Check your OWN web site frequently

"O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us ." Robert Burns knew more about websites than you might think, even though he was writing about a louse on the bonnet of a lady in church.

When it comes to our own site, we can see ourselves as others see us. But so busy are we in the back end of our websites, grooming content, combing for data like CSI technicians at a crime scene in the rain, or pouring over our "competitors'" web sites, that we fail to look at our own home page.

At least that's probably what Kintera is up to. Note this notice from their client signon page:

KINTERA NEW DATA CENTER UPDATE: The outage window which was scheduled from 9:00 pm PT August 18, 2007 until 4:00 am PT on August 19, 2007, will not occur as planned on August 18, 2007. If you have any questions, please e-mail.

Now, it must have been a little disappointing to put up that message. But now it's August 26 and it's still up there! Why keep reminding your best clients that you didn't deliver on a previous promise?

Rick...

even worse email, and a web site too

I spoke too soon when I pronounced the Verizon email as the worst email of the month. Here it is two days later and we have something worse!

In perusing the DMA Nonprofit Federation Conference website, I was pleased to see a feature that allows me to pick sessions that I want to attend, and have them loaded into my Palm Pilot. It uses a program called Infuzer. I wasn't happy that I had to register, and the installation was a bit clumsy, but it worked. Then I got a welcome email from infuzer. Here's some of it:

Why not take a look at some of the premium services we offer which provide you with continuously updated information direct to your calendar. Current services include:

* 5-day rolling weather forecast for the city(s) of your choice
* 2005 Major League Baseball Team Schedules

with many additional services coming soon. See http://www.infuzer.com/IDC/features/premium_services.jsp for further details.

Excuse me, the 2005 MLB schedule? I just had to click on the web site and see if it was a typo. So here's what the site says:

We regret to announce that the MLB Premium services will not be available for the 2006 season.

Darn, I was hoping to go back to the future here...

worst customer service email of the month

We thought we were getting really digital (not to mention green) when we signed up to receive our company phone bills online. We also pay them online.

Signing up at Verizon wasn't easy, but once we did, we got this less-than-helpful email announcing our newest statement:

Dear Verizon Customer:

Your latest Verizon telephone bill is available for viewing on Verizon.com. This bill is dated July 13,2007 and is for the billing telephone number: ******3640.

Please visit Verizon.com at your convenience to view and pay your bill.

Thank You for using Verizon.com.

Could they maybe have added a link to their real login page, maybe? Would it have cost them more?

Maybe you would benefit from a regular review of the administrative automatic emails your organization sends out.