Doing business online with consultants - #4

A peanut butter brand should present its products in all their glory! And so, they do. As the core product (the jar, or the box in case of peanut bars) is not that exciting to visualize, the peanut butter brands make up with appetizing sections on recipes, ranging from applying peanut butter in smoothies, in snacks to go, in barbeque kebabs, for breakfast, in ice creams, in cookies, to use in bread, for kid's meals, in pastries, in fondue, in non-alcoholic cocktails, in dressings, with burgers, in sauces & vinaigrettes, in salads, with noodles, in soup, with fruit, in milkshakes, with sushi, in all sorts of coffees, with meatballs, on crostini's or just mixed with cheese. You get it: is there anything peanut butter can't do?

Such a dizzying wealth of possibilities should not freak the consumer out. Easy to use filters and ingredient lists allows hungry peanut butter lovers to select their recipes, choose aspects like meal type, occasions (Valentine's Day, Halloween), dietary restrictions, difficulty, preparation time, or cook time. Everyone will find something they like, and success seems guaranteed. But not all that glitters is gold, you'd argue. Indeed, it doesn't, so the peanut butter brands pre-emptively inform their website visitors about ingredients, nutrition information, sugar alternatives, and allergies. And allow unfiltered customer reviews.

Consultancy firms usually have many more services than peanut butter brands have products. Hence, we looked for a style and structure to present essential information that was repeated across service lines. Roughly two-thirds of the websites had such a repeated format with clear descriptions, contact information, and client examples. One-third didn't.

While peanut butter lovers can filter recipes to their liking, consultancy firms did not offer anything interactive to help clients to personalize their experience. No filters to link business issues to practices, for example. If a client isn't familiar with the consultancy practice's nomenclature, she's stuck. While peanut butter brands also discuss the less glamorous aspects of their product (dietary elements, sugar, trans fat), consultants only show the positive side of their client work. Roughly two-thirds of the consultancy websites had scripted client reviews ('client and partner shaking hands'-style); one-third had no reviews at all. Half of the websites had the most 'recent' review that was older than six months.