A relatively new friend of mine, a smart guy named David, whom I met through Sigma Chi fraternity connections, recently asked me what I thought of human hosted sites, such as http://www.burdford.com, http://www.phaneuf.net/ and http://www.csnh.com/.
My initial reaction was to say that I think that the human host functionality is kind of cool the first time you visit the site that has it, but after that it gets kind of annoying. David’s reply was that “for a [site] a user would visit routinely, perhaps the human host would be frustrating as it would get in the way of a frequent user. I could also [imagine] it being annoying to a skilled web browser that just wants to find their own way to the information they are seeking. But, for the new customer (you know the ones with money to spend and we are all working to attract), a well presented, informative approach by a human host can be an extremely effective way to deliver the message by ensuring the correct tone and completeness of the information presented. For the frequent user, an easy "opt out" button would minimize frustration.”
After more reflection, I think that my answer was influenced because most of my career in the technology field has been involved in business-to-business solutions. However, for more “one-off” transactional Web sites that are consumer-oriented, then the human host solution may very well be a good fit, because it takes some of the benefits of video and personalizes the presentation. However, at the time I replied to David that I would give the visitor the choice of whether they would want the “human host” to run and present the product/service. Then, I would be more inclined to leverage a Website design that incorporates “live-chat” instant messaging with an option to opt out of the live chat and go to a call back by the firm to the visitor who was interested in talking to someone at that point. I understand that not everyone can staff live chat all the time, but the “human host” option can “fill-in” in the interim.
David offered this interesting observation – “I continue to be blown away by the number of people that are starved for attention/human interaction/entertainment (i.e.: lots of lonely people)....somewhere in there is an opportunity….” David is right. We are all just people looking to make meaningful connections with other people. That’s why Facebook and other social media offerings have taken off in such a big way.
That begs the question, if we were created to be social creatures and make connections with others, then how can we each do it personally with our co-workers? Our customers? And, how can we make a better connection through a solid Web site design strategy?
Thanks to David for the dialogue. I appreciate his thoughts and for those of you reading I’d appreciate your thoughts and insights around making better connections both online and off.