Posted 8/12/2010
By Angie Kilbourne

Web Wise: Your Site a Disservice to Your Business?

I read an interesting opinion piece on the New York Times website the other day. Author Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, discussed her dissatisfaction with certain websites, phone trees and customer service representatives of companies she frequently made purchases from.

"Life in our service economy inevitably carries a risk of occasional disservice. And what a fascinating variety of forms disservice can take," Folbre wrote. Indeed, our society seems to have an endless amount of disservice and dissatisfaction - on both sides of the counter.

Let me ask you a question: Where do your customers go when they are unhappy - or pleased - with your services? How do you know your customer service efforts are performing well? How are they measured?

Ratings websites and contact pages are two subjects we've covered previously, but this blog made me think hard about how pleasurable are my own experiences online when dealing with service companies I employ. There's nothing more frustrating than making a purchase and finding it wasn't all it was promised to be - and then discovering your attempts to contact the company (on or offline) land you into a labyrinth of customer service dead-ends. Today's automated instant response customer service solutions are still created by humans, and therefore, subject to failure.

So let's get back to your website now. Is your site doing your business a disservice?

Do you know where the "Contact Us" responses are going? Is everything working on your site properly? Do you prominently display your contact information and links to your social media pages? When was the last time you went to your site and tried out all those bells and whistles you bought?

If you can't give yourself a positive answer right now while reading this, it's time to call a meeting with your webmaster. In your line of business, it's critical that a broken website is fixed immediately. Otherwise, how can customers believe you can fix their vehicles too?

ASA Web Ways: Top 10 Nomination Deadline Aug. 31

AutoInc. is looking for the best automotive repair websites, which will be featured in its annual Top 10 Automotive Repair Sites coverage to be published next January. Online submissions will be accepted at www.AutoInc.org/top10entry.htm through Aug. 31. While you are there, view the collection of previous Top 10 winners - you might even pick up some great ideas for your own site. Judging begins in September, so make sure your websites are ready to go. We look forward to seeing you in the January issue!