ranting ...::|:|: 22/06/2004 10:36PM
I cannot overstate the view I hold that there are far more important items on any web site worthy of attention than lack of 'personalization', regardless of how a business defines that.
The fact that the there are sites out there with front pages that weigh in excess of 400k is so ludicrous as to be unimaginable and yet there they are. Plain as day like nobody cared. Would we put 8 times as many stamps on an envelope or hire 8 times as many call agents? And yet, we insist people endure 8 times the weight of the industry standard web page.
There are many other things like this, each one by itself tolerably small, but cumulatively they add up to a lousy experience on many sites. Customer loyalty is won by being responsive and unobtrusive - this is as true in the web world as it is in the brick and mortar world. Further, I would ask what is it that is driving this quesat for a "silver bullet" approach rather than sticking to fundamentals? All of the lessons we have learned so dearly in the real world - stick to fundamentals, customer is always right, walk before you run - seem to evaporate when we apply our thinking to the virtual world.
This notion the that it is better to outsource than grow competency is what has resulted in us being at this nexus and some of us fear is that the not enough weight is given to the opinions of those people whose job it is to know and whose only agenda is to do the best job possible.