Tag: Foxboro MA Web Design

Proving your value on bad days too!August 5th, 2013

Back in my horse training days, it use to amuse me that you were lauded for the really easy winners, but not so much for the ones you worked your ass off on. Say you had a talented runner. You enter them in an easy spot. Then they win by 10 lengths. The horses owner would say what a great job you did. Truthfully, on those days anyone could have trained that horse and he would have won. Whether they trained him hard, went easy, or even walked him into the race. But then take another runner with physical problems. You nurse them along and miraculously, they make it to a race and win. This was a feat of horsemanship and sheer hard work. But they don’t win as impressively. But again the miracle was that you go them to the races at all. You never get as much credit for those as you did for really gifted horse.

So, what does this have to do with websites? Well, last Friday I had one of my most trying days in a long, long time. For my dedicated server, I use one of the biggest hosting companies in that space. They have a 99.9% up time rate which is great. They had a huge outage at their data center in Provo, Utah. It affected 5 of the biggest hosting companies in the world. So my site and many of my clients were down between 7-8 hours coming back up intermittently then going down again.

Talk about a day from he(double hockey sticks). I was really stuck all day. I could not work on sites on my server. And I could not get email. So my clients whose sites were down and didn’t have email, we’re trying to send me emails to tell me they had no service. I couldn’t receive their emails or respond. I did put a note on both my Twitter and Facebook pages, telling them to either call or text me. Fortunately, people did call and text me. So I could tell them what’s going on. But therein lies the rub. My hosting company really did not have an ETA as to when the problem would be resolved. They just said they’re working on the issue. Worse than that, sites didn’t come out and email for a bit here and there, but then go back down again. So after telling people their sites were back up, I had to tell them, now it’s down again.

While the problem was not my fault, or my doing. It is my responsibility as a web host. I informed clients the best I could, took all calls and texts, and communicated the best I could. Once things wee restored, I handled all maintenance requests, and everything was still completed within the same day.

Bottom Line: Although the day was a disaster, my clients received best in class support, and communication was excellent. I may not receive accolades for last Friday, but I certainly proved my worth on one of my worst days.
 

Planning a website? Think AristotleMarch 18th, 2013

Strange title eh? I agree. Typically we don’t look to philosophers who died in 322 BC for advice. But I happened upon an article in the Harvard Business Review talking about the 3 elements of great communication. The elements Aristotle identified are ethos, pathos, and logos.

We will examine all 3 elements and how they relate to website development.

1. Ethos :: Ethos is your credibility.  Why should anyone believe what you are saying on your website?  One of the most important things you can get across on your website is to show you are a subject matter expert in your field. So if someone wants to hire you, (or buy from you) they need to feel confident that you are a proven leader in your field with the skills & technical expertise they are looking for. If your credibility is in question, it is pretty clear a visitor to your website will not end up a customer/client. This is also why the “do it yourself websites” don’t work.  Can anyone take you seriously when you have an amateurish website?
2. Pathos :: Pathos is the emotional connection.  This is very important in a website. People that have an emotional bond with your company, typically will be repeat customers.  Now for e-commerce, this may be a love for your brand.  People who like a specific clothing brand typically will buy that brand year after year. But this also goes for service providers. Say you are a plumber who saved a homeowner from a leak on a Sunday night.  That consumer won’t forget that plumber. This is where things like testimonials come in handy. When visitors to your website see the love your customers/clients have, they too are likely to hire you.
3. Logos :: Logos is your way of appealing to people’s sense of reason. They mention in the blog I referenced that this is where the term logic comes from. True, this sounds a bit Vulcan, but things needs to make sense to us for us to wrap our mind around something.  This is why websites, or commercials fail when they make crazy claims. Even though we may want to believe a pill will grow our hair back and clear our face of wrinkles, we know in our mind that this can’t be true. We all know if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So keep that in mind developing your website. A little bragging is fine, as long as you don’t promise what can’t possibly be delivered.

Planning your website can be a difficult process with a lot of variables. But when you consider Aristotle’s 3 elements of communication, you are off to a good start. Feel free to contact us with any questions.