A couple of weeks ago, I had a dinner set up at the glamourous Oxo Tower Bar, by Harvey Nichols, in London. Prior to going, I was sent a link by my friend to the restaurant (www.harveynichols.com/oxo-tower-london-bar/).

The site is reasonably attractive, with a demonstration of the nice view over the Thames and London Bridge. Alas, that was the best you were going to get, if you wanted to know where the restaurant is located. The home page provides you with a telephone number, the opening times and the menus. However, minor detail: there is no address. Scouring the site, in fact, there is no address anywhere, much less Google Maps.  Even worse, when you go to Google Maps to find the restaurant, it does not show up (no SEO or SEM!).

Digging deeper into the site, you only find ways to book online as well as other available activities, such as holding events.  Still no sight of the address.  Even poring through the bottom-of-page footer section, there were no “find us.”

This would be a perfect example of a company more interested in its design and creative than the customer experience.  One of the absolutely primary purposes of a website for a IRL location — such as a restaurant — is the address and how to get there.  How did such an oversight happen?  Perhaps, the people responsible for the site know so well where the Oxo Tower Bar is that they forgot that their potential customers might not.  The digital agency was too keen to make a beautiful site, rather than a practical one.  In my opinion, that is a classic demonstration of a brand or company being product centric versus customer centric.  Not surprisingly, the site is devoid of any social media.

The digital agency ought to be severely cautioned, don’t you think?  Your thoughts!

UPDATED: It turns out that there is a map, replete with Google Maps, but it is on another URL that was completely obscure for me to find.  Here is the site with a map.  I suppose you can find the restaurant with relative ease.  God forbid you want to find the Bar.