But why is all of this effort necessary? In Chapter Five we get a concise answer: "Behavior, particularly in the self-service environment of the Internet, is voluntary, participatory, and goal-directed." In other words, everyone who visits your site can leave quickly, easily, and anonymously. This is speed dating without the obligatory 60-seconds. It's all about them, and the second you're not satisfying their needs, they're gone.

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. We've all heard about the milliseconds it takes to form an impression of a web page, the eight seconds we have to load the page into the browser window, and hopefully seen the stats on our own websites which clearly show that the majority of users just don't stay very long. Even more, our own behaviour usually proves the point - how long do you stay at a web site that doesn't immediately clearly address the reason for your visit?

Yet websites are still, by and large, designed from the inside out. The process generally starts with 'what do we want on our site?' and proceeds to 'how does that look?' and generally never get around to 'what are our visitors trying to do?'

I found myself in three different meetings regarding new website designs this past week - one as an observer, one as a reviewer, and one as a potential provider of Persuasion Architecture services. There were very top flight design firms involved in all three sessions, and while neither space nor confidentiality rules allow full descriptions, I can assure you that 'what would the customer do?' is not the question driving site design decisions today.

The fact that visitors are in control of their stay on your site is obvious and yet still largely ignored. But as the earlier part of the chapter describes, this isn't the only area where 'consumers' have taken grabbed of the joystick. In a reprint of an amazing blog post, the book points out that customers now control everything from price to brand to distribution methods and beyond. While this control is not literal, the dramatic changes in influence provided by the ability of consumers to more easily gather and share information is undeniable. The chapter goes on to illustrate all kinds of ways that this influence is being used and refined, even quoting the CEO of Procter & Gamble who admitted in a year 2000 speech that 'the consumer is boss".

In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray takes Andie MacDowell out on a date. It doesn’t go very well. But he gets the chance to try again and again and again (without her knowing), and each time he learns something more and changes his actions so that the next time the date lasts a little longer. After many tries he makes it all the way to morning.

This is exactly how websites and online businesses should behave. Realize the customer is in charge. Take your best shot. Measure the results. Tweak, change, adapt. Listen very closely to learn what it is they really want. Try again. Measure again. Repeat until you get to see the morning light.

Of course, you can shorten the process and improve your odds by knowing something about your prospect/customer/date before you begin, and most people could improve their listening and analysis skills. As ‘Waiting for Your Cat to Bark’ continues, attention turns to improving those skills.

:: This is part of a chapter-by-chapter review and commentary on Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg with Lisa Davis. Read the original review here. Reader comments are highly desired.