Today I visited a website. Like pretty much the rest of the country, I happened to be online. I was poking around LinkedIn and went down a rabbit hole of investigating some people I met at a recent networking event. No big deal, right?
As the rabbit hole went deeper, I found myself on this particular website that was trying to hock some social app thing for employees. It had on it’s homepage a big quote from Peter Drucker, “Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch”. That’s a sweet quote, so I kept checking out the different pages on the site. Nice design, smooth flow and an interesting use of graphics. Then it dawned on me. I have no idea what they are selling beyond my description of some social app thing for employees.
At that point I figured I missed something, so I poked around more. I see text that read, “take your organization on a cultural journey” and “We believe culture is delivered through conversation and collaboration, not missives and directives and one-way communication.”
This all seemed extremely vague to me. I kept asking, “What do you do?” in my head about this company. Do I need an app for culture? Does a business no longer have culture if they don’t have an app?
Were all businesses prior to the advent of apps touting things like culture delivery essentially culture-free?
It looked like they were selling something like imaginary rainbows.
I was confused.
Which lead me to find some contact information. I wanted to interview whoever started this thing to get more information. Clearly my mind was not understanding what they did, and presumably that was my problem, not theirs.
Where do you normally find contact information? On a contact page, right? No dice.
So I scroll to the bottom of the webpage, a typical plan B for locating basic contact information.
Nada.
No page had any way to introduce two-way communication. No email, no phone number, no physical address. Only some social links for one-way communication. That’s clearly opposed to the mantra they wrote on their homepage. What companies say they do and what they actually do are often not in alignment. Much like people.
Which lead me to write a blog of frustration. If you are going to build some software to promote culture and communication and include text that talks about, “feedback and ongoing conversation…” I expect a few things.
First, a way to actually initiate conversation. Second, I want to know just how big these rainbows are. If you fail to include any way to contact you on your website that I accidentally came across, you failed at both.
Which leads me to the point of this ranty like blog. When you build a website for your company, it represents your company. Every word, image and style is a reflection of what your company is and how you want your company to be perceived. Be sure to look at your site and have others look at your site to make sure the perception by others is indeed what you want it to be.
Also, presume that at some point if you want customers to pay you money, they will want and need a way to contact you without hiring a private investigator.
Otherwise, you may have trouble seeing rainbows of your own.
James Kademan is a Business Coach for Draw In Customers Business Coaching in Madison, Wisconsin as well as the author of The BOLD Business Book. When he isn’t networking with entrepreneurs, he is busy guiding entrepreneurs to success in business and beyond. He blogs successfully to the world at www.drawincustomers.com. If you are considering hiring a business coach, take a moment to call James at (608)210-2221. Include your contact information on anything you would like people to talk to you about.
