Design & Publishing . / . WEB . / . Tips & Tricks Index . / . 9803 Clifford: Part 1 . / . 9803 Clifford: Part 2
Douglas Clifford - Part 2: Ways to Shoot Your Web Site in the Foot
Rule #1 Email is the simplest, cheapest and most powerful interactive feature you can include on your web site.
Some companies, in particular big manufacturers, make it nearly impossible for consumers to send them email. They provide all kinds of automated "interactive" incentives for those who want more information, including forms to request literature on specific products and fax-back telephone numbers, but they’re unwilling to invest in the manpower necessary to deal with the public one-on-one.
All the bells and whistles in cyberspace can’t replace the value of personal contact.
Forms should never be used to replace email. Ah yes, I am familiar with the "one size fits all" mentality but it’s just not true. At the very least give your customers a choice between sending email or filling out your form.
For one thing, when filling out a form a customer may type his email address incorrectly, making it impossible for you to respond. He’ll go away thinking you’re not interested in his business. When you receive email from a customer, you always get the correct return address.
Another downside is we just can’t resist designing forms to ask questions we’d like to know but which the customer may in fact regard as an invasion of privacy. For example it’s common to request the postal address and telephone number. Hey, the customer just wants to ask you a question!
Recently, I discovered a trade magazine offering a free one year subscription to their newsstand version; the only catch was I had to fill out a lengthy online questionnaire giving them substantial demographic insight into my life.
I figured it was a fair trade, so told them how much money I make annually, how many employees I supervise, what my job title was, the dollar values of how much computer hardware and software I had purchased in the last 12 months, the estimated dollar values for the coming year’s purchases, the items which were on the top of "wish list" and dozens of more questions. One week later a letter arrived from the magazine’s publisher saying they "were sorry but I didn’t qualify for their free magazine offer, however, they were willing to let me order a subscription for only $35 a year!" Did I feel burned? You Bet! And their dishonest scam continues today. Did I subscribe? What do you think!
Doug's Rules: Rule #1 _|_ * Rule #2 _|_ Rule #3 _|_ Rule #4 _|_ Rule #5 _|_ Rules #6, #7 and end
Doug
Douglas Clifford is the webmaster of the ACE Indexes, an annotated directory of photo commerce web sites, and online photography and digital imaging magazines. (http://www.acecam.com)
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