Weekly Website Wednesday – Week #4

Accessibility

Welcome to my Weekly Website Wednesday post, this is post #4. This week I want to talk about accessibility … Not the accessibility of your kennel website, but the accessibility of you, the kennel owner.

Last year I had a guy contact me about building a kennel website for him, only he didn’t want this phone number, address or email displayed anywhere on the site … basically he wanted a website where nobody would be able to contact him, not even through a traditional contact form that hides your email address from all viewers. He claimed that he didn’t want to deal with any tire kickers or people wasting his time. What’s the point of having a website if not to help you sell dogs and how do you sell anything without talking to someone? You’re going to be your #1 salesman, don’t make customers jump through hoops to talk to you.

When you start limiting the ways potential customers can connect with you, you’re signaling to them that dealing with you could be difficult and less than accommodating. I see it all the time on Gundog Central, with ads that say – “I don’t answer emails”, “Please no text” or “Phone calls only after 5pm on the weekends”. They hide their phone numbers, hide their email, setting all these rules for contacting them, then wonder why they didn’t get a response to their ad.

I’ve visited numerous other websites on the internet that make no mention of who owns the site. What are these people trying to hide and why are they making it so difficult for people to contact them? Are we hiding from state regulators or the tax man? I personally don’t understand the aversion to sharing your contact information over the internet. I can understand not sharing your address over concerns someone might show up and steal one of your prized champion dogs, but your phone number? Give your customers a way to contact you!

I understand a lot of breeders don’t do this full time and have steady jobs where they can’t answer calls during the day but letting a call go to voicemail is probably better then setting a bunch of rules for your customers. Text, emails … neither one requires a response right away. Many customers are going to look at how accessible you as a gauge of how supportive you’ll be after the sell. Will you be there if they have problems?

This column is meant to serve as advice for anyone who has or wants to start their own kennel website. It’s ultimately up to you how available you make yourself and what information you share.