Message received: “DONT CONTACT US”

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photo credit: decade_null

As you might be aware, I’m the Scoutmaster of a local Boy Scout troop here in Columbia Falls.

I’ve been involved as a Scouting volunteer in numerous forms for about 20 years, at levels as low as you can get, and as high as a VP on our Council Executive Committee.

As a result, I have a pretty fair knowledge of the organization, and I know where to find info when I need it.

Earlier this week, I decided to call the National office of the Boy Scouts of America in Irving to ask a few questions.

Normally, Scouting officials expect folks to ask these questions of the local council office (ours is in Great Falls), but the questions I had were of the nature that the local council office couldn’t possibly answer them.

I should note that the local Council President, the Scout Executive (paid position, similar to Executive Director) and most of the Executive Committee are friends. I know when they won’t know the answer to a question I have – and this is one of em. Enough background, now the story.

So, I moseyed over to Scouting.org (the BSA’s national website) and got one message loud and clear.

Is anyone home?

The message being sent by scouting.org: DON’T CONTACT US.

The main page of scouting.org has no phone numbers on it. No postal address. No physical address. No map to the National Scouting Museum or to National HQ (both in Irving).

There’s no “Contact us” link or contact page. There is a link to find a local council office (ie: Ask them, not us).

Even in the area where it gives direction for someone applying for a job (I am not) all they offer is a PO Box for the 4 regional offices. No fax, no phone, no physical address.

So I broke down and did a search. The results?

• Search the website for “Irving”…. you’ll find no hits.
• Search the website for “National office” or “national headquarters”… you’ll find no hits.
• Search the website for “scouting museum”… you’ll find no hits.

If you dig around and end up on scoutingfriends.org, youll eventually find an email form and a PO Box for Irving. But still, no phone number.

If you wanted to contact the national office for something of national consequence – such as giving them a bazillion dollars, becoming a major sponsor of the National Jamboree, calling the Scouting museum to make a donation, or simply to ask a question that a council office absolutely CANNOT answer (in my case, I guarantee it), you are out of luck unless your message is suitable for US Mail.

The girl’s got it

By contrast, girlscouts.org has a contact us link at the bottom of the main page, which takes you to a page with a mailing address, physical address, a phone number, a local council office finder tool and email contact form.

There is always a silver lining when stuff like this happens. In this case, the silver lining is that I have a new question for my Communications merit badge students: “Look at scouting.org and tell me if you can see anything wrong with it, Communications MB -wise.”

It’s easy to forget the simple things. Your customers want to talk to you. A “Contact us” link is one of those simple, essential, first impression things.

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Tagged as: customer care, Customer service, customer support, Scouting, Small Business, website