THE ETHICS OF PALINDRIN ON THE WEB
YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE DONE
So your web site is finished. It is beautiful, professional, and best of all, it communicates your content perfectly. You even have CGI and HTML scripts in place on a professional business server to track all your customers. These scripts even provides you with a list of all the URLs of the people who visited your site. Your web site is also published in very prominent places, and you are getting an increasing number of hits each month.
So why is it that people are not returning to your site after the first visit? Why are they subscribing to your services and then dropping out at a rate of nearly 100 per cent?
You, my friend, have collided with the very real effect of Palindrin. Palindrin is an ethical dilemma that the better web sites are experiencing, especially those sites that are in e-commerce, although there are many sites which deliver content that are also at fault in this.
IMAGINE A STORE AT THE MALL
Palindrin can be illustrated this way. You go into a new store at the mall. It is a beautiful shopping experience at first. The store is beautifully designed and comfortable. Everything is easy to find and the staff there are so helpful, but not pushy. The items there are the best there is, and there is a giant selection of things. The prices are low and you are happily taking your cart to the checkout, delighted that you found this neat store.
You get to the checkout and your order is rung up, but you find you are not done. The checkout person pulls a gun on you and tells you that you now have to add these eleven items to your basket. On top of that, someone from the store is going to your home to check out things there to make sure you are the kind of customer they want to do business with.
Now, this being a free country and all, would you go back to that store anymore after such an experience? You have just crashed into Palindrin.
THE ETHICS OF PALINDRIN
Palindrin is an ethical problem that any business can find itself involved in, while attempting to ensure its own survival. It is a brick wall your company can run into when it crosses an invisible line in the customer’s mind while that person is doing business with you. It could be a very small thing, like placing the napkins behind the counter and requiring the customer to ask for one. Or it could be how you make the customer feel while giving you their credit or personal information when they visit your web site. They might not even realize how they feel about it, but something occurs within them because of your practice of Palindrin, and they will not be back to your site – ever.
Many of the biggest web sites are guilty of this, and they are also clueless about it. MSN.com is a prime example. Yahoo.com, NYTimes.com, ABCNews.com, and Amazon.com are some others. These actually provide good content in a very professional manner, but they violate their customers in the process of interacting with them. You know what I mean. Your own computer, sitting in the sanctity of your home somehow never works the same after you visit their sites. They have violated your system, running roughly over your data in an effort to keep tabs on you.
Software and hardware companies can also be guilty of this. Have you ever actually read the agreement you must sign when you register “your” software? Have you ever bought a computer with an installed feature or function that you cannot get rid of, no matter how irritating? Palindrin is not just an ethical issue for the Web.
Surprisingly, companies that violate their customers do not stay in that business very long. The sorry thing about it is that most of them never understand WHY their businesses go into the toilet. They broke a prime rule of business that says the customer is always right. Therefore, it is necessary for you, regardless of what business you are in, to build into your web site, and even into your scripts and code, this prime consideration of the sanctity of the persona of your site’s visitors. This must take precedence over your tracking their visits and buying habits, and all the other back door things you can do to them, that you would never do up front and in plain view.
And you thought you were done when you got your web site up. You might be very happy about your site and its contents, but somewhere in all the protective coding you applied to it, you might have crossed the line with your potential customers, which could negate all the good hard work you put into building your site. Palindrin is essentially a violation of the person of the customer, in the customer’s estimation, and it will undo all the good you put into your web site.
How can you fix this? Read on.
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS MODEL
Palindrin is why so many people are not doing business on the Web. It might be something as small as having to give their address and phone number on line. Most web sites ask for much more than that. They have “surveys” that the customer is required to fill out. The customer is required to register on line before they can see what they came to that site to see. There are hundreds of other examples of this, but all of it is completely unnecessary.
Really, all you need to have contact with a customer or visitor to your site is their name and email address. (Apple.com is an example here.) With just these two bits of information you can do all you need to do in doing business with people. Even if you are selling things on the web, having them sign in with their name and email, perhaps to win something, will give you exactly what you need to make them a customer. You actually don’t even need an expensive and maintenance intensive shopping cart and credit engine on your web site.
Think about it. If your customers want to buy something, at the very least you should provide them your email address where they can request a purchase from you. Much better would be to put your phone number in a big bold font on your web site, and staff that number with a real person, not a computer answering system. Then, over the phone, people will be much happier giving you their credit and personal information to place their order. You have then eliminated Palindrin from their experience with your business on the Web, and your business will flourish.
Most people, in building web sites, forget this cardinal principle of Palidrin. You would not open a real store like this would you? In a real store, or office, it is the person the customer first contacts, that determines their whole experience with your business. Who is the person your web customers are meeting when they want to do business with you? How do they feel visiting your site? Is their experience a pleasant one? Are there any nasty little surprises waiting for them after they visit your site?
Palindrin is a nasty thing in that people who put web content on the Internet never think of its ultimate effect on the visitors to their site. Check your business paradigm. Evaluate how you feel about the person of your customer. Look at the total experience that people have when they visit your site. If you can eliminate all the backdoor Palindrin, they will likely be happy to come again to your wonderful web site, and in time they will become loyal customers.
Questions? Comments?
Email me
Roger Born
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