A Tax On My Time

A Tax on my time – Poor Website Design

OK, what are you talking about?

A work colleague in the US would often say “That’s a tax on my time” when something took longer than it should or inconvenienced him.

I used to just laugh until I really thought about it. Tax is one of those things we all pay. It’s transactional and pervades our lives everywhere. When every we get our wallets out, tax soon follows.

But are there other “taxes” we don’t notice that we pay? Like poor website design?

Why is good design so important?

Have you ever noticed the simplicity of some brands? Apple, a case in point. Their website is clarity delivered.

3 clicks to buy a Mac. Select a few more options, enter your credit card and you’re done. From the crystal clarity of images through to the workflow of the buying process, the consumer buying experience is easy and fast. No additional time needed or wasted trying to work out what to buy and the tax on your time, to buy your new Apple product was minimised.

We didn’t create Apple’s Website, but the clarity of the company’s message is crystal clear, reducing the time it takes for you to make a buying decision.

The other day I was doing some landscaping and my guy with the bobcat ran out of river stones. I sent him to the normal place after calling them to confirm they had more in stock.

He arrived then called me and said they were out of stock.

I hurriedly found the other supplier close by on my mobile. They have multiple branches. Could I easily find the local branch? Ah no!

After scrolling through about 10 pages of stuff I found a 1300 number. I called that and they told me the number of the local depot.

I rang them and yes, they had the river stones I needed. My bobcat man was sent there. He then rang and said I had to pay them prior to them loading the truck. So, I rang them and said could I pay? Ah, no, not without an account.

OK, got in the car and went to the depot to pay.

This added 1 hour extra to the job and $130 of extra cost to me.

This is an example of:

• The first supplier not understanding my simple needs
• The second supplier’s website not allowing locational information to find the closest site
• No capability to pay online
• Centralised phone answering for no purpose
• Not taking phone payments
• Mobile website not optimised for location and calling or directions

Am I just a whinger?

No, this is common problem for many businesses who confuse what a mobile website needs to do. Mobile websites need to display information differently and often are used by consumers for different reasons, often needing immediate information.

Importantly, business’ processes should match and be streamlined to make it easy for customers to do business. Only that I needed the river stones, I would have shopped elsewhere.

The river stones look good, but I just wished that it cost $130 less and that than an hour of my time was wasted on poor communication, poor website design and poor business process.

At R6 Digital we work hard to help your business thrive and with more than 20 years’ experience, we will work to ensure that we can help you minimise the tax on your customers time by getting your website, image and marketing right.

We all pay too much tax, let alone the time we waste on poor website design.

Contact us today to talk to a specialist, who won’t tax your time.