to address and resolve any concerns that are raised
If you ever find that any of our actions are not consistent with someone who cares about your HSF, let us know. Our CEO or HSF Ambassador will personally contact you within three working days to understand your concerns and we will do everything in our power to make things right, right away. On top of that, we will make a donation to our affiliated charity on your behalf as a gesture that we care.
Why Our Guarantee is Different
This is the first time that E-Web has offered any sort of guarantee. The reasoning behind this goes back to when we started out as an SEO agency, and SEO was the only online marketing service we offered. Because Google’s search algorithm changes so frequently, it’s impossible to make absolute promises with SEO. Furthermore, Google’s own guidelines specifically state that consumers should beware of SEO guarantees.
A quick Google search for “beware of SEO guarantee” gives more than 10 million web results on this subject. The common themes are 1) a company offering SEO guarantees is not necessarily going to deliver on them; and 2) the “fine print” of these guarantees usually prevents a customer from getting a full or even partial refund on their investment.
We’ve always known that an SEO guarantee would help us to sign on more clients. Financially we would come out on top, even if we had to provide a full refund in some cases. However, this would be going against our first Core Value: Act with Integrity. It would be wrong for us to lead any client to believe we can guarantee the outcome, when in fact we can’t.
While the above still holds true, my business mentor Brian Sher (founder of The Fortune Institute) taught me the lesson that if your business can offer a guarantee, it can become one of your most powerful selling tools. It demonstrates to potential clients that you are not afraid to put your money where your mouth is and significantly reduces the risk undertaken by the consumer. This came up again when I read the book Duct Tape Marketing, which talks about the fact that most businesses may already offer a guarantee of sorts, they just don’t know it.
This lead me to consider: What could E-Web Marketing offer as a guarantee? What do we do that sets us apart from other online marketing providers? And what do we do, so consistently and absolutely, that we can be 100% confident in stamping a guarantee on it? The answer was not long in coming to mind: we care.
Powered by HSF
At E-Web Marketing, we’ve always been proud of the growth we are able to bring to our clients, suppliers and employees. More than anything else, I attribute these achievements to the simple fact that we care about the people we work with and their ultimate success.
E-Web is Powered by HSF, a deep commitment to living and realising our Company Vision to bring Happiness, Success and Fun to everyone we encounter. These are not just empty words, but an everyday part of our work, our culture, and our interactions with our peers and clients.
One example of HSF in action occurred after one of our team members had his house robbed. The first person he contacted, even before his family, was our COO. He was told to take as much time off work as he needed – and on his return, he found on his desk an envelope of money equivalent to the cost of his stolen possessions, as well as a brand new Nintendo Wii to replace the old one that he’d lost. This was not just the care of the executive team – every team member at E-Web had chipped in.
Then there is the story of a client who came to our office to attend a meeting on his birthday, and was presented with a cake decorated with Freddo Frogs (his favourite chocolates) while the whole company gathered around to sing to him. Other clients have finished up long meetings in our board room, and then taken to relax in our massage chair, or be revitalised with a friendly ping pong challenge. To ensure the success of a campaign, a team of ten company experts regularly travels for over an hour to attend a review meeting at a client’s office.
We may not be able to guarantee SEO rankings – but one thing we can guarantee is that E-Web Marketing cares, and all our actions and interactions – even towards the air-con guy who gets given a case of beer when he comes to fix our vents, or John the postman who walks through the office getting high fives when he delivers the mail – are powered by HSF.
Our Promise to You
Internally, the E-Web team’s reactions and feedback about the HSF Guarantee have been even more positive and enthusiastic than I expected. Our team has long known that HSF is a big part of what makes E-Web different, and we’re excited to be able to finally make it a promise to everyone we work with, backed up by an official guarantee. We expect that it will lead us to be more vigilant in our efforts than ever before, and take our commitment to HSF to the next level.
