I attended a teleconference this past week during which I learned some interesting things. I wanted to follow up with a quick phone call to the presenter. My experience in that endeavor reveals the easiest way to avoid customers. You may be doing the same thing and not even realize it. Here is my story:

I googled the company name. The result was nothing but confusing. The only references to that company were on secondary websites (e.g., Facebook and LinkedIn). There was no reference to “that company.com.”

The company’s Facebook page had no contact information. It didn’t have anything else either, for that matter. Another secondary site had a link to “that company.com”and it redirected me to “another company.com.” Apparently the company name has been changed recently. When I finally arrive there, I can tell that I have found the right website, but I am many minutes in at this point. How many people would have quit by now? 

The website has no “Contact Us” option. It has no contact information at the bottom of any of the pages I visit. When I click on the “Hire Us” link, I am faced with a form to fill out. It has lots of boxes. I don’t stick around long enough to see what the form requires. Come to think of it, I never scrolled down to see if there was contact information below the form. I was long gone and on to other things. I didn’t want to even think about the hoops I might have to jump through had I found a phone number.

Now I have no idea if a successful contact at this point might have led to me hiring this company. What I know for certain is that this company couldn’t have done much more to avoid my call.