“About Us” Evaluation: Peter Pan Gets an A

Peter Pan is one of America’s largest privately owned intercity bus companies, carrying over 4 million passengers per year in the Northeast on Peter Pan, ShowBus, BoltBus and other lines. Founded in 1933 in Springfield, Massachusetts and still headquartered there, it has been run by the Picknelly family for four generations. The company's main About Us page is here.

OVERALL GRADE: A

Our one criticism Peter Pan’s site is technical. When its pages print, the tabs turn into a vertical list of links. People who print the pages will sigh in exasperation at the extra sheets of paper this requires.

Personality: A

Peter Pan’s Company History page is not full of bells and whistles, but it’s well laid out: broken into paragraphs with headings and with well-chosen photos. More importantly, its content is fascinating. It presents the company history as the history of four generations of the Picknelly family, noting coups such as providing the bus service for Bill Clinton’s 1992 whistle-stop tour and introducing e-tickets for buses.

We were impressed by the novelty of having the mission statement at the end of the company history. In that context, we can see how the mission has ruled company policy: it’s not a pie-in-the-sky statement.

The management page doesn’t tell us anything about the people who run the company, but it does make it clear that Peter Pan is still a family-run business.

Products/Services: A

The reason for acquiring each major bus line is explained in the history. We applaud this as an excellent way to mention what each line specializes in. We also like the fact that Peter Pan’s best drivers, the ones who have driven over a million miles without an accident, are showcased in the Safety and Drivers page. For good measure, customer testimonials are scattered throughout the site as well as on the Testimonials page.

Accessibility: A+

The Contact Us page is always available via a link at the upper right. We were pleasantly surprised to see the Mission Statement filling most of the page, with the email form tucked in at the right side. Many people would not bother to click on a separate Mission Statement page, but including the statement here, when customers are about to contact the company, helps remind customers about reasonable expectations for bus travel. (The company motto since the 1930s has been, “On time if possible with safety … late if necessary for safety’s sake.”)

TAKEAWAY

A company’s mission statement tends to be a noble abstraction. It’s exciting to see it placed where it makes sense: at the end of the company history and on the contact page.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company, although company president Marian Calabro recently traveled from New York City to Amherst, Mass., on Peter Pan; she enjoyed the experience.

Netflix' Negative History

I’m one of the millions of Netflix users who got this week’s infamous email from CEO Reed Hastings. I’m also one of the hundreds of thousands who cancelled part of their service (in my case, the DVD-by-mail part) because I didn’t think it was worth the extra money -- and because the company didn’t bother to alert me in advance to the increase. I had to read about it elsewhere.

Policy gaffes aside, what’s interesting about Hastings’s communication are his references to Netflix company history (the italics are mine): “For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us) …. It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to ‘Qwikster.’ …. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.”

Qwikster is starting life with a huge disability. It’ll be interesting to see if Netflix learns anything from its history. In this case, dissatisfied customers are the history teachers.

“About Us” Evaluation: Bensi Restaurants Gets a B+

The first Bensi (“Always Fresh, All Ways Italian”) opened in 1983 in Tenafly, NJ. Currently 24 Bensi Restaurants are open or in development in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

OVERALL GRADE: B+

Products/Services: B

The feature we love most about Bensi’s site is the borders that appear on every page. They include the company’s distinctive awning, a selection of delicious-looking dishes and ingredients, a few glasses of wine, and photos of groups of jolly eaters. All this is set against a map of Italy. The border puts the text into a frame of reasonable size, but more importantly provides a constant reminder of what Bensi Restaurants are all about. (Movado Group, please take note!)

That said, we’d like to see a bit more about the food on the page that tells the Bensi Story. And we’d like Bensi to fix a problem common to restaurant Web sites: they tend to bury their locations and hours. Most people log onto eatery sites primarily for that information (and for menus). Bensi’s Locations page offers a big map with locations keyed to where they think you are. In our case, they were about 50 miles off. Why not add a text list of locations that users can quickly scroll?

Worse, even when you drill down, there are no opening/closing hours for each restaurant. Instead Bensi offers a general set of hours, buried in an red-on-cranberry band; it’s so hard to read that we missed it the first two times around. It’s quite possible that this basic lack of data drives users away to general sites like MenuPages, where they’ll be regaled with ads from Bensi’s competitors.

Accessibility: A

The link for the Contact page is prominently placed at the right of the menu bar on every page, and offers mail and email options. We particularly like the fact that we can click a button to have a copy of our email sent to us. While we recognize the practicality of email forms for avoiding spam, we are often upset that using such forms means we don’t have a record of what we said to the company. (By the way, we used the form a few months ago to email Bensi about the hours issue. They answered promptly and cordially, suggesting that we phone the individual restaurants. Why, when the Web site could so easily provide this info? Bottom line, we’re not expecting site changes any time soon.)

Personality: B

The Home page has a few sentences on the company, followed by a button for “Read the Full Story.” The story of Bensi is short (it’s a relatively new company), but its creators have given it “roots” by linking it to the founders’ families in Italy. We also like the emphasis given to the fact that each Bensi is run by co-owners (the chef and the general manager), which means the restaurants have slightly different personalities and are managed onsite, not from a distant headquarters.

We were somewhat confused by the fact that clicking “Read the Full Story” didn’t always take us to this history page. Eventually we realized that the target of the button changes depending on which of 4 pictures is showing on the Home page. We suggest having all 4 options show at once on the Home page.

TAKEAWAY

The stand-out feature of Bensi’s site is the borders that constantly remind visitors of the chain’s products and services. It’s a brilliant use of space that’s very often wasted.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

Tips for Better Pictures = Tips for Better Speechwriting

During a major file fling last week (such a liberating feeling), I unearthed a 1998 folder from Eastman Kodak titled "Tips for Better Pictures." It struck me that the same principles apply to speechwriting:

Show one subject clearly / Get closer / Simplify the background / Place subject off-center / Experiment with lighting / Try a different viewpoint

Digital cameras and cell phone photography have eclipsed the 35mm film featured in the Kodak folder, but otherwise little has changed. To me, the medium isn't the message; content matters most. If Marshall McLuhan were still around, I'd happily debate him on this matter. (He's not; McLuhan would turn 100 this year.)