A family out for what seemed to be some simple fall fun activity was 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.  Where do I go to find out what I’m looking for?  I don’t have a lot of time.

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.  The Company Logo in the upper left-hand corner of the site normally is a link back to the home page.  No luck, the company did not check and see if their logo link was programmed.   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 2022!

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?  No, you just hit the back button, 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!

Your Task

Your task now is to look at your own website.  Is there a clear path to what your potential customers may be looking for?   Once they find what they are looking for, how easy is it for them to do business with you?

One more task…  when is the last time you pulled up your website on your phone.  More and more of your website traffic is coming from smartphone use.   How easy is it for your potential customers to navigate your website from their phones?   Again, make it easy for people to do business with you.  If not, they will not call you for help… they will leave your site and find someone else to do business with.