Posts tagged as:

standards

Of Course It’s Possible

by Tim on July 12, 2012

Opportunity I’ve heard many technologists over the years explain the way development works:

You can have it fast
You can have it cheap
You can have it good

And you can have any two of the above you like.

Bullsh… er, um… I mean, “Nonsense!”

Now, it’s true that it’s very difficult to build something — anything really — quickly, inexpensively and well. It’s merely very difficult (and to be fair to my friends in development, sometimes it’s very, very, very difficult). It may turn out to be impractical. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It takes exploring every option, questioning every assumption, demanding the very best of yourself (first) and freeing your team to do their very best (second).

Of course, the flip-side is that if you’re willing to work very hard and surround yourself with talented people, you can accomplish just about anything. Doing that may not be cheap. And finding and developing talent may not always be fast. But, you can usually get one or the other.

So, the option is yours. You can select from the Fast/Cheap/Good menu (I typically recommend Fast/Good or Fast/Cheap depending on the circumstances, by the way). Or you can work hard and surround yourself with others who want to do the same.

But, in either case, what you are trying to do is almost always possible, no matter what it is. You just have to be willing to work for it. And that’s just as true of life as it is of development.

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Technorati Tags: inspiration, strategy, success, teamwork

Tagged as: basics, build vs. buy, inspiration, inspire, leaders, Leadership, learning, standards, Strategy

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You’re not welcome here. And other nice things to say.

by Tim on August 3, 2009

in Marketing

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big sports fan. I’m also a big Mac fan. But I mainly use Windows at work. So imagine my surprise this past Friday afternoon when I fired up Firefox on my office computer to check on Tiger Woods in the Buick Open and got this message:

“Website Requirements”?!? Really?!? Worse, no matter what I did – short of switching to Internet Explorer – would get me past this screen. Forget “requirements.” Why not just say, “Sorry. We don’t think highly enough of you and the choices you make to want your business. Ever. Now go away and stop bothering us“?

OK, you might think it’s not that bad. After all, it’s not like they’re completely invisible. But I’m not sure there’s any difference. Anytime you tell your customers they can’t communicate with you – the way your customer chooses – you’ve likely lost a customer.

In case you think I’m overreacting, consider this: Firefox now has as much as 30% of the market. Some sites see even larger numbers. For instance, 35% of thinks readers use Firefox/Windows, almost tied with IE/Windows. Other sites I know see “only” 15% of their traffic from Firefox/Windows. But, even at that level, would you want to tell 1 out of every 6 customers, “Sorry. We don’t think highly enough of you…?”

I didn’t think so.

Worse, look what Google seems to think the site is about:

Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, does it? How many customers on seeing that description will spend the next fifteen minutes worrying whether they have the “right” browser – assuming they know what a browser is – instead of actually visiting Warwick Hills’ site?

I certainly don’t mean to pick on Warwick Hills alone. Sadly, too many sites still suffer from these same issues. But if you want to raise your profile online, you’ve got to accept how your customers want to talk to you and do what’s necessary to make your site work for all.

What do you think? Did Warwick Hills drop the ball here? Or am I overreacting? Tell us what you think in the comments.

(Hat tip: Thanks to Brian Barr for pointing out the Warwick Hills site to me).

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Technorati Tags:
Google, google, internet business, internet marketing, landing page design, landing page optimization, marketing, online marketing, page design, search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, solutions, strategy

Tagged as: browser requirements, E-commerce, firefox, interactive marketing, Marketing, online marketing, online strategy, standards, tiger woods, warwick hills, web standards

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4 steps to improve your online customer experience (Small Business E-Commerce Link Digest – June 26, 2009)

by Tim on June 26, 2009

in del.icio.us links,E-commerce

Everybody wants to do better by their customers. But what’s the best way to do that? Check out these tips and you’ll find it’s not as hard as you might think:

Before you can improve your customer’s experience, you’ve got to know who your customer is. Mining your internal data gives one type of valuable customer view, while personas offer another. John Quarto-vonTivadar at GrokDotCom provided an excellent overview of how personas work that’s worth checking out.
Once you know who you’re trying to talk to, the next step is to get ‘em to your site. And it’s no secret search engines play a big role in making that happen for most online businesses. But how to put search engines to work for you is a bit of a secret. Fortunately, SEOmoz’s new SEO best practices unravels some of the mystery to ranking well, while Search Engine Land unmasks a cool tactic for finding link opportunities .
Of course, getting people to your site is one thing. But if they don’t stick around, what good is it? Assuming that your site is fast enough to keep customers around, you’ve still got to convince them you’re the right place for them. Your reputation remains one of the top reasons customers choose to buy online. How can you convince customers you’re the right place? Well, Linda Bustos offers an excellent overview of how to communicate your reputation to customers online.
Finally, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re taking care of all your customers. Linda Bustos returns with a strong overview of accessibility and its importance to your business (think “taking care of your customers” because it’s the right thing to do and “avoiding lawsuits,” if nothing else). Following standards offers many benefits, including accessibility, SEO, a faster site, and lower costs. And that just might be the best way to improve your customer experience.