A Massachusetts family out for what seemed to be some simple fall fun activity were trapped in a cornfield maze and had to call 911.

Lost

““We received a phone call that someone was lost in the maze. We dispatched an officer,”” said Sgt. Bob Bettencourt of the Danvers Police Department.

“”Hi, I just called; I’m still stuck at Connor’s Farms. I don’’t see anybody. I’’m really scared. It’’s really dark and we have a 3-week-old baby with us,” said the mother in the 911 call.

Police arrived and the family was rescued.  It took officers with their K-9 over 10 minutes to find them!

This story sounds very familiar…

How many times have you been looking for a product or maybe just a replacement part on a company’s website and what seemed to be a simple task turned into a nightmare?

You start out on your journey on the home page. Your eyes glance over the maze of information.  Which way do I go?

You start with the main page navigation.  It’s no help, it leads to many dead ends.

You click on a products page that looks like it will lead to what you are looking for and again you made a wrong turn.  So you try and go back.  No link to get back to where you started.  Is it time to call 911?  Not yet, you say.

There’s a light blue colored word; is this your way out? A light blue colored word normally would signal it’s a link… you click, you wait and nothing happens, so you keep clicking. Then you realize, no, not a link, just a light blue colored word.  Another dead end!

One last attempt.  Where is the Contact Page?  The website is dated so the website designer put the Contact Page as part of the About Us drop down menu.  Not where it should be in 2016!  So you look at the top of the page and now the bottom of the page and you find no phone number to call, no email, not even a social media tag… Again no help.

Frustration

You’re now completely frustrated and what should have been an easy adventure is a bad nightmare.  Is it time to give up and call 911?  This is the internet, so you click the Arrow (also known as the Back Button) and  it takes you out of this website nightmare.  Since you started your journey using a Google search, you now have a full page of other website options.  You can continue your journey someplace else.

Business Impact

For the cornfield maze owner, having the police rescue your maze attendees is probably good for business.  For the website owner who caused your nightmare, they just lost your business forever and probably many more possible customers just like you!