Websites who publish client catalogues for free a tempting offer – but a good way to lose customers? They effectively shunt enquirers into a cul-de-sac where they struggle to find advice from a large pdf file then give up before ever contacting the client. Also while this keeps enquirers on the journal site it means that customers can be led into making their – negative – buying decision without even being observed as interested customers on the client website – they go completely off the horizon with no chance of follow up or even a chance to provide them with the information they wanted.
If you have plenty of customers and are too busy to talk to enquirers then fine but if you want to talk to customers about their requirements then I don’t think this remote catalogue hosting is a helpful way to go. The same is true for data sheets – if a customer wants technical detail then to be sure it is correct and up to date they should get it from the client and preferably with an opportunity to discuss by e-mail or phone or even face to face! Useful perhaps for short leaflets on specific product ranges which encourage the enquirer to contact the client direct.
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