Categories: Articles

Seth Godin Blames Canada… Err Air Canada

In Seth Godin‘s latest Blog entry, Should The IT Guys Run Your Website?, the marketing master discovers a minor glitch on the Air Canada website during his transaction that is the single thread that unravels the whole ball of yarn. What’s funny (by funny, I mean sad) is that most people’s first instinct is to call in the “IT Guys” the minute someone mentions the need for a website. If you’ve read my screams, rants and Blog entries I liken this to calling Canada Post when you want to develop a direct marketing campaign (Canada Post is the delivery mechanism for your marketing message – not the people creating and developing your message and materials).
Yesterday morning’s “Website Usability – Tiny Changes Big Rewards” presented by the CMA (Canadian Marketing Association) session featuring Tara O’Doherty (National Director, Usability Group for Fjord Interactive Marketing + Technology) had a lot of intelligence on Seth’s exact issue. The real question you need to ask about your website is: can a user get on, get the information they need and get out without mistakes or being frustrated?
How do you get as close to that as possible when developing a website? (Hint: it’s called pre-production, usability and functionality and iterative design). Make your site efficient and effective from the context of who, what, where, when, why and how someone is using your website and provide them with satisfaction and comfort. It sounds easy… even simple, but how many companies actually look for potential bottlenecks, frustrations or spend a couple of hours walking in their customer’s shoes?
Thanks for turning the light switches on Seth and Tara.
Hey Air Canada, give us a call!

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.