Ray Garrison Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 Hi guys. Those of you that have frequented this board for a couple years or more kind of know the background here. At any rate, I just (finally!) put up the website for my new company. If you have a couple of minutes, I'd really appreciate any (hopefully constructive) criticism of my new website at www.periship.com. Please keep in mind this is not a consumer, or B2C, website, I'm not looking to grab eyeballs and keep someone's attention with a snazzy site - I just want people who hear about my company to go to the web and find out enough about us to want to contact us to find out more. Thoughts / observations / suggestions / complaints appreciated. Thanks, Ray Garrison PS - *PLEASE* don't flood my sales department with a zillion "Hey, nice site" emails from the Contact Us page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m00n Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 No linkie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted October 6, 2003 Author Share Posted October 6, 2003 missed a closing quote. Thanks, m00n. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Ray, I hope to God that this in no way means that packages either sent to me or by me via FedEx will now have a faint "fishy" smell. I mean all but the ones which are meant to. Smell. Fishy. Nice site! Did you put it together yourself? fini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin_tx_16 Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 I used to have a site where when you clicked on a link, it only changed the content of part of the page... i would do that on your site to make it faster to load and more... more closed (hard to explain...) also, kill the gif animation and get some flash, it will make the transition a lot smoother. i like the color scheme and layout, but put a buffer on the left and right, sometimes you have letters or symbols that hit the edge of the page, i like to have a buffer zone to keep that from happening. on the top, when you mouse over the links, i do not get the universal hand-click cursor, just the usual arrow, so some people might not try to click there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted October 7, 2003 Author Share Posted October 7, 2003 try to avoid flash, lot of my customers are still on AOL with ID 3, downloading Flash player is a pain... Thanks for the comments... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 VERY nice. Looks better than some big companies web sites I have seem. On the home page, when I roll over the text and the new text appears, it does not seem to be centered vertically (especially the last one.) Also, the 'x' in FedEx looks a bit funky. On the 'Contact Us' page, you have 'EMail' and I think E-Mail would look better. On the top navigation bar, do you want the text on the buttons changing position when you click on them? I am totally nit picking, but they might be quick, easy fixes if you think they are problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMcGoo Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Ray, It looks very professional as is except that fedEx should be FedEx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
middlecreekguy Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 I have to agree with Justin on the universal hand-click cursor. Also I feel it needs a little more color. Some spice. Just a dummies thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted October 7, 2003 Author Share Posted October 7, 2003 Mr McGoo, If ever a moniker was inappropriate... thank you Thank You THANK YOU That was embarassing. You can't imagine how many people have looked at that page over the past several weeks while I was building the site, and *NOBODY* noticed the typo. Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll do the hand cursor thing. As for the text dropping down three pixels when you click on the nav bar, the idea was for the displacement to give the user a visual indication of which page or section they were in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edster00 Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Ray, I think the site looks great! If I were to suggest anything it would be to make the text "info@periship" in the left margin a link to open the users email client instead of them having to copy and past the address into their email. Pretty nit-picky but it is easier, especially for those savvy AOLers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Good to see you back online again, Ray. The site looks good, clean, elegant, professional, good graphics and to the point. I dont see any easy-to-find explanations of how you came up with the name Pership or what it means. I also dont see two or three simple benefits of why somebody should do business with your firm versus your competitors. Why NOT ship directly with FedEx themselves? Plus, I find that a few promises go a long way. Lowest livestock mortality rate in the business. Shipments leave within 24 hours. That kind of thing. Looks good though. On Our Service paragraph, is there a link to read more? Good luck with your new venture, hopefully we will be hearing more of your touching stories about building a wonderful Klipsch system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruinsrme Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Ray, Living in MA i am a huge seafood fanatic. But I was unable to find what exactly it is that you ship. Being a cynical bastard the only service I see you provide is you ship seafood. hell I can walk to the local fish store and at 10am pick what I want off the truck. My recommendations is to emphasize on the north east speacialties. Haddock, Maine steamers, and Maine Lobster, bay scallops. a product offering may attract the dislocated northeasterns in florida, texas and west coast. though I think it would be tough to sell a midwesterner a lobster. solutions to offer; clambakes for a # of people, include 1/2 pound of steamers, 1.5 pound lobster, butter, garlic cloves, bibs, pickers and a cheap set of nutcrackers. fresh haddock maybe scrod or cod as well. steamers for sure Maybe some ipswich clams, cape clams, and maine clams. good luck and the site looks great. Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdrake Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Scott - I believe they are shipping for companies that deal with perishable (hence PeriShip) foods, not actually selling food themselves to end users. You would not be a customer of Ray's company. Red Lobster might be, although it is probably the supplier that provides seafood to Red Lobster who would be his customer. Ray, in the meantime, we'll take 10 pounds of your finest scallops, please!! Nice work. Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruinsrme Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Uhmmmm scallops, with an italian bread crumb stffing with bits of lobster and shrinp broiled in a garlic whitewine butter sauce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted October 7, 2003 Author Share Posted October 7, 2003 Right on, Doug. A company like, say, Simply Seafood or Wild Salmon Seafood may ship dozens of boxes per day, each box containing several hundreds of dollars worth of highly perishable, fresh seafood. During the course of the day, someone at that company is contantly calling FedEx or using the online tracking system to follow each shipment, to make sure that there are no service disruptions, delays, missing shipments, that sort of thing. If there is a problem (say a box gets to Memphis late and misses a flight), they then have to try to work with the FedEx customer service folks (who don't know them from Adam) to try and get the box back on track. With most shipments, if the box gets there a day late because of some minor problem, no big deal. With, say, live lobsters, if it gets there a day late, you have a bunch of dead lobsters and a significant loss. Also, a lot of companies shipping fresh products don't really understand the demanding packaging requirements of the express shipping environment, and either overpack (spending unnecessary money) or underpack (losing product to package failure.) What PeriShip does is work with the shippers and with FedEx. Our clients ship their boxes with FedEx, but they bill the freight charges 3rd party to our account. This allows my system to go talk to the FedEx system. I collect all known data about all packages moving through the system at 15 minute intervals throughout the day. I apply a series of rules stipulating what is and what is not a problem, and if there's a package that looks like there may be an issue, it pops up on an internal monitoring screen here at PeriShip GHQ in Branford, CT. I have a logistics team that monitors these shipments throughout the day. When intervention is necessary, we have a dedicated support team at FedEx we work with who are very familiar with us, the types of products we're dealing with, and the exegencies of perishable food. We can almost always successfully get a product to its destination in time for the recipient to be okay. We've shipped over 15000 packages so far this year, with fewer than 30 problems. We also offer package engineering and consulting services to help people pack and ship more cost effectively and with better performance. Thanks again for the feedback on the website, keep it coming? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Ray, I don't know what skill set you are coming from, but a 'pushed button' look could also be awesome. I think the text turning blue is enough. Reguardless, I am totally nit picking, it look great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodger Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Hello: Nice site, don't like grey background. Light blue clik-ons hard to see also. Lower portion instead of "using FedEx" grammar could call for "uses FedEx." May be able to either get discount or seed money. Some customers would like to know if you use FedEx Air or FedEx Ground. Indicates delivery time, how long in transit. (My cousin works for FedEx) Instead of "logistic," logistics - meaning multiple solutions, or logistical, meaning leave it all to us. Last business idea is ask a question: Do you know where your shipment is, How much time do you lose tracking orders? We have the expertise and the ability to find your shipment (or where your bshipments is). I may be missing something, but what are those things coming out of that box - may be a dumb question. Color does grab, you have 10 seconds for the shipping officer to note your site (Peter Drucker), thus the boxes take longer to download and look scattered. You have to let the reader know right away that YOU have the solution to their problem - real or perceived. The Web Site can make them think there IS a problem and YOU are the solution - why go anywhere else. You can DELIVER To grab attention you could insert question of "Do you REALLY know how long it takes your product to arrive ?" "Have you lost money in time, effort and getting the right product to the right destination If you use Periship you will know where your product is, you can reduce spoilage write offs. Your company name is earned and precious. PeriShip will continue youe tradition of excellence. My two cents. I wish you the best in success, and between GaryMD and Me, there will be some orders of Maryland Crabcakes coming North. Periship will be requested as the one of choice. Best Wishes and Good Luck! Win dodger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 well i know others may have already mentioned some of this, but it's easier to just write it again i'll start with the critiques first: -add another link in the menu to go "home" or "mainpage"...it's deceptive having to click that company icon thing. -use the HAND over every link (on the menus and inside the pages) -make every link BOLD to make it stick out more -for every quote, put the person's title and status and other defining info of the person you're quoting in a smaller font, and then change the defining info and the name to another colour (black?)...keep the actual quote the same colour. -the mouseover effects on the main page are annoying and hard to read. according to some online study that i can't find the link for, the majority of ppl online don't read anything that takes up more than 3 lines. try to take that into account on every page (especially the front page!) -try to convert everyparagraph into a bulleted list...if you feel you need to share more info, provide a "more info..." or "learn more..." link. for example, on the about us page: the quote on the left is long and way more than 3 lines...try to take snippits of it to make it shorter and more to the point. on the right, you have 3 sections, each with a huge paragraph. turn them into bulleted lists and then provide a link where you can get into the technicalities. remember your purpose of the website: "I just want people who hear about my company to go to the web and find out enough about us to want to contact us to find out more." Give just enough facts to keep the customer looking through the site...think of it as keeping them hungry, like a snackbar or something. i noticed you do the bulleted list idea on your "news and editorials" page. one thing i might suggest is adding a title; maybe in bold face at the beggining of each bullet. like for the first bullet, put this in bold face: "PeriShip Industry Forum: The Air Cargo Security Act: What will it Mean for Seafood?" This will allow the visitor to decide if he wants to read it or not. on the "common questions" page...i would suggest bolding up the questions (both the link and the targets the links point to). for the whole page, use a larger font. Even in my young age it's hard to read stuff that small. "contact us" page...try to shorten the comments under each section. especially the send an email one...if you feel you need to explain the form, maybe you should try redesigning the form (especially cuz most ppl won't read the extra content, they'll just click on the form and get confused). "client login" -instead of providing another link to actually login, simply put that content of the link onto the "client login" page. (move the content from this page: http://www.shipgrl.com/cgi-bin/fglccgi?loginperiship into the "client login" page). then you will have the request an account and the forgot password links underneathe. i hope that made sense ok, im done for now I may be sounding critical and whatnot, but that's cuz the site is already very nice. I love the simple layout and the colour choices. the things im suggesting are tips i've gotten from professional webdesigners and have tried applied to your website. I do gotta say that i love the way you laid out the pages with them circle buttons and blue lines. it's so simple, yet so good looking! oops, i was gonna end on a good note, but i just noticed one other thing... on most of the pages, you have this contact info stuff that stays on the left side of each page...does your company have any other logos or cool graphics or something to help spice up that side? it'd be cool to have a logo sitting above that info. If you can't do that, then try to put a lable "Contact Info" or something similar to help set it apart. well i'll stop for now, tis a great site! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrench_peddler Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 Is "oursource" supposed to be "outsource" in the pop-up text next to the shrimp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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