Question about websites from clients perspective, we are building a new one!

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

Would just add clear payment options…I too go no further if I don’t see pricing

copy that!

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

There have been lots of good suggestions offered, but I am kind of surprised that the #1 commonality of everyone here who has replied states pricing as a "must have" on a website or they would move on.... Why? If I followed that mindset, I would have missed out on some of the best outfitted hunts in my life. There are many valid reasons why an outfitter would not list their pricing on a website especially in today's economy with costs of everything changing so rapidly.

Most, if not all of the outfitters I have ever researched have come by recommendations, or by reputation. If somebody recommended an outfitter to me for their pricing, or the outfitter advertised "lowest pricing guaranteed" that would likely be the determining factor for me to move on...

If an outfitter wants to list pricing that's fine. However, it's certainly not a deal-breaker for me if they don't. If I like what I have heard and seen, I really don't see the big deal with sending an email or requesting a phone call to get pricing information. There are several more important criteria for me in researching an outfitter than price. If experience has taught me anything it's that if you book with pricing as the major determining factor in selecting an outfitter, you will be very disappointed more often than not..

thank you for your input, I agree with you price is not only factor when choosing an outfitter, and yes things especially price doe change and playing the exchange rate makes in even more difficult it take a lot of work to keep a sight updated!

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

My .02 cents,

1. Property sizes, not "we have access to xyz totalling xyz acres) Its nice to know right off the bat what size property(s) can be expected.

2. Updated gallery showing lodging, alive game as well as trophy photos, even some pictures of the food is nice.

3. Prices/packages clearly defined. As others have mentioned already, if I have to "request" prices Im moving on in my search.

4. Any sponsorships you may hold, ie AH, SCI ect ect.

5. A short promo video attached to your website describing the operation is an efficient way to shows lots of details in only a few short minutes.


Look forward to the updated, new and improved website once your all finished up.

copy that! we will for sure include AH links and sposership! and others

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

If travel to different hunting parcels is necessary, please include the details. Current prices and photos is a must. As described above any technical information is helpful, guns required, ammo preferred or recommended, rental guns available, import of guns, help with paperwork. packing list. Look forward to seeing the finished product.

10/4

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

There are many points made so far that I agree with, such as clear pricing etc. I’m often trying to find more information about the actual hunting area than many sites provide, and most often just look elsewhere, sensing there is a reason for that ambiguity. Clarity about the size or sizes of the hunting areas, whether they are contiguous, whether you stay on the property you are hunting, and have exclusive use are very helpful. I think most clients will have interests and preferences in these things, so it’s best to just get that clarity up front.

thank you , will for sure be very clear about hunting areas!

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

Include an interactive google map with with your location so that I can see exactly where you are located and be able to find distances to other places such as the airport or tourist activities.
It really helps for trip planning without having to leave your website.

understood thank you!

 

[Hookboy88]

Biggest thing for me is listing how big the hunting area is. I like to be able see/read about what PHs they use.

It’s an aggravation to have to ask for a price list. I much prefer you just include it on your website.

I also like to see updated pics of animals and the lodging

 

[mark-hunter]

Price list is essential for outfitters website.
I understand there are high end class outfits, middle class and budget class.
This will distribute the clientele accordingly.

But if there is no price list, then I need to invest my time to ask for price list, and after that, outfitter must invest his time to communicate the prices to me. So, if the outfit is out of my price range, we both loose time. Why?

Speaking of price list and packages. I would recommend to keep updated specials: late season hunts, cancellation hunts, or specific collectors hunts per season (night predators, or similar).
Updated specials will keep me checking the same web site periodically.

If we want to define what average hunters needs for initial information, the most basic thing is overall hunt budget (can I afford this or not?), and overall hunt budget includes hunting, plus shipping of trophies.

Thats why it is important for outfitter to have some estimates on shipping in cooperation with taxidermy studio that he sends trophies to, for preparation and later shipping after the hunt.

Once, the budget and affordability of hunt is established, (and client gets interested) other information required would be, size of hunting property (google mapping as mentioned earlier), other tourist attractions in the vicinity - especially for observers, family or other companions,, rifle import regulations, caliber requirements, PH details, good gallery of animals, and lodging, direct contacts, references, etc

General descriptions:
Additional information, such as... we are hunting mostly by stalking, shooting distances up to 200 meters, shots are taken from stick, and hunters are advised to be prepared and trained for shooting standing from stick, etc.. Or, we hunt buffalo by tracking, expected daily walks can cover up to 8 or 10 miles, clients to be prepared for this, etc
I am sure, many first timers, may come unprepared for specific types of hunt.

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

Thank you for all the input our website is in the final stages of development, we could not incorporate everything but we gave it a good go!

we have link we can share soon! any feedback would be greatly appreciated

 

[Hyde Hunter]

Price list is essential for outfitters website.
I understand there are high end class outfits, middle class and budget class.
This will distribute the clientele accordingly.

But if there is no price list, then I need to invest my time to ask for price list, and after that, outfitter must invest his time to communicate the prices to me. So, if the outfit is out of my price range, we both loose time. Why?

Speaking of price list and packages. I would recommend to keep updated specials: late season hunts, cancellation hunts, or specific collectors hunts per season (night predators, or similar).
Updated specials will keep me checking the same web site periodically.

If we want to define what average hunters needs for initial information, the most basic thing is overall hunt budget (can I afford this or not?), and overall hunt budget includes hunting, plus shipping of trophies.

Thats why it is important for outfitter to have some estimates on shipping in cooperation with taxidermy studio that he sends trophies to, for preparation and later shipping after the hunt.

Once, the budget and affordability of hunt is established, (and client gets interested) other information required would be, size of hunting property (google mapping as mentioned earlier), other tourist attractions in the vicinity - especially for observers, family or other companions,, rifle import regulations, caliber requirements, PH details, good gallery of animals, and lodging, direct contacts, references, etc

General descriptions:
Additional information, such as... we are hunting mostly by stalking, shooting distances up to 200 meters, shots are taken from stick, and hunters are advised to be prepared and trained for shooting standing from stick, etc.. Or, we hunt buffalo by tracking, expected daily walks can cover up to 8 or 10 miles, clients to be prepared for this, etc
I am sure, many first timers, may come unprepared for specific types of hunt.

though it would be nice but the outfitter will not have any idea what shipping is going to run, to many things go into that price and it changes all the time

 

[sgt_zim]

Before I look at anything else, do I see this when I navigate to your website?

For a business with whom I'm going to exchange thousands of dollars and with whom I'll be sharing personally identifiable information like my name, phone number, home address, and email address, there are other things I look at. Is the site set up with a content management system like Wordpress or Drupl or similar? If so, is patching up to date (there are simple ways to see this given my line of work)?

There are a number of things I can infer with a quick 5 minute scan about both the web host and the developer(s) to determine if adequate safeguards are in place and maintained.

Does your contact info point to a secure mail service like gmail or protonmail? If your email goes to somename@henrygriffiths.com, I will infer that your web service provider is running its own email server. There are enough web service providers that do a poor job of safeguarding their email services that I don't trust any of them without doing more homework than I care to do.

If your web provider and developer are doing what they should be doing regarding security, they should be happy to provide you with some sort of executive level summary about the measures they are undertaking, and you should put a "marketing" version of it somewhere on your home page.

As to contents - there is nothing new I can say that hasn't already been said.

PM me know when you're ready to publish and I can do my thing to see if they've done for you what they should be doing.

 

[mark-hunter]

@sgt_zim
Interesting comments!

Asking as a client, is there any advice you can give us, how to make described checks when looking for outfitter (or any other advertised business) online?
How to identify suspicious or unsecured web sites, or scams?

I mean, advise, for us, "simpletons", who are not exactly hackers?

 

[sgt_zim]

@sgt_zim
Interesting comments!

Asking as a client, is there any advice you can give us, how to make described checks when looking for outfitter (or any other advertised business) online?
How to identify suspicious or unsecured web sites, or scams?

I mean, advise, for us, "simpletons", who are not exactly hackers?

other than verifying the "lock" symbol, very little.

i spend a large part of my days looking at web traffic, so I know what the bad guys do and how they do it.

I run scans on AH periodically just to make sure I don't see anything glaringly wrong here, and on the rare occasion I do, I ping Jerome and let him know.

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

though it would be nice but the outfitter will not have any idea what shipping is going to run, to many things go into that price and it changes all the time

yea guessing the shipping cost is near impossible, rule of thumb is taxidermy and shipping can cost as much as the hunt all depends on what where and how, and the powers at be!

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

Before I look at anything else, do I see this when I navigate to your website?
View attachment 567308
For a business with whom I'm going to exchange thousands of dollars and with whom I'll be sharing personally identifiable information like my name, phone number, home address, and email address, there are other things I look at. Is the site set up with a content management system like Wordpress or Drupl or similar? If so, is patching up to date (there are simple ways to see this given my line of work)?

There are a number of things I can infer with a quick 5 minute scan about both the web host and the developer(s) to determine if adequate safeguards are in place and maintained.

Does your contact info point to a secure mail service like gmail or protonmail? If your email goes to somename@henrygriffiths.com, I will infer that your web service provider is running its own email server. There are enough web service providers that do a poor job of safeguarding their email services that I don't trust any of them without doing more homework than I care to do.

If your web provider and developer are doing what they should be doing regarding security, they should be happy to provide you with some sort of executive level summary about the measures they are undertaking, and you should put a "marketing" version of it somewhere on your home page.

As to contents - there is nothing new I can say that hasn't already been said.

PM me know when you're ready to publish and I can do my thing to see if they've done for you what they should be doing.

very interesting, I will for sure shoot you a PM when the time comes

 

[Frederik]

Henry,

Some nice input from everyone.

Maybe one last thing a link or a page that shows current Currency values so that one can see the price difference directly if its USD, EUR, GBP, AUSD and CAD.

People are looking for info and details at a glance and are just too lazy to google what is the USD worth compared to AUSSIE dollar for example.

How about some trailcam photos from some various spots frequently uploaded?

 

[HENRY GRIFFITHS SAFARIS]

Henry,

Some nice input from everyone.

Maybe one last thing a link or a page that shows current Currency values so that one can see the price difference directly if its USD, EUR, GBP, AUSD and CAD.

People are looking for info and details at a glance and are just too lazy to google what is the USD worth compared to AUSSIE dollar for example.

How about some trailcam photos from some various spots frequently uploaded?

Frederik thank you yes all good ideas, problem with the forex is it changes every second someone clever would need to right us some code that can updates that stuff to the minute all the time, I have tried making different pricelists but the up keep is crazy just to keep it updated on a weekly basis is mad, I tried working from a Rand pricelist for a few years to try help managing the exchange rate but new clients was scared of it, most of the seasoned safari goers loved it

I will look into maybe putting links to forex exchange sites


the trail cam idea is good we run trailcams all the time anyway also thinking about a web cam at the lodge waterhole but that is project 742 at right now

almost time for our hunt look forward to seeing you we have a few beers to drink!

 

[Bert the Turtle]

There have been lots of good suggestions offered, but I am kind of surprised that the #1 commonality of everyone here who has replied states pricing as a "must have" on a website or they would move on.... Why? If I followed that mindset, I would have missed out on some of the best outfitted hunts in my life. There are many valid reasons why an outfitter would not list their pricing on a website especially in today's economy with costs of everything changing so rapidly.

Most, if not all of the outfitters I have ever researched have come by recommendations, or by reputation. If somebody recommended an outfitter to me for their pricing, or the outfitter advertised "lowest pricing guaranteed" that would likely be the determining factor for me to move on...

If an outfitter wants to list pricing that's fine. However, it's certainly not a deal-breaker for me if they don't. If I like what I have heard and seen, I really don't see the big deal with sending an email or requesting a phone call to get pricing information. There are several more important criteria for me in researching an outfitter than price. If experience has taught me anything it's that if you book with pricing as the major determining factor in selecting an outfitter, you will be very disappointed more often than not..

The issue for me regards lack of pricing is that it is an extra step I need to take. It is inconvenient and basically says to me “I do not value your time”. Or it says "prices change and I'm too lazy to update my site". Either way, it leaves a negative impression in my opinion. I’m not particularly price-sensitive, but if I have to ask for a price, I wonder why that information is hidden. The less price-sensitive a person is, the more time-sensitive he is.

Also, a current price list is the easiest way for me to know that the outfit is presently running. I don't want to spend time looking through a website that ultimately turns out to be a waste of time.

If there is a legitimate reason not to post prices, explain it right away. I have seen things like "the manufacturer does not allow dealers to post prices lower than suggested retail price, please email for price list".

 

[Bert the Turtle]

The live feed water hole cam is a GREAT idea!!

 

[BSO Dave]

The issue for me regards lack of pricing is that it is an extra step I need to take. It is inconvenient and basically says to me “I do not value your time”. Or it says "prices change and I'm too lazy to update my site".

Extra step? You are concerned about taking an extra step in researching an outfitted hunt where you are potentially going to be spending thousands of dollars?

Just in browsing the handful of websites of sponsors of this site with impeccable reputations, less than half of them have their pricing listed on their website. I doubt any of these outfitters place no value on their prospective client's time or are "too lazy" to post pricing.

Like I said in my OP that you quoted from, price is not the driving criteria for me in researching and vetting an outfitter. There are many more important criteria to research and vet above price. Browsing an outfitter's website is just a beginning in what will be a long line of conversations and emails before I book a hunt. I have no problem with discussing price in that initial conversation.