I don’t get to travel much for my job, and that is not necessarily a bad thing, so when I do, I get to experience all types of oddities. However, today I find myself sitting on the floor, against an pole, typing this article (but not into the website – more on that later), waiting to get on a plane.
<rant on>
I live in the greater Orlando, FL area and here in town we have a large international airport. Given the heighten security restrictions, I knew I’d have to get there early – not a problem. I even figured I would be able to sit down and get some work done, and post an article or two to the blog here.
Laptop computers are everywhere, even some of the none business travelers I see have their laptops with them. What I don’t see however is a general place for people to use them. While there are chairs about the terminal for people to sit, but there are practically no tables to work on, and there are even fewer outlets for people to plug into (mine is on a circular pole just a little to far from a chair to sit in, hence on the floor against a round pole I sit). Nor is their an Internet connection to be had. It seems that not even the Starbucks in the terminal can provide one with a WiFi connection.
Maybe I’ve gotten used to having WiFi in my house, my work, and even in some of the restaurants I visit – that I would think that a business airport catering to international business travelers, would be able to provide these basic services.
Update: Apparently you can get WiFi access in the terminal, but you have to be in the right spot, and apparently both spots I tried were just bad locations. It would have been nice if they were marked however.
<rant off>
How is this relevant to your business?
Think about your website if you were a customer. If you can’t because you are too close to it, ask some of your customers. Ask “what’s missing?” Then ask “why?”
I have to admit, and say that laying the infrastructure to an airport that existed before laptops would not be an easy task, and would cost a lot of money, however many things on the web are not that complex or expensive. Because your web site lacks the physical structure of a store or office, can be rearrange, updated, and expanded with relative ease most of the time.
One of my clients recently approached me because he was wanting to add a new feature to his website. This was something he knew he would want if he was a customer of his store. While discussing this new feature, he asked if it was worth doing (it is) and what could we do if it didn’t work. It was simple I told him. If you want to stop offering the new service (for whatever reason), we just remove it from the list of options on the website. While it will take a few days to implement, it could take only a few minutes to remove if necessary if he couldn’t keep up with the demand.
I think the service will be beneficial to both him and his customers. It will allow him to save some money for just a little bit of effort, and allow his customers to get the benefits of the savings, which can drive more sales. But there is always the “ability” to undo if necessary on the web. This is what makes this medium so great. It can be very fluid if you allow it to be.
If you don’t have a website that allows for easy updates by either you or your designer, then contact walt design and development. We have over 9 years of experience building web sites and applications and can help you out.
About Walter Wimberly