I’m trying to figure out why so many organizations, individual marketers and businesses that boast an online presence make it so very difficult to get in touch and contact them.
Across my medium of business interests and places where I hang my hat I don’t try to hide – it’s actually quite the opposite. I believe that people should be able to contact me, and I want them to. It’s just good business. That’s why I share my business contact information where I’m able to do, and that’s why I have a social media iPhone widget that throws out all the places where people can network with me. It’s all right there in one spot.
If that’s not enough, there’s always the comment section. The important thing is that you don’t have to click through dozens of pages just to get a single point of reference that gives out an obscure 800 number that may or may not lead you to a dead end automated electronic number.
There are a lot of bloggers and plenty of businesses online that don’t offer a clue as to how someone can get a hold of them; call, write, whatever. Nothing. Not even snail mail. When I see that, I often get the feeling that these individuals are operating from home and they’re just ashamed and trying to hide the fact. Either that or they’re terrified someone is going to come and “get them”.
Perhaps they’re just a small cialis without prescription operation and they’re trying to give the impression otherwise. I don’t know why. There are a thousand and one assumptions and no one theory applies to all.
For any company that is trying to step into the age of transparency with social media marketing, where they’re striving for a better and stronger brand image, not having direct contact information on a website is just suicide -especially if you get someone that wants more information from you because they want to do business.
For the record, a contact form on a website is a cop-out. If all you have is a contact form with no email addresses, no phone numbers and no snail mail then all that says is that you don’t want to be bothered or interrupted by someone who wants to do business with you. It says that you want to do business on your own terms, when you feel like it, and that’s just not OK.
Small businesses aren’t the only ones to blame for this, there are plenty of larger companies that are dipping into the “stealth ninja” pool by hiding contact information – or at least not making it readily know. Have you ever tried to contact anyone at Google in order to get more information on a particular service? For a company that is geared toward sharing a lot of information, Google is one of the most most closed off companies I’ve ever seen on the web.
No numbers, no hints of whom to contact for specific divisions, or even how to reach those divisions.
Businesses want to gain the benefit of connecting with consumers and engaging them in order to build a brand, but they stifle their own efforts when they start shutting down channels through which people can actively connect with them. If you don’t have direct contact information available for your consumers to reach you, then I urge you to fix that and open yourself up to more engagement with your marketing.
