Doing business online with consultants - #3

This first section describes how peanut butter companies and consultancy firms differ regarding their websites’ functionality about general information: a company profile, contact data, and frequently asked questions (FAQs).  Remember that websites are not static; we did our research in the 2nd quarter of 2020.

The J.M. Smucker Company, the proud parent of the best-selling Jif peanut butter, is a prime example of how peanut butter brands are doing. Location information, company history, career information, investor information, a news page, and an extensive FAQ: it's all there. It goes as far as "Why does Jif Natural Peanut Butter Spread say "No need to stir" on the label?" and "Is this peanut butter safe for my dog?". Especially on these FAQs, a lot of company energy had been focused. Questions about dietary aspects, nutrition value, whether the peanut butter was kosher, how long customers could store the peanut butter: virtually every aspect of peanut butter was covered.

Then the consultancy firms. We looked at 18 brands and four countries. Not every brand had a website for each country, resulting in 51 websites (2,8 countries per brand). The consulting firms scored comparably to the peanut butter websites. Of the consultancy websites, 10% had simple contact information, and 90% had even specific contacts per service line. Then, 20% had a basic company profile (e.g., headquarter address, number of employees), while 78% also had expansive company profiles (e.g., a news center, careers, investor information). So far, so good.

Yet, FAQs are not a consultants' thing; it appears. You could imagine there is a lot for clients to ask about consultancy. Think of policies, training followed by consultants, how consultants get selected for a specific project, and how long it takes on average before a consultant can start to work And think about what happens in case of a dispute between client and consultant, whether there are different payment options, and to what extent the firm was certified for specific tasks.

Yet, only 2% of the consultancy websites had a dedicated FAQ section for (almost) all its services. Another 20% had FAQs for some services but not for others. The other 78% did not have an FAQ section at all.