I review a lot of websites when doing biz dev for CAS and also for clients. And too frequently I find that it is really hard to get in touch with some organisations.
I’m not talking about using a general email address like admin@ or contact@ .
Take a look at Bulletproof Design
- irritating music
- no contact form
- no cut/paste of contact information as it’s a flash site
- hard to find menu – had to hover over headline to get menus to appear
Freaking irritating – try another one….
- Flash site that transfers data at a snails pace.
- Opens new browser window without closing the entry page
- Click onto the ‘who we are’ and there’s no button to get back to the home page and NO information about who they are…. just corporate waffle about being around since 1994 and being a leading top 10 firm.
- Links page includes a packaging show that was in February 2009
So let’s set out some ground rules.
- Make it easy to get in touch.
- Clearly state your address and contact details in a cut-and-paste friendly format
- Make all email addresses hyperlinks so they automatically open in your email programme
- If you use a contact form – let it be easy to use
- Check speed of response to inbound emails by mystery shopping your own company regularly.
- Find out what happens to an inbound enquiry
- Where is it logged, who is responsible for following up, and how many times is is followed before abandoned due to no response.
- Can you print a list of all inbound enquiries by date and analyse the findings?
- Do you have a Google text alert set up for your precise URL and your precise company name and obvious variants? [will the companies mentioned above write comments below about themselves?]
- List other places where you can be ‘found’ – Yomego has this nicely right.
