One doesn't usually visit a heating and cooling company's
Web site for amusement. But JC Heating and Cooling's well-designed
site has enough features, facts and fun to keep you entertained for a long
time. This site goes the whole nine yards -providing much more than the
typical store hours, phone number and list of services that comprise the
vast majority of Web sites. It's loaded with bells and whistles, but not to
the point of it being annoying - every bell and whistle has a purpose.
J.C. Heating and Cooling was founded in 1989 and is located
in Cross Lanes, W.Va. It performs mostly residential heating and cooling of
which most is duct work and geothermal systems.
One of the most interesting features of this site is a link
that initiates a chat session with an employee of JC Heating and Cooling.
The chat room sees an average of five to 10 customers per week. Owner Juan
Cardona is especially pleased with the chat room's ability to "provide a
personal touch" to the site, since he and the site's designer, Todd
Carpenter are almost always online.
Juan first employed a Web site about 3 years ago, but it was
vastly different than it is now. The latest version of
www.jc-heating-cooling.com has been in existence for about a year and gets
updated every week.
Juan says his site "was never designed as a business
generator." The site's main purpose is an information page. It seems that
the site is achieving its goal. By far, the most popular section of the site
is the "Free Information," section, which contains interesting details about
the history of the company, including a personal story of Cardona's flight
from Cuba.
Other handy tidbits include a Frequently Asked Questions
page, articles relevant to heating and cooling published by Contractors
2000, common p-h-c mistakes to avoid, and common rip-offs that contractors
try to pull on customers.
From an artistic standpoint, the site is eye-catching. It
has professional graphics subtle enough to allow users to navigate the page
with ease. Todd Carpenter deserves the credit for actually putting Juan's
excellent ideas to work on this site. If you think you may be in need of the
Computer Carpenter, e-mail him at
todd@mywv.net.
Posted on: 04/01/2001
Copyright 2001 by
