I’m unplugged for a few days to recharge with Dee after getting the book finished. The following is an excerpt from Good Company: Making It, Keeping It, And Being It that goes on sale on Monday, August 20th.
I’ve traveled all over giving talks and workshops.
Something I try to do when time permits is offer up spontaneous website critiques for business owners and not-for-profit agencies in attendance.
Want to know a secret: It makes me look really smart, but it’s really cheating. People make pretty much the same ten mistakes over and over again.
Those ten mistakes are a different story for a different day. But let me get you started.
Why do you have a website?
Seriously – what did you build it to help you do?
Write it down. I’m not kidding.
Ask your employees to do the same?
Say it simply and plainly.
If your website is like any other employee (and, really, it should be thought of that way), do you have a job description and standards of performance for it? Why not? And do you measure anything? Hits? Do you even know what the heck “hits” means?
You cannot improve what you do not measure and reward.
Furthermore, are you a part of the web conversation?
While you may have others build it, are you personally involved with its construction?
Wait – what do you mean it’s already been built?
A website’s never done.
Just like your home, you should be cleaning and maintaining and re-decorating seasonally and putting fresh, tasteful touches here and there.
And every once in a while, you need a major remodeling project. Oops. I think I just switched metaphors. My bad.
Let me give you one last piece of advice in plain, simple, metaphor-free English, okay?
Ask the people who answer your phones regularly: “What are the four or five questions you get asked by customers over and over again?”
Have them keep a sheet by their desk to jot down additional questions they might not think of right away.
Then, do the same with your retail sales people, or your outside sales staff, or your technical staff – anyone who regularly comes into contact with customers.
You need to make sure those questions and answers to those questions – in language people actually use – are easy to find either on your homepage or linked to from your homepage.
That should get you started. Call me when it’s time for your site’s ninety day review.
(Web Wednesdays are a weekly feature on The Daily Blur focusing on how best to use the Internet to help your owner-operated company.)
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