Contact Details

My fellow CodeSniper, Duane Gran, posted his thoughts on sites that don't show contact details, and companies who don't want to answer the phone. I couldn't agree more, I try to include email addresses and telephone numbers prominently on our web pages and in emails I send. I also don't think he's the only one who only calls as a last resort. Usually the people who pick up the phone have already been through our website and have a few extra questions, or quite openly just want to make sure we really exist. An automated call handling system to fob off callers by telling them to check our website wouldn't be a major benefit to us or our customers. If you can't find what you want to know on our sites, I hope you do call, we'll be happy to hear from you.

I'm planning to continue that policy through our next round of web site updates, and following Michael Pollock's lead, I'm thinking of adding Skype contact details.

Also from Duane today is On writing good (er, well), which links to a great guide to writing. One of the things I hope to get from blogging is an improved writing style, so that's probably exactly the kind of thing I need to read. I saved the link for study later, and look forward to finding out exactly how many of the rules I've broken in this post, or in my CodeSnipers article. If you're not already familiar with Duane's blog, it's well worth checking out. I hadn't seen it before the CodeSnipers adventure started, but it's already a likely addition to "Blogs I Read" next time I get around to updating it.

Finally, I'm sorry there hasn't been much to read here this week, but with the lack of sleep and the CodeSnipers launch I've been all over the place. Hopefully I'll be back on track next week and there'll be a bit more variety.