Whether you are in a big city or a small town, someone is trying to sell you something. And in many cases, it is something you already own. Marketers don’t mind this as much as it is reinforcing the sale. That is fine for broadcast media and billboards, but pointless and annoying when it is a direct sale, and the seller knows you have it, and they can’t sell you more of it.

My specific example of this is Washington Mutual Bank, which goes by WaMu now. I have been a very happy customer of theirs primarily because I have formed personal relationships with the management and staff at my local branch. Yes, you heard that right – a personal relationship with a bank! It never has happened to me before, and I hope it continues, but I digress. As a result of this personal relationship, I have remained a happy customer and have continued to do business with them.

Knowing the staff, I am spared sales pitches for services I already have. When I visit the branch for a transaction, an alert is presented to the staff to sell me on something, and in most all cases something I already have. They ignore the messages as they know me, and know our business relationship. Unfortunately I don’t have that luxury with WaMu’s online banking. Recently they began presenting a Web page right after I log in, selling me something. Most of the time they are selling me on a service I already have with them. There is no visible way to opt out of seeing these, not to mention the link to ignore it and move on is much, much smaller than the link to accept this needless pitch.

Annoyed by this, I sent a message to the bank via online banking, simply asking them why they are selling me on online bill pay when I already use it. I then got what I assume is an automated response instructing me how to enroll in online bill pay. Wrong! I then replied, asking if a human being read my original query. They then replied they were sorry they didn’t understand my question and to call them. Wrong again!

As WaMu is a large corporation, and I am a happy customer who tried to communicate with them, I am sharing this issue with the world. I am sure someone at their corporate headquarters has a Google Alert on the bank’s name and – hopefully – will read this. If so, awesome. If not, too bad for them. Unfortunately this is yet another example of a poor relationship model.

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If you are a regular visitor to The Hot Iron you may have noticed a lull in posts for about a week. This was due to the arrival of my daughter, Margo. She is doing great and her Mom, my lovely wife, is doing awesome. Dad isn’t doing too bad either. Over the past couple of weeks we have been getting used to each other, and introducing each other into each other’s lives. As an entrepreneur whose corporate headquarters is at home, this means working all of our activities into each other’s schedules as well.

Where I am not driving Margo towards the computer, she is frequently in the office in some capacity, whether sitting in her papasan or on my shoulder (as she is as I write this). When I sat down to write this post, she for some unknown reason gravitated towards the keyboard and made motions similar to typing! I now present her first blog post:

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As you can see, she has a little work to do on her sentence structure. This will be a continuous process, and once she is ready, look for guest posts from her on occasion.

As bringing a baby into the world is a great learning experience for anyone, I know already there will be some resonance with what I do in my business as an Internet consultant. Where I don’t plan on filling posts here with cutesy stories about my bundle of joy, there will surely be some influence from her on thoughts I have in the theme of The Hot Iron around business and technology.

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Announcements • Diversions • (7) Comments • Permalink

There’s nothing like opening your email and hearing excellent news. Harpoon Beer, a local microbrew from Boston, is now being sold in Chicago. As a “Friend of Harpoon” from my days of living in the Boston area, I was informed of this the other day. Rather than attaching a photo or video of my reaction to this news, I decided to post this photo of a pint of Harpoon IPA I took on a recent visit to the Bukowski Tavern in Boston’s Back Bay, one of my favorite stops when I return to the Hub.

To launch the arrival in the Windy City, Harpoon is having an event on Monday, August 11 at Sheffield's Beer and Wine Garden in Chicago. Read more information on the event and pre-register. I’ll be there, and I know it will be a wicked pissa!

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A large part of usability is the ease for how anything – from a Web site to a coffee maker and beyond – can be, well, used. Familiarity can have a significant impact on usability. If someone used something elsewhere that looks familiar in something else, they may be able to use this new item here.

I have experienced this first hand when traveling abroad. A couple of years ago my lovely wife and I visited Denmark, and this was the first time I did a fair amount of driving outside of the US. Where I did not speak the language, I was able to get around on the roads as the international driving signs and symbols were familiar to me. Even if the Danish words were not familiar, the overall symbol’s shape and color were, and as a result I knew what to do, and did not get into an accident.

This came to mind recently on a trip to the Babies R Us store in Chicago. On the front entrance is a sign that reads “Entrance Only” however the words are inside of the international symbol for “do not enter” as shown in the accompanying photo The first time I went to the store, I paused for a moment as I got a mixed signal – the sign reads enter, but the symbol says not to. As many stores employ the green enter and red do not enter signs, my reaction was not unusual. Realizing this was the only way in, I proceeded to enter. Looking back as I did, I was not the only person to proceed with caution upon approaching this door.

Where I don’t design retail stores, I design Web sites. The adherence to consistency and commonly accepted standards is vital to the success of a Web site. If a Web visitor doesn’t know they should click on something, they won’t. Hopefully this is not referring to a “buy” button on a Web page. The above-mentioned sign may not have turned someone completely away from shopping at Babies R Us, but that was probably due more to the fact they drove to the store and eventually figured they could enter. With a Web site, you may not have that luxury of someone being that persistent, and they will seek a Web site that is more familiar to them.

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Business • Technology • (8) Comments • Permalink

While sitting in traffic on the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago, this billboard for Bud Light was staring at me for about 5 minutes, as shown in the photo below:

The photo shows 2 icy bottles of Bud Light with the large caption, “Superior Drinkability.” As I stared back at the billboard, I questioned to myself, “doesn’t that mean simply that you can drink it?”

Being someone who has consumed a few beers in my lifetime, the fact that I could drink the beer before me never came to mind. I was more concerned with the taste. Several hours later when I got home I looked up the word drinkability at Merriam Webster’s and was given a definition of “suitable or safe for drinking.”

Suitable? Safe? Or more importantly, what is Budweiser’s intent with this message? Are they taking their product to the lowest common denominator and saying that it can be consumed, or are the being strategic and appealing to something that – as you can read above – is beyond me?

Excuse me if I am missing the point, and if you get it, I would appreciate your insight. If it were me, I would think there were more merits to my product.

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Business • (4) Comments • Permalink