newyorker said:
I will defend Seaside as a place to stay or to shop or to eat, but I agree--the website is godawful! And regardless of the costs of beach access etc, the website is *the* public face these days to most people looking for a vacation (or any other) spot and it needs attention ASAP. I'm a dean at an elite liberal arts school--we know that prospective students (and their parents) are looking at us mainly thru our website--if the website is unfriendly, not easily negotiated, etc--its a huge turnoff and we would lose excellent potential students (and their tuition dollars) And quite frankly--the Seaside website has all those negatives. This shouldn't require a major strategic plan to fix, nor should it require lots of money.
I really feel badly for the owners--we were trying to begin plans for next year, and the website didn't work (tho it gives the promise of working for 2006). An email to someone in cyberspace there was not answered for days, and then had vague answers. (In contrast, I have potential students all over the world able to email me personally--I answer them within hours). Whatever management is new and improved at Seaside needs to address this issue now. This is marketing "101".
Wow! I couldn't have said it better myself. You have just expressed my sentiments and concerns exactly. And no, it is not a complicated situation to fix. It's more of a matter of staff people, committees, departments that have dropped the ball in keeping up with the times. Just like when one of the large encyclopedia companies chose to pass on the World Wide Web wagon - didn't see it as the future. Well, everyone else did and they have suffered badly because of that decision. I don't know of anyone who would rather take the time out of their day, and I mean daylight hours, 9 - 5, work hours, to call and sit on hold, and inquire about anything when it can be done at your leisure on your own time.
This all started for me too, trying to schedule a 2006 summer trip. Tight job schedules, school, teenagers, etc., not to mention places are filling up fast! The pandhandle has a relatively short season, compared to central and south Fla., Caribbean islands, etc.
O.K. I've gone on enough. I'm just glad to see that I'm not the only person that finds this as a serious problem with a really simple solution!!
