Hook, Line and Thinker
Issue 19
Working hard or...
If your website were an employee, what kind of performance review would it get? Is it representing your company in a positive and productive way? Or is it shuffling papers, looking busy but accomplishing little or nothing? Companies plow thousands of dollars into websites and yet tolerate poor performance that would get any other worker the axe.
But a website, if properly managed, can be a valuable, contributing team member. And you can apply the same standards you would to any other worker.
You site should:
- Be productive. It's one thing to look busy, it's another thing
to contribute to the bottom line. We've all known employees who
were good at looking busy and creating a lot of stir that looks
like action. But it's the hard-working team members who, no matter
how quietly, consistently complete the tasks that are most beneficial
to the company.
- Have a clear job description. You can't really know if your
site is a productive worker if you don't know what it's supposed
to be doing. If you have clear objectives then you will have
some basis on which to judge performance.
- Consume resources in proportion to its benefit to the
company.
If your site is productive and hard-working - bringing in new
business leads, supporting to customers, aiding communication
- then plowing more company resources into maintaining and upgrading
makes sense. But if it's costing
you more to keep it going than you're getting in return or if it's taking
up space that would be better used by a go-getter, it's time
to make a change.
- Be held accountable to management for performance. Again, this goes back to having clear objectives - standards by which to judge performance. Like any other employee, your site should have periodic performance reviews so you can make informed decisions about its future.
Like an employee, sites vary a lot in their performance. Sometimes it's worth investing in a low-performing employee because they only need additional skills to achieve their potential. Some employees are less amenable to improvement and should be replaced. In either case, it's hard to know if you don't take a good, hard look.
© 2009, TroutDream Graphics, Inc. · jody@troutdream.com