Content and Navigation, It's in the Bag

Edward Lopez’s experience with a company’s web site shows that lack of content and navigation can have a negative impact on an excellent product.

"I frequent the gym with my standard issue duffle bag. The bag has one small pocket in which I cram the small items I don't want to get swallowed up by the innards of the gigantic duffle compartment. One day while shoehorning my bag into the crapped, narrow, yet extremely tall locker, I thought: "Geez- why don't they just make a bag designed to fit into a locker? Surely I'm not the only one that doesn't like to push my gym bag into these things everyday.” Squeezing the insides of the bag to fit the general shape of the locker and then still having to kick and push it in every time was starting to wear on me.

"Of course, a simple Google search led me almost immediately to Ogio's "Locker Bag" designed to meet the exact needs I mentioned. It goes above and beyond the needs of the everyday gym goer. Molded more like a carry-on bag then a duffle, it holds it's tall and narrow shape very nicely and still leaves space to hang clothes overhead.

"But I would not have known that from the online research I did. A quick trip to the company website yielded a choice of Street, Skate, Snow, Power, Golf, Girl, Work, and Corporate. "Ummm, do I choose Power? Work? Street, I guess is the closest – Bingo!" Of course, I was curious as to what the difference was between the Work and Corporate sections, but that was for later. After finding my choice in the Street section -- what does the gym or working out have to with street? -- I was rewarded with only a tiny image and a simple product description with dimensions. I was starving to find out more about this bag: what it could hold, how sturdy it was and the like. But, if this company could not figure out how to present information to me, I was going to walk, although my other options seemed limited. Searching other bag/luggage sites I continued to come up with the same tiny picture and the same limited information from the Ogio site. User reviews were very positive and brand loyalty seemed to be high.

"So I wrote the company detailing my experience and my confusion with trying to find information about their product. I normally write and get a response saying "Sorry you're having problems, we'll get back to you later" or something to that effect. In this case, I got a very enthusiastic response. Evidently, they are in the middle of a redesign of their online experience, and I provided some timely feedback to influence how they build the site’s navigation. I was rewarded with some nice customer service and some other perks! The company let me know that I was heard, and I felt my comments would be considered. I will look at them first from now on for all my bags.

"Ogio gets a lot of free, positive word of mouth advertising at my gym. I tell an abbreviated version of this story whenever someone asks about it."