The other day, I went to Bic Camera to buy a telephoto lens for my DSLR.
The standard lens that came with the camera body was no longer enough, so I decided to add another lens.

I usually do almost all my shopping online at Amazon, Rakuten and the like, but there are far too many types of telephoto lenses and the reviews are all over the place, so I decided to go to Bic Camera and make up my mind while asking the staff.

At Bic Camera, there were rows and rows of lenses.
I use NIKON, and there were dozens of lenses just from NIKON itself; once I started considering third-party options like TAMRON as well, there were so many that I had no idea what was what.

So I immediately found a staff member and asked for advice.
Pretending to know more than I did would only cause me trouble later, so I honestly told him what I wanted to use it for and that I wasn't knowledgeable and would like him to teach me.

The staff member spent about 20 minutes with me, and as a result I was able to buy a lens I'm satisfied with.
I also bought a case and a filter, but since I didn't know which ones were good either, I bought the ones the staff member recommended.

When there are things you can't figure out on your own, asking a professional really is best.
Some of you may think, "Buying whatever the salesperson tells you makes you an easy mark for the store."
Don't worry—I had looked up a certain amount of information beforehand, even if not everything, and if I thought "Hmm? Isn't that a bit expensive?" I could quickly check on my smartphone right then and there. That way, you can combine your own information with what the salesperson says and make the final decision yourself.

In the end I bought the case and filter that the staff member recommended, but after he spent 20 minutes with me I thought, "This person is really recommending what suits me," so I bought his recommendations as they were.
When I think "I want it, but it's a bit pricey" or "It's mostly good, but something bothers me," I negotiate too.
This time I had a great staff member help me out, and I was able to shop with a good feeling.

The same can be said of website production and smartphone site production.

These days, all sorts of tools have been developed, and we live in a convenient world where even people without specialized knowledge can build websites and smartphone sites intuitively. I try out anything that catches my interest myself, so every time such a tool is developed I'm impressed, thinking "Wow, amazing" and "You really could make one easily with this" (spoken from on high).

Certainly, if you only want to "build" a website or smartphone site, using these tools is one option. Since there are fixed templates, you can't do absolutely everything freely, but quite a lot of patterns are available, so you can design things more or less as you envision. And if it's text, you can post as much information as you like without limits.

However, many people come to us saying that they built their site using these tools themselves, or had a somewhat knowledgeable acquaintance build it, but it isn't going the way they hoped and they'd like our help.

Why is that?
Because even if they can "build" a website or smartphone site, in many cases they can't use it to "attract customers."

Tools are for "building" websites and smartphone sites; they don't guarantee "attracting customers." Attracting customers requires knowledge that is different from building.
Of course, it's best to have both, but very few people—whether using tools or designers specializing in web design—possess both.
That's because in this industry, where information and trends change one after another, it's difficult to keep constantly updating and applying knowledge of both "building" and "attracting customers."

Merci has five production members, including our representative.
Representative Odagiri, production director Suzuki (me), and three designers/coders—Kimura, Satake and Ochiai—for a total of five.

While many freelance and individual designers handle the work all by themselves, we tackle production as a team of five.
Some may worry, "With multiple people involved, will all the information really get through to everyone?" But it's my job as director to bring them together and create an environment where everyone can work in the same direction. You can leave it to us with confidence.

And Merci's production team is a combination of our representative Odagiri and myself, who specialize in "attracting customers," and three designers/coders who specialize in "building." Since we have professionals in both attracting customers and building, we can create a website or smartphone site and connect it to attracting customers.

Of course, we also continue studying and earning qualifications all the time (for details about our members, please see our staff introduction page here).
I believe that's what has led to our track record as the area's longest-established firm, founded 16 years ago.

This has gotten long, but what I wanted to convey in this article is that when it comes to things you don't understand or feel unsure about, rather than trying to solve them with only your own knowledge and tools, getting help from a professional is more efficient and gets better results ^^;

If you have any concerns about website production, smartphone site production, or attracting customers, please feel free to consult us!