No one wants to tell someone their baby is ugly. The same goes for ugly websites. Brent Haeseker takes you through the questions you should be asking yourself to determine if customers are actually pleased with your website or if it may be time to redesign.
Full Transcription:
Brent Haeseker: Hi, I’m Brent Haeseker, your website consultant with Netsource Technologies and I’m here today to ask you the question: Do you have an ugly baby Web site? Now if you’ve got an ugly baby, nobody’s going to tell you that everyone going to go “oh yeah that’s a really beautiful baby that you have.” But a lot of Web site owners have what I call ugly baby Web sites. They’re not very attractive, they’re not very functional, they don’t do what they should do. They’re just ugly baby websites but nobody’s willing to tell them that they have an ugly baby website and they’re actually under the impression that everybody really likes their website and thinks it’s great because nobody wants to tell them that it’s an ugly baby Web site. Now I’ve been doing that been in Web site design business for about 18 years some pretty good at spotting an ugly baby Web site. When I see one and when I talk to a business owner they’ll say oh yeah people love my Web site. They think it’s awesome. They think it’s great. They tell me that all the time. I tend to kind of want to call them out on it if I can but usually you can’t. It’s kind of like if you’re playing Scrabble and you see a word on the board and you’re like That’s not a real word. I challenge that you get out the dictionary look up the word if you can’t find it in a dictionary then that person loses or loses a turn or whatever the rules are in Scrabble.
So when I’m talking to somebody who has a n ugly baby website and they say oh no it’s great people love it. I kind of want to call them out on and say let’s g et out that Good Web site dictionary and see if it’s in there. You know flip through the pages. Nope don’t see it in there and you’ll lose a turn. Take off 20 points whatever the penalty there is. But we’re not really playing Scrabble here or ugly baby games here so there’s nothing I can really do. But I can’t really call them out on it because they could have designed the website themselves or a family member could have done it so they could get personally offended if you say that their website is ugly. So usually you got to kind of hopefully try and find ways to allow them to discover on their own that the Web site is not very attractive and that it needs some work. Now bear in mind when I say ugly baby websites we’re not talking about anybody. I know people with babies right now. Coworker has a beautiful young baby. My godson beautiful young baby although he’s starting to get older and walk around now. So anybody I know who has babies right now all of you really do have beautiful babies. So I’m actually using this as a metaphor to talk about Web sites that you know people just don’t want to say that your website really is not so good.
Since you want to be tactful with business owners and not offend them usually there’s a series of questions you try to go through to try and find out really where are they pulling this information that that’s leading them to believe that people really like their website because they could be being honestly told people like their website. So sometimes you get to read a little bit further into the information that you’re getting from people. So because you know there is nothing frustrates me more than a business owner that thinks the websites really attractive and that’s really not because you can’t really help that person if they don’t want to do anything with their Web site. Usually the ones that think their websites are really attractive and people love them even though you can obviously look at it and tell that it’s not a great website. Usually those are the ones that they tend to not want to change their mind they tend to be a little bit more stubborn in thinking that their website is really attractive and it’s usually based on some wrong information or some misinformation. So I’ve got some questions to ask to kind of determine whether you’re actually in denial of having an ugly baby Web site. So here are some of the questions that I would try and ask in order to find out for sure what’s really the case here. What’s the information that people are telling you like for number one. Who is telling you that you have a great Web site. Is it a large number of customers. Is it your family members. Is it good friends. Because obviously you know you talk to your family. Oh yeah. Yeah. It’s a great website or you talk to friends or you know they’re just going to be encouraging and say Oh yeah it’s a great website it’s great. Yeah I love it.
But are they actually even really people who use the website or are they just being supportive friends and family. Under what circumstance are people telling you that your Web site is really attractive and wonderful and great. I mean are you coming to them say in your store and saying hey have you seen our website. It’s really fantastic and awesome don’t you think. Well somebody in that circumstance would be like yeah yeah yeah it’s great. Yeah I love it. But is that really an honest assessment? Did they really spend time on their website or are they just being polite. Because you’ve asked them the question. You know offhand or directly to them and they just don’t have an answer for you and just agreeing with you just to be polite. How long ago did somebody tell you that your Web site was attractive. Was it last month. Was it last year. Was it 10 years ago. Was it in 1998 when your Web site was originally built. If it hasn’t been recently, in the last few years. Then that’s probably a cue that you’re operating on some old information. Web site technology changes all the time. So any comments made more than four years ago probably doesn’t have much validity to it anymore or it may but further back you go. Then the more you have to start going well maybe that information’s not so good in today’s times now because maybe you know 20 years ago when they made that comment maybe your Web site actually was pretty awesome for 1998. Also how many people are telling you this is it is it 100 people that said hey your Web site’s great you know are you doing a survey and collecting information and getting tons and tons of feedback. Maybe it’s not a hundred people. So is it 50 people not 50 people. Is it 20 people, Is it five people so how many people are actually telling you out of all the people that go to your website. And again under what circumstances are you setting up the questions so that you get the feedback that you want by saying Don’t we have a great Web site. Well that’s kind of setting up the questions so that you get the feedback that you want. Is it unsolicited feedback are people just coming up to you on their own or just saying Hey I just wanted to come to you and let you know your Web site is really awesome. We love it. It’s awesome. It’s great. Or is it something that you’re asking the question to them you’re going to them to try and get the information out of them. If people are telling you have a great Web site. Are there people that are complaining about your Web site or saying that your Web site is not very good and are you listening to those people or are you just going to have had other people tell me that my website is great so if I’ve got 20 people telling me that it’s awful but I’ve got three people that said it’s great then I’m listening to the people that said it’s great.
So are you taking in all the information that you’re getting about your Web site? I’ve been talking to business owners for 18 years and like I said I’ve seen my share of ugly websites and I’m not the only Web site consultant out there that is contacting people with ugly websites and talking to them. And usually if I’m looking for new business I’m usually not going to somebody who just got a website built a couple months ago and it looks all awesome and whizzbang and awesome and great and has everything in place how it has to be. I’m usually not going to contact somebody like that because they’re really probably not in need of my services right now. So usually I’m going to more likely talk to somebody that’s going to need the services that I’m trying that I can provide that our business can provide. So if someone like me contacts you and they’re asking questions about your Web site they’re saying hey have you thought about a redesign lately, have.You thought about doing this. There’s probably a wise idea to listen to them if they’re a reputable developer because there’s probably a reason why they’re contacting you and they’re probably contacting you because they think this person really needs my business. They’re probably not contact because they think you have a great Web site. And they are the experts in their field.
Like I said I’ve been doing this for 18 years so it’s probably a good idea to listen to whatever it is that they have to say and be open minded of hey maybe our Web site is not as great as I think it is kind of talk through those things. Ask some of those questions that I just mentioned before and find out if you’re really being honest about your Web site. If your Web site is something that you want to talk about with me if you want to find out if you’ve got an ugly baby Web site feel free to give me a call 1 800 7 0 9 3 2 4 0. I’d be happy to talk with you about it. And really that’s it for today. I hope this information is helpful for you if you find these videos that I’m doing to be helpful. Please click like on it. Also like my page so that helps me out and lets me know that what I’m doing is not an ugly baby information video here that it’s actually something useful helpful for because I want to get some feedback to find out how I’m doing. Just as you’re feedback on your website. Thanks again for watching and I hope it’s helpful. And thanks a lot, bye.