Now, here’s why this matters to marketers everywhere: your website is, in a very real sense, a cousin to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Both are systems designed to handle a large number of customers in a routine manner. Your website’s navigation options are the lines at the DMV. You’ve got forms; the DMV has forms. And if customers don’t follow the rules designed into your site, they probably won’t get what they came for.

The good news is that your website handles more visitors, more quickly, and during more hours of day than was possible before the Internet. But, like the DMV, you get no credit for things that work; only blame for things that don’t. And that blame can cost you business and destroy your reputation. The solution is two-fold. First, you need to make sure that navigation on your site works, that directions are clear, and that you have the processing power to keep things flowing smoothly. However, there will still be visitors with problems that don’t fit the categories in your drop-down menus, and for these you need backup.

Backup can take many forms. Decades ago, agencies deployed the "ombudsman," an advocate for clients who fell through the cracks of normal operations. Today automated call-handling systems let callers dial "0" for operator. In the early days of the Internet, online site maps provided an "aerial" site view for those who’d gotten lost in the maze.

Today’s web sites can include phone and live online chat options. Whatever you offer, however (unless you are Zappos.com— over 175 million hits when you Google ‘world’s best service zappos’) you may still not be famous for extraordinary service. But if you don’t make your site friendly, even for those whose needs don’t quite fit the menus, there’s a good chance that you’ll pay a price and never even know it.