Giving your website teeth

I saw a disturbing thing on a plane last week. Ok, maybe not disturbing, but definitely disconcerting.

You've heard iPerceptions preach about giving websites teeth and setting them up as vehicles of accountability where user/customers can leverage the power of the iPSI to perform their own personal brand audits.

On my flight, there was an elderly woman who was having trouble seeing the video screens situated along the ceiling of the cabin. Unfortunately, this plane didn't have personal in-flight entertainment systems. So this woman, who was stuck with a terrible viewing angle, had to crane her neck to get a remotely acceptable look at the screen.

She tired of this pretty quickly. Then she informed one of the flight attendants that this was ridiculous and asked if he could swivel one of the overhead screens for her. He peremptorily replied that he could not and told her to visit the airline's website if she wanted to complain.

I don't know too much about this airline's website, but it must have absolutely no teeth if that attendant was so willing to shunt her off there to vent her complaint. If this company was serious about accountability, then there would be a funnel in place, whereby lodged complaints would get actioned. Basically, if that attendant referred the woman to the website without doing his level best to fix her issue, then he should fear for his skin.

But somehow I doubt he does.

It's a shame. When you look at some of the innovative protests to the Microsoft-Yahoo imbroglio, you know that the web can be one of the most effective places for voicing discontent.

But some major companies still refuse to give their websites teeth.