The Gift of Information

Retailers: Your Missing Employee

2008-12-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

Many retailers of all sizes are not taking advantage of an "employee" that will work for almost no wages, and help keep their customers satisfied.

This employee will work for you when nobody is around. It will give you a presence in your local community. It will provide a sense of continuity when your business is closed.

You can buy this employee for just a one-time cost of a few dollars.

I cannot understand why businesses do not all hire this employee. By not having this employee, you anger your customers. Also by not using this employee correctly, you really anger your customers.

The employee is NOT a web page. For many small retailers, a web page might not be a good investment.

This employee is a telephone answering machine. Not so high tech, and been around for years. Yet woefully ignored.

Let me present some examples that hit me today.

No Information, No Answering Machine

We bought a really nice carpet at a local retailer. In addition, we borrowed a sample of the carpet so we could match it to fabrics. I wanted to return the sample. The REALLY simple question is "is the store open at 10:00 AM." I did not want to look at their website, so I called on the telephone.

Now this is a big company with several large branches in my town. Ring, ring, ring, and finally to provide the customer some punishment, the high-pitched whine of a FAX machine came on the line.

It would have been much more customer friendly if the store had an answering machine that, among other information, provided the hours of the store's operation. I had to go out (driving in the snow, which I dislike) anyway because another company had an answering machine with incorrect information (see below), so I stopped off there to drop off the carpet sample. They were closed...boy was I unhappy, as I told to the manager that I spoke with when the store finally opened.

I think that if I could have found the same carpet elsewhere, I would have returned it, costing the store a $1300 sale.

Nice Answering Machine, Wrong Information

The local Scandinavian furniture company sells Christmas trees. I called their line before the store opened to see if they had any trees left. The answering machine answered. The message: "Your store has plenty of Christmas trees."

(I wanted to get there before the store opened so that I did not have to wait on line with all the folks buying furniture.)

I went over (driving in the driving snow) and lo and behold, the Christmas tree corral was empty. (Then I drove to the carpet store.)

I called the Scandinavian furniture company when they opened and mentioned that the message was wrong. I got some kind of nonsense that they only knew their stock levels when the store had closed for the day...of course the Christmas tree message was a special message (they don't list the stock levels of all their merchandise on the telephone), and anyone looking out at the tree corral could see that it was empty, and that the message should have been changed.

If it were acceptable to provide wrong information then the message should have said something like: "We're still selling trees. If you want to know whether or not we have any, then drive by and see."

There Was a Third Example

A local store had a piece of furniture that my wife spotted as being a good fit in our living room. I was to see if it was what I wanted (Art Deco style living room).

Their answering machine told me that if they heard the message, that I was to leave my number and they would call me back. I don't want them to call me back. I only wanted to know what time they opened. The answering machine did provide a bit of an ad for the store, but that was of no interest to me. The information that I wanted was missing.

Lessons

1. Every retailer should have an answering machine. If you think one would provoke crank calls, then you are pretty paranoid.

2. The answering machine should provide some basic information:

A Simple Greeting
Name of the Store
Store Hours
Store location (not only "123 First Ave," but also, "Near the intersection of First Avenue and Jones Road.")
Any Special Sale or other Information
Leave a Message and We'll get back to you
Check out our website at www.whatever

3. Work the machine properly.

Make sure that at closing time, the information on the machine is correct. Turn the answering machine on.
Turn off the answering machine when the store is open. Get the messages left by customers, and respond to them.

Finally

Don't let your store look like it is out of business every evening when it closes. Provide information that your customers need to do business with you by using an answering machine.

(I also recommend buying an answering machine, rather than using a service of your telephone provider, which may entail a monthly fee.)

FREE course on creating great User Documents

2008-02-14T05:12:00.000-08:00

I have made my course on creating great User Documents as a free, no-strings-attached download. The course guides the student through the creation of an effective User Document.

You can learn about it here:

http://www.greatuserdocs.com/DownloadCourse.htm

Please pass this information on to your friends and loved-ones who are assigned to write User Documentation.

New Cellphones Should Do the Phone Stuff

2007-12-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

This is driving me nuts. Cellphone makers are thinking of more and more things to put into their phones: cameras, mp3 players, etc. Why don't they make their phones do what phones should be doing. Here are three...they might make phone use better for all of us.

1. Visual Voice Menus. When the user dials into a system that uses voice menus ("press 1 for this, press 2 for that") the voice menu system should provide a text display of the menu items. The user will not have to wait for the voice to present all of the options. He/she will be able to see the page of the voice menu options, and press the desired button...or touch the item for a touch-sensitive screen.
Yes, this requires changes on the voice menu system but it sure would make life easier for all of us.

2. Pass on a phone number. Years ago my son was on a cellphone call to another friend. My son asked for a third friend's phone number. My son had to write down the number and re-dial it. Why can't one phone user send a phone number to another via the phone? The sender could have it sent from his/her contact list or type it in. The receiver could use that number to dial his/her phone, or put the number in his/her contact list.

3. I'm in the car, and I don't want to answer. The option to easily enter "I cannot answer" messages. These might be: "I'm in the car, and I don't want to answer....call me in 10 minutes" "I'm in a meeting".
Also the user should be able to program his/her phone to accept calls at any time from certain numbers (the phone would vibrate); non-designated numbers would get an "I'm not available" message.

Tell Us What It Means

2007-12-05T12:42:00.001-08:00

Recently I received a notice from the City telling me that a building was going to be built that violated some of the current building codes. The owners of the building-to-be wanted three variances.

The City was asking me and other residents that might be affected to comment on the requested variances.

The variances were:
1. Change of floor loading
2. No loading dock for the retail stores
3. Narrowing of the entrance to the parking lot.

The City wanted the residents to analyze the requests, and voice their opinions at a meeting.

The only problem is that the City did not even give us a hint of what these three variances meant to us. We were left to guess, or to contact the City for clarification.

Had the City estimated what effects these variances might have on the residents, confusion and cost (for calling the City and having its staff respond) would have been reduced.

(By the way, if a resident waited until the meeting to learn the impact of the variance, it would have been too late to object...submissions had to be made about five days before the meeting.)

You may argue that the City would be going out on a legal limb telling us how the variances would impact the residents. Nonsense...if asked, the City would have to give an answer (which would be official) anyway.

When your organization publishes any information, make sure that the receivers of that information can understand what the information means to them. Not doing so adds to the confusion, cost, and negative feelings.

Technorati

2007-09-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

Technorati Profile

A Tough Programming Question

2007-09-12T07:52:00.000-07:00

I have a fairly tough (and sarcastic) programming question. It's in two parts.

Part 1: How Long to Program This?

I have a 30 character ASCII (single byte characters) field. This field will have numbers and other characters, usually spaces or dashes. I want to remove any non-numeric characters (characters other than 0 through 9) and left-justify the result.

For example, if the input field is: 1234 523-67890 335
The result should be: 123452367890335

What is your estimate for an average programmer meeting this programming requirement in any one of the following languages:
PERL, C, C++, JAVA, JAVASCRIPT, Micosoft's ACCESS (database programming language)?

My guess is at most about 1/2 to 1 hour.

Part 2: The Dangerous Question

Given your answer to the above question, WHY don't Web forms which ask for input such as a credit card number permit spaces and dashes?

After all, it's easier for a human to check his/her input if it is of the form:
1234 523 67890 335

Than the usually-required:
123452367890335.

Perhaps it's security or execution time...

How to Help the World

Designers: When you design number input fields on a form, make these fields look and work the same way that the User deals with these numbers in real life.

Programmers: If you are asked to program number input fields so that they only permit digits (with no separators), suggest to the designers the more User-oriented way to accept these fields. Permit User entry of the fields the same way that the User deals with them in real life. In most cases, to permit the User-oriented entry format(s) requires only the code described in Part 1, above.

Write Correct User Documents

2007-08-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

Overview
Any instructions for a human may be thought of as being User Documentation. Make sure that your User Documentation is correct. Correct User Documentation matches the way that the product works.

A Website Example
In this example we will call the instructions on the invoice the "User Document". The "product" is the website itself.

I subscribe to a gardening magazine. I recently received an invoice that enabled me to pay on-line. It said to go their web address, and then follow the '"Subscriptions" link' (these are the exact words on the paper invoice.

However, when I went to the website, I only found a "Subscribe Now" link. This name has a very different meaning than "Subscriptions."

"Subscriptions" means: deal with your subscription, and possibly create a new one.
"Subscribe Now" means: you don't have a subscription, create one now.

The correct instructions on the printed form should have been:

Visit www.thesite.ca
Choose the "Subscribe Now" link
On the page that opens choose the "Make a payment" option, at the left of the page

etc...

Bottom Line

Go over the steps that you present to the User to ensure that they are correct; they match the way that the product works. Don't force your User to figure out what your instructions mean.

Use Your Telephone Call Distributor to Save You Money

2007-06-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

Background: Calling for Assistance

My credit card is to be renewed this month. A call to the credit card company last week, indicated that I would receive it on Monday of this week.

Today is Wednesday, and since the card didn't arrive, I called the company.

I went through all of the call distributor (router) options (guessing one that would connect to a human). I was put on hold waiting for the next customer agent. And on hold...hold...

(They were experienced heavier-than-usual call volume...no wonder, since all of the June card expiry customers had not received their new cards by the end of June.)

A while later, my call was answered, and the operator told me that the cards for June renewal were late in mailing. I wasted both my time and their operator's time to get a (standard, but acceptable) answer.

A Bulletin Would Short-Circuit This Process

The credit card company already had the call distributor system working. It is capable of presenting messages to a caller on hold.

All that is needed is to be able to present a message as soon as a caller dials in to the system. This message could answer the acute, current problem.

Some examples:

"June credit cards are late. They were mailed out on June xx ."
"We are aware of the power failure in the Acme surrounding area. We are working on the problem, and expect it to be fixed by..."

These bulletins should be kept current, and should be presented at the beginning of the answer to the call. It should not require a caller response to hear the message.

The bulletins should NOT be used for advertising...their use should be limited to handling acute situations. If there is no relevant acute situation, then do not present a bulletin.

Benefits to All

By providing this information you both reduce your costs (of having a human respond to the call...with the same information each time), and your callers' frustration (in having to wait for the human to answer the call).

Once again, giving the "Gift of Information" creates a win-win situation all around.

Today is Never

2007-06-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

My favorite sport is sailing...not boat sailing, but garage sale-ing. It's my preferred way to shop.

People will sometimes post low-information signs advertising their sales. Here's one example:

Garage Sale Today
9AM to 2 PM
1234 Acme Ave.
Rain or Shine

The word "today" is the problem. I don't know what day the author means. Was this sign put up today, yesterday or last week?

The result of the ambiguity is that nobody will be attracted by the sign. (Would you travel to Acme Ave, not knowing the date of the sale?)

Leaving out the date rendered the sign useless. It left a question in the reader's mind.

Whenever you write, read over your stuff and make sure that your words do not leave questions in your readers' minds.

We Don't Even Give Ourselves the Gift of Information

2007-06-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

Background

Although Users cry out for good User Documentation, the Users often overlook the need to write their own documentation for the processes that they perform infrequently. Instead, each time that they have to perform the process, they have to re-learn (re-figure out) the steps involved.

My Invoice System

This is a personal story. I am a one-person consulting company. To keep track of my billing and to issue invoices I wrote my own invoice system, using a package named dBaseIV (this was many years ago). I used the program for about 20 years.

Every year, I had to set the system to number the invoices for the new year. For example, "2001001" for the first invoice for the year 2001. So this is a once per year situation. I am the creator and only user of the system, and have all of the source code and whatever. I thought I would remember how to do this from one year to the next. (Do you think that way?)

Each new year, I would go out of my mind trying to re-figure out how to set the invoice counter. I even had a menu option for that task, but it took some smarts to make it work. It was very stressful.

Finally, I wised up. I wrote the instructions for doing this in a simple text file. I named it something like "NewYearSetup.txt" and put it in the same directory (folder) as my data files. Problem solved.

Getting Smarter

I wised up even further. When I created my User Documentation Course, I had almost 100 Microsoft Word (tm) files that I had to convert to HTML and adjust all the links. If I modified any source files, I would have to perform the same conversion on the revised files. I wrote (and revised) a complete step-by-step set of instructions for this. It works beautifully.

For a Process I Hope Never to Use

I even created instructions for a procedure that I hope I never need to use. I have a Sony Clie (based on the Palm operating system) Personal Data Assistant that keeps all my passwords. The password program I use is called STRIP, and it has no way to print passwords or work outside the Palm environment. However there is a Palm desktop simulator that can run STRIP. I wrote VERY complete instructions about how to use STRIP and the desktop simulator to view my passwords if the Clie were lost.

Give Yourself the "Gift of Information"

Whenever you run into something that you have to perform infrequently, consider creating careful step-by-step instructions for performing the procedure. Modify the instructions as you learn more about your procedure...make is so the instructions can be followed easily with a minimal number of decisions to make.

What's Does "Minimal Number of Decisions" Mean?

Part of the conversion of my Course files (see above) involved using a text replacement tool (BK ReplaceEm) on the HTML files. BK ReplaceEm uses configuration files, and I had generated several for various tasks. After having to guess which configuration files to use for the Course conversions, I wrote the names of the proper ones into my how-to file. This revision eliminated a decision...it's now much nicer to perform the conversions.

The Bottom Line

We have processes that we perform infrequently. We think that we will remember the steps. However, in reality, each time we perform the processes, we have to re-learn the steps.

We give ourselves the "Gift of Information" if we write out those steps as accurately and completely as possible, and store them in a place where we can find them easily.

Give yourself the "Gift of Information" even if you think that you will always remember the steps...you won't.

Get Rid Of the Tachometer in Cars

2007-05-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Tachometer is Just a Gadget

Most automobiles have automatic transmission. Most people drive with their car in the 'D' position and let the automatic transmission do its magic. The tachometer (which measures Revolutions Per Minute -- RPM -- of the engine) provides little or no information to the driver. (This is often true even for manual transmission cars. Experienced drivers shift gears using the sound of the engine as a guide.)

So for most drivers, the tachometer is just a gadget.

Replace the Tachometer with a Valuable Information Source

People are interested in fuel economy. They will change (some of) their driving habits to save fuel, hence saving money and the environment.

A fuel consumption display would provide drivers with the information that they can use to improve their driving behavior. Such a display could present

instantaneous fuel consumption (miles per gallon or litres per 100 km)
total fuel used for a trip (especially for short trips)
indication of excessive waste (such as long idling periods).

Everyone Wins

Drivers get useful information to help them improve driving efficiency
Manufacturers get a neat gadget to replace the tachometer
The environment gets more aware drivers

For drivers of manual transmission cars, the tachometer could be the default display, with the fuel consumption display as an option.

For automatic transmission cars, the fuel consumption display could be the default, instead of the useless (for them) tachometer.

The goal is to provide, as the default, the most useful information for the user.

If You're in the Information Business, here's some summer reading

2007-05-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

The book is a non-fiction paperback titled In Harm's Way (ISBN 0-312-98337-9) by Doug Stanton. It's a World War II recounting of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35)

It's a riveting story with two valuable messages for information professionals:

How the misuse of information can lead to catastrophe.
Assumptions and mishandling of information led to the misery and death of about 300 US sailors.
How to use in-line definitions to explain terms that your reader might not know.
Rather than assume that your reader knows the meaning of your terminology, explain it.

Everyone who deals with information can benefit from these two lessons.

Please be careful with all information entrusted to you. How you use or misuse it can have far-reaching implications.

Bad News Can Make You Feel Better

2007-05-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of how receiving bad news can make you feel better than no news. This is the opposite of the old saying "no news is good news." This is an adaptation of the road sign example described by Gilbert (Gilbert, Thomas F. Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance. New York:McGraw-Hill, 1978. ISBN: 0-07-023217-2).

It's late at night and I am driving to Springfield. I come to an unmarked T in the road. I need to know which way to turn, but the directional information is missing. This is an Information Oversight. I am forced to guess at which way to turn. I have to make an assumption as to which direction was correct. I turn right.

As I drive along, my discomfort increases. I could be driving further and further away from my goal. This is not nice, and I am a bit unhappy with the people who are responsible for marking the roads. (Notice that the unhappiness is directed toward the enterprise that was responsible for road signs...they permitted the Information Oversight to exist. Placement of blame is pretty accurate.)

After 10 minutes of driving, I see a sign saying "Shelbyville 10 miles." I had taken the wrong turn. So, unhappily I turn back to head toward Springfield. (This is the bad news.)

I may be unhappy, or angry, but one gnawing emotion is gone: the anxiety. I was anxious because I did not know if I was going toward or away from my goal. The sign gave me the bad news, but removed that anxiety. Thus the bad news, in some way, had made me feel better.

We had an Information Oversight (the missing sign) at the T junction. That started the situation, and it should have been avoided in the first place. The interesting point is that the information that told me I was going in the wrong direction was not only beneficial (I turned around and went the other way), but reduced my uncertainty and anxiety.

Eliminating Information Oversights is a major component of giving the "Gift of Information." Everyone wins when we give the Gift of Information.

Your Information Oversights Will Cost You

2007-05-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

In simplest terms, an Information Oversight (which we shall abbreviate IO) occurs when an enterprise (that's any information publisher -- it may be a business, government, some other type of organization, or an individual person) fails to produce -- or produces unclear -- information that its audience needs.

The audience or receiver is a person or group who must use (or want) the information provided by an enterprise.

IO's most frequently arise when the enterprise fails to produce the needed information. Let me present some of my favorite recent examples. Please pay special note to the reaction of the people in this situation, and what your reaction would be if you were in the situation. (Your reaction may or may not be typical, and in fact there may be no single "typical" reaction.)

Pool Closed

Recently at a fitness center the doors to the swimming pool were locked. There were quite a few people milling around waiting to get into the pool. They were angry because the pool was closed, and because of the uncertainty of knowing when the pool would re-open.

Had the pool manager merely posted a handwritten sign saying something like:

Pool Closed for Water Testing

Will Re-Open at 8:15PM

The waiting bathers could plan to wait in more comfortable surroundings, decide to wait outside the door, or choose not to swim at all.

The information conveyed by the sign would have resolved the bathers' uncertainty and made them happier. (Not happy, but happier.) In fact one person remarked that he felt sorry for the fitness center because they had gotten so many people so angry.

The pool manager, in not providing information needed by his audience, committed an Information Oversight.

The Bank Statement

The bank where I have my business account sends me a monthly statement. This month, the statement showed a Debit Memo (money removed from my account) for the tune of about $1,600, taken by the taxation branch of the government. This clearly must be an error, as I do not remember authorizing any such deduction.

Question: What is the first thing that you would do, after searching your documents and memory to verify that you had not given permission for this access?

I bet it would be to call the bank. That was my first reaction. The bank statement, printed by the computer, indicated the name of my branch.

BUT, they left out one small piece of information: the phone number of the branch. I needed that for the next step…to contact them. I was forced to look the number up in a telephone directory, or search my records or Palm Pilot. (There was no e-mail address or website address either.)

This is an example of a tiny Information Oversight. Having printed the phone number along with the branch name would have saved me some work, in a stressful (why did they take that money?) situation. This IO made me less happy with the bank than I could have been.

Please don't take the bank's side on this. If you feel that they purposely do not print the number in order to reduce unnecessary calls, then you are thinking like the organization, and not like a customer. The customer wants the bank's services to be easy, and by leaving out the number, the bank made its services harder to access.

Leaving the phone number off the bank statement is an Information Oversight.

By the way, someone had made an error; the bank removed the debit.

Information Oversights are not usually major things. Just lots of little things which, like the so-called Chinese water torture, makes life less than joyful.

An Internal Document Yields a Different Kind of Information Oversight

An e-mail was sent to all those managing websites. This mail announced that there is to be a change to the web development infrastructure. In simple terms it means that some name changes which refer to your web pages will change on such a date….

The e-mail contained a small list of Frequently Asked Questions. Here is a goody:

4. Question: Will I need to change any of my content?

Answer: Prior to migration, the content will be scanned for any references to (the current address) as well as any URLs containing ~ (tildes). This will be changed to (new name) and any tildes will be removed.

I replaced the actual names in the above response. Before we continue this discussion, please note that the question was stated as "Will I need…"

The response came in the unclear passive voice. (That's why your teachers never liked the passive voice.) It is not apparent who will edit your web content.

This is an example of an Information Oversight of a second kind. (The first kind arose when information was not made available.) In this second type of IO, the author muddied the answer. The statement was not 100% clear, and yet it could have been. For no more cost! Here are two possible changes:

"Prior to migration, we at the corporate migration center will scan the content for any references to…"

But that is still not clear enough. The "user" asked the question "Will I need to change…". The answer to prevent any IO should have been:

"No, you will not have to change anything. Prior to migration, we at the corporate migration center will scan the content for any references to…"

Oh wait, there is more in this internal memo. Let's discuss it further.

The last item in the list of questions asks whom to contact if I have problems. The answer gives two names, but no telephone numbers. I get the feeling that they have the same writers as my bank.

Wait there's more. The word ASSUME (everyone should hiss and boo) rears its ugly head. The document ASSUMES that all will go well. It ASSUMEs that you will test the site, rather than recommending a next step:

Next Step:

You should test all aspects of your site after the changeover (date).
If you have problems, contact…

"Oho," you say, "don't pick on a little techie whose favorite language is only understood by a few select individuals and perhaps a computer.

And From a Professional...

So, here is one from a professional writer. The Ottawa Citizen "Going Out" section (L) December 16, 2000, and a nice one.

There is a subsection called "Sunday best The top things to see and do." It's about events happening on Sunday, but presented in Saturday's paper. The following sentence appeared in a description of a Magic Show:

"The family show with four magic acts is today at 2, 5, and 8 p.m., and tomorrow, at noon, 3 and 6 p.m."

This appeared in the Sunday subsection in the Saturday edition of the "Going Out" section of the paper.

QUICK, with no assumptions what days were the shows? Saturday and Sunday, or Sunday and Monday? Yes, your assumptions will fill in the blanks. And if your assumption is wrong, you can lose big.

Here is a simple rewrite of the IO sentence.

"The family show with four magic acts is Saturday at 2, 5, and 8 p.m., and Sunday, at noon, 3 and 6 p.m."

The argument that this wording does not look as good as the previous one, is unreasonable. Informative writing should first be clear, then it can be made to look good. But not polished at the expense of clarity.

Back to Our Discussion

Ah, a bit of writing can spawn a career.

Actually a lot of the meat to feed this career came about with the need to purchase a new VCR. From the merchant's and the manufacturer's websites, to product manuals, to the ergonomics of the machine itself, the experience contains a lifetime of Information Oversights. And a beautiful product loses some of its sparkle in the process.

Notice that I make an assumption here. I am not going to concern us with the idea of providing incorrect information. I shall assume that your enterprise will produce information with the validity it should have (I choose to be ambiguous here).

However, one thing is possible. Although we cannot know what skeletons in an enterprise's closet do not see the light of day, we do know that many folks are concerned with uncovering the truth as it affects them. There is a chance that the skeleton might be illuminated sometime in the future. So watch it!

There are other kinds of information mistakes that we could put under the Information Oversight umbrella. Here are a few:

Timing. Providing information at the wrong time.
Overload. Providing too much information, not optimized for access (which includes navigation). I wonder how much the time spent on a website is reduced if a flashing banner is placed on the page. The information overload (distraction) of the banner overshadows the content.
Audience. This, in fact is one of my favorites. Of course it got me, that's how I know about it. The "audience error" lies in not finding out or knowing who your audience is. This error is manifest in most, if not every, government web site.

Know Your Audience

I can think of (at least) two types of people (let's call them "roles" that a person takes on) who visit a government website:

People who need or want to find out something about the government. My example here is the student writing a school paper on the history of the Patent Office.
People who have to do something with the government or want a service from the government. My example is the person who wants to patent her newest invention.

When either of these roles approach the government website, and search on "patent" they get the same mass of links. Try it and see. The person who wants to patent her invention is forced to weed through all this stuff to find the "how to" stuff.

Aha! We have accepted a further assumption, which makes our government site even a bit more difficult to use. We assumed that the "how to" person knew the word was "patent." Even though the search produced gobs of useless information, we made an assumption that she knew where she should look. Silly us.

What the "how to" person probably wants to do is to protect her creation. She is an inventor, or writer, or whatever. She is not a patent or trademark lawyer. Thus she knows what she wants to do with her creation (protect it) but doesn't know the jargon.

Please don't say, "the inventor should get a lawyer." For if that is the attitude we take, then we needn't spend the money on the government websites. Their mandates are to inform and serve (without stepping on anyone's toes.)

While it is easy to slam the governments, we can all be satisfied in knowing that almost all Internet sellers' and product manufacturers' websites have the same failings. They don't seem to recognize the dual roles of the customer. I will discuss this further in a section on the Users of your Information.

Interestingly enough, many governments have websites with "employee portals." This is a web address which would be known to and used by employees. It provides quick access to information which employees need about their jobs with the government.

Now It's Your Turn

Take a minute or two (if you haven't already done so) to think of any kind of Information Oversight that was inflicted on you.

Recall what happened.
What piece of information was withheld?
How did you feel about the situation?
Did your feelings towards the "sender" of the (missing) information change?
And finally, would there have been any problem for the "sender" to have eliminated the Information Oversight?

Your feelings in the situation (or any range of feelings that you can imagine for that situation) are the feelings that people experience when they hit an Information Oversight of yours.

More than Errors!

But there is more to it than what I have been presenting. The underlying concept is that enterprises should always be trying to give the "Gift of Information." One of the gifts of information is clearing up Information Oversights. Other gifts go beyond the repair of blunders. These add product value, greater user skills and knowledge, smoother operations within your organization, and reduced stress.