God is in the details.

The 404 Error page, online crisis management at it's best and worst. There you are happily surfing away and out of nowhere up pops the dreaded 404...Boing! Off your visitor pops to another site. Why? Because they have made an immediate assumption about you, your site and your brand based on this digital loose end. The 404 is essentially a HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server but the server could not find what was requested. 404 errors are commonly confused with "server not found" or similar errors, in which a connection to the destination server could not be made at all. This is the virtual equivalent of rummaging through the rails on the high street only to find that your size is conspicuous by it's absence and when you ask if they have another in your size in the stockroom, one can't be found. Result - you turn on your heels and into the next shop on the street. Sale lost and brand experience tarnished. But what does this have to do with 404 Errors and the B2B buying cycle? If you are aware that 68% of web users will have left your site if you don’t deliver relevance in two clicks. 40% of those users will never return to your site. Source: BMRB. Then the answer is quite a lot. Even though the 404 Error also indicates that the requested resource may be available in the future, how many of us are actually going to bother coming back after the initial disappointment when there are so many other suppliers vying for our hard earned cash? Remember your brand is the sum of all the experiences and touchpoints your customer has with it both positive and negative, so the aim is to maximise the positive and where possible eliminate or at least mitigate the negative. The 404 is one area where mitigation is possible, consider how much importance you place on your digital offering and then ask have I ever considered what happens when a customer is presented with a virtual brick wall?

Many companies are wising up to this now and actually devoting time to turning the threat of the 404 into an opportunity to express their brand values and personality. Sometimes even injecting a little humour. Twitter has done this both creatively and humorously. Isn't it time you thought about it too?