Sherrill Online Catalog

[Sunrise Guy]

Has anyone used this abomination? I have never experienced a worse online catalog site than Sherrill's. Why don't they hire someone who knows how to put a site together? You click on things and get a blank page. You enter "pole saw" and get "item not found" !~!!! I cannot believe that they let this site go active with all of the bugs it still has. Someone called me from Sherrill the last time I complained off their "contact us" on the site, left a message and gave me a number to call and then never called me back when I left a message. WesSpur is getting the bulk of my business since Sherrill's site is so pathetic.

 

[JimL]

Same thing I said the other night when I was browsing...

 

[Tree Frog]

The biggest thing that I have noticed is that the shipping is always more than quoted and then the 3-day ground price is always more even though you are supposed to get it for the same as regular ground.

This bugged me due the the ability to have free shipping from the other guy.

 

[jmack]

Has anyone used this abomination? I have never experienced a worse online catalog site than Sherrill's. Why don't they hire someone who knows how to put a site together? You click on things and get a blank page. You enter "pole saw" and get "item not found" !~!!! I cannot believe that they let this site go active with all of the bugs it still has. Someone called me from Sherrill the last time I complained off their "contact us" on the site, left a message and gave me a number to call and then never called me back when I left a message. WesSpur is getting the bulk of my business since Sherrill's site is so pathetic.

first off they are huge the best luck i have had is by going to the vermeer demos where they have the stuff you need, the dealers will have or be able to order what you want , you will probally be hearing from the sherrill dude on the site to try and help, and the co. you mentioned well that there co. imo is the best for getting yer gear plus the people who work there have been there

 

[Ryan Gossen]

ok, you got me started...

Im glad to hear someone else ?????ing about the Sherrill site, it has been an absolute heartbreak for me. I am both a certified arborist and a "human factors engineer", which means I help design and do user testing for websites. Don’t ask me how this situation came about, its a long story, but it might make me the best person in the world to critique the Sherrill website.

When I first found the Sherrill catalogue I was working my way through grad school trimming. It had better illustrations of rope techniques than any other text I had seen, certainly better than anything the ISA has ever produced. The catalogue was lovingly made, way better than it had to be, and reflected a artist’s passion for the trade. It had every piece of equipment I ever needed. The original website (circa 1999) contained a similar level of artistry, but could have been easier to use, still better than most ecommerce sties. The first redesign came out when I was just out of school. I was so appalled I wrote a long letter which included a brief “heuristic analysis” of some of its problems. I got an unsatisfying response from the webmaster, who wanted me to give more free advice, but explained that the new website, which was slower, less intuitive, and hideously ugly, was the way it was because they had purchased some kind of comprehensive catalogue/supply chain management system that came with the cookie cutter website. I studied information architecture, computer programming, and web design, and I was unable to figure out how to send my money to Sherrill through that site.

Now this re-design. I can only assure they have heard users howling for the past few years and someone figured out they need to update their site, only no one sat down and thought through why it sucked to begin with. The new site has a few new graphical elements, but it makes nearly all the same mistakes as the old one. Its none of my business, but this drives me *!#*@ nuts. If I didn’t give a rip about the company I guess I wouldn’t care, but there has always been something about them that I really love.

Anyway, I recently needed to make a large (for me) purchase. The new site was up and the catalogues were not yet out; I elected to wait for the catalogue, simply because I don’t trust a site that bad with my credit card number. Catalogue was late, I called and asked for one to be sent, I emailed a request through the site: three weeks and no catalogue. That was it. I made my order through Fresco, whose site is also obnoxious but not quite as bad. The catalogue got to my house some time after that, it looks great.

 

[Grace Tree]

Sherrill Catalogue

Since catalogue costs are so high, especially of the type that Sherrill has printed, it would be normal for there to be more items on the website than in the catalogue. They seem to be the opposite. When I want to place an order I have to sit down with the catalogue in one hand and do cat. item # searches on their website. Good company; bad website. I generally split my business up between Sherrill, Wesspur and KK. None are perfect but neither am I and aside from the 3 unordered pole saws that Sherrill tried to ship to me, all it takes is one call to straighten out any problem.
Phil

 

[geofore]

Sherrilltree online

The online site needs work to make it easier to navigate. The master catalog, printed version, is a keeper. The little cartoon drawings are what sets their printed version apart from the rest of the catalogs out there. The illistrations are not just eye candy, it accually works to keep new guys safe. If their online was as good as the printed version they'd be tops.
Now if they'd just put up a thread and ask what's wrong with the online catalog they'd know what to fix. I know if they'd put all the illistrations from all the past catalogs in one spot online I'd download them just to have them to look at.
The biggest thing new guys don't know is that if you don't see it in their catalog that doesn't mean they can't get it for you if you'd just ask them to. New guys don't know enough to ask or they're afraid to ask because they might sound stupid. If they don't ask they're never going to know the answer.

 

[teamtree]

Sherrill....I am disappointed with there site

I have tried to use it many times and many times with no luck.

The search option is terrible. I mean come on...you put in "three strand rope" and no items found.

I like Sherrill and somewhat loyal but they require you to use the website in order to get the TCIA discount. I have spent many hours on their site only to call in and place the order.

 

[Scars2prove-it]

I was going to order more ropes and tools the last time I was on the site but couldn't find the info I needed to decide. I knew the info was in the printed catalog but I couldn't find it since I am moving soon and it is probably packed away. The search function needs work and the pictures are all out of scale.

 

[scottmc]

We want to let you all know, we hear your concerns and issues about the functionality of our online store.

Your views and opinions are important to us and we have been and are currently in the process of addressing the issues being discussed on this thread.

In the mean time, if you continue to have problems with our site, please call one of our customer service team members (1-800-525-8873). They will be more than happy to provide you with the level of service you expect.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[maxburton]

Glad to hear that this tread is being red by the exprts at Sehirll. I wish I could have been there when the person who makes the decisions looked at the site and said, "Yes, that is a good web site. Put that on the internet."

 

[Chuck R]

I generally split my business up between Sherrill, Wesspur and KK. None are perfect but neither am I ...

Wesspur isn't perfect? I have never had a problem with them and they have free shipping on orders over $100. Who else does that? I have bought gear from all the majors but I love Wesspur.

 

[Ryan Gossen]

Scott, I am glad Sherrill is still interested in improving its website.

You are already in the unfortunate position of having not only lost revenue but alienated and even angered several users, who knows how many. First, do not take this personally. You (whoever) didn’t mean to pick a fight with anyone, your just doing your job. But understand that these people have came to you with money in their hands and you wasted their time. Its very natural that they are frustrated. The large amount of goodwill and “social capital” Sherrill has amassed through community involvement makes it harder to just blow off the company as a whole, which makes the website even more frustrating. It’s the lowest common denominator, its holding the whole company back. You cant solve this without dedicating significant resources to it. User research is what needs to happen and its not cheap if done correctly. Your site has problems with everything from page loading speed to product categorization, basic navigation, the search engine, and graphical layout. It would be nice to make it pretty as well, but if its pretty and it still turns away people who want to give you money, what’s the point?

You have allot of good free data on this site and you have some feedback now. Might have been better if it had come from user testing, certainly cheaper, but here we are. What are you going to do with it? Do you have a real design team, or it is the product of a developer/sys admin/designer/database guy? Do you have a usability expert or someone who is capable of doing real user testing? Something to consider. In the meantime, here are some resources:

Jakob Nielson's homepage (a well known usability advocate)
http://www.useit.com/

Good usability advice where youd least expect it:
http://www.usability.gov/methods/usability_testing.html

some others:
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/practical_usability_testing/

I think you’ll find that simply planning to test usability will have an effect on designers choices. Whatever you do, please be aware that what you did the last time and the time before that did not work. Good luck

-Ryan Gossen, M.A., ISA

 

[Chuck R]

Do you have a real design team, or it is the product of a developer/sys admin/designer/database guy? Do you have a usability expert or someone who is capable of doing real user testing?

I agree with you but hasn't good e-commerce site design reached commodity status by now? I'll bet there are thousands of effective retail sites out there that didn't do usability studies. These things should just work and make some sense which the Sherrill site does neither. Ya gotta be really motivated to break on through to the other side (i.e. checkout).

The catalogs are excellent.

 

[Ryan Gossen]

Good point Chuck, one would think that by this time people would know what works. But tree trimming has been around allot longer than web development, and best practices are hardly typical here either. The information is out there but you have to go look for it and then evaluate it. The closer you look, the less obvious things like page layout and navigation architecture become. Most ecommerce sites have a few things that need some custom user testing, but neednt re-invent the wheel.

People take the ease of use of the web for granted. The base interface tools (the mouse, "windows", hypertext... ) were not stumbled upon nor were they the obvious choice from a set of alternatives. They were ground out from heavy research at PARC Zerox back in the day. A sucessfull convention, like the "shopping cart" for instance, must be plausible to begin with, then be out in circulation for decades before gaining widespread acceptance. Its like learning to speak as the language is invented. To make matters worse, the last person to be capable of evaluating a site's usability is the designer or a code writer. Few developers are willing to go out of thier way to solicit, much less use, much less pay for criticism of thier work. So although the web was invented through "intelligent design", it currently plods along through a process that more resembles biological evolution.

 

[PTS]

What I started doing is going through the local Vermeer store for Sherrill Equipment. No shipping cost and they are willing to bill you with no credit card required. If one of their reps are in the area they even deliver for free. So that is the route I go. The last time we made a $1500 approximate purchase they even gave me like 5 or 10% discount too. So try that out

 

[Sunrise Guy]

OK, here are a few specific beefs: 1) You cannot view your cart by clicking on the cart icon. You click and nothing happens. 2) There is no easy way to delete items in your cart. You have to zero out and then log in and then hit next and then the item is deleted. In every other site I purchase from, you simply hit a delete bar next to each item to delete it. 3) The main menus lead to sub-menus which lead to sub-sub-menus which lead to------ARGH!!!!

 

[911crash]

don't order online unless you have an hour to kill. every time i order on line they put a hold on my credit card for the original amount twice. so if i spend a thousand dollars they put a hold on my acct. for two thousand, and have to wait a few days for them to release the hold.

 

[vharrison2]

Funny to find this thread, I also had problems with the site. So, I picked up the phone and placed my order that way!

 

[moss]

In defense of Sherrill I think the web site visual design is very good. Color use, graphics and layout are of similar quality to the catalog. Obviously there are some interaction/navigation and other issues. Despite the fact that we expect commerce sites to be perfectly designed and to perform flawlessly, the reality is that most do not. Especially for smaller businesses. Even the "big boys" can't get it right. Remember, we're used to Amazon and Google etc. as examples of successful and reasonably easy to use web sites. They've poured millions of dollars into those sites to make them what they are. It costs quite a bit to create a web site that looks good, works well for the user and has good commerce functionality. The ready-made commerce sites are mostly crapola (technical web design term). It's good to see Sherrill trying to carve out a unique web presence even if they stumble here and there. Most small businesses don't have the resources or the vision to make it happen. Sherrill is clearly making a good faith effort to do so.

Competitive issues like shipping costs vs. other sites like Wesspur, Fresco etc. are another issue and have nothing to do with the web site. It looks like Sherrill is listening, I've already noticed that site navigation has improved since the initial release of the current site design.
-moss