Florida Bay Coasters - still open for business?

Can anyone tell me if Jay Benford and Florida Bay Coasters is still operating?
Their website is up and running, but I have received no responses to any queries I have made, not from Jay himself, nor from Jeff and Lilly.
Anyone know if their doors are still open? Are they still making Coasters?

Have you tried the phone number on this page?

Benford Design Group

Thanks, I will give that a shot. I does seem strange that they do not respond to the "Ask the architect" query form built into the website.

Pet peeve... Lots of companies these days do not seem to "get" that if you have a website then you MUST keep it up to date, and respond to contact requests from it! To not do so is to alienate a whole segment of potential customers. Better to not have a website at all than to have one and just completely ignore it!

denverd0n said:

Pet peeve... Lots of companies these days do not seem to "get" that if you have a website then you MUST keep it up to date, and respond to contact requests from it! To not do so is to alienate a whole segment of potential customers. Better to not have a website at all than to have one and just completely ignore it!

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I hate to see "Latest News" and the most recent item on it is 2011. Forms that don't work is horrible too and many of the contact request forms do not. They don't test them and I guess never wonder why no one is contacting them. We try to make websites not time sensitive unless they are ones we're selling something on.

Every web site should be looked at, tested and updated no less frequently than every 30 days.

Many small businesses underestimate the time and cost of maintaining a website. They are interested in getting an online presence to promote their company so they hire a company to build them a website. The problem is they might not be web savvy enough to maintain it themselves. It's not unusual for the website developer to sell them all the bells and whistles which makes it even more onerous to maintain without hiring someone or devoting a lot of time; especially if there is a web store included. A good simple alternative to begin to promote a small business is something like a business Facebook page. It's Easy to post to and share your business contact and event info on.

Tamrow said:

Many small businesses underestimate the time and cost of maintaining a website. They are interested in getting an online presence to promote their company so they hire a company to build them a website. The problem is they might not be web savvy enough to maintain it themselves. It's not unusual for the website developer to sell them all the bells and whistles which makes it even more onerous to maintain without hiring someone or devoting a lot of time; especially if there is a web store included. A good simple alternative to begin to promote a small business is something like a business Facebook page. It's Easy to post to and share your business contact and event info on.

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That's a good alternative and so it building a site that's easy to update. Every web host has tools that make it easy to add a blog and use it to post updates. Wordpress and other blogs are easy to update. You're right about web developers and you can still have the bells and whistles but have a structure that it's easy to post new pictures and type in boxes. Even having internal web developers in a larger business, they can make maintenance easy or very time consuming.

When I built my first site years ago, I tried to read about what made a good web site. I don't know how many of you remember the yahoo website at that time, but simple, white background, no flash, just text mostly. Even now their front page is rather simple. The KISS principle still applies.

The other thing some developers do too much is total redesigns. People like familiarity. Make subtle changes. I went on a website recently that I frequently go to. It took me ten minutes to find what had always taken 5 seconds.

"The other thing some developers do too much is total redesigns. People like familiarity. Make subtle changes. I went on a website recently that I frequently go to. It took me ten minutes to find what had always taken 5 seconds."

Kids today!

alormaria said:

Kids today!

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Wifey B: I resemble that remark..

denverd0n said:

Better to not have a website at all than to have one and just completely ignore it!

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That should be engraved on a big stone somewhere!

jwnall said:

That should be engraved on a big stone somewhere!

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And more and more not having one is the same as not existing. People are expecting businesses to have websites. They think often of people without them as fly-by-night.