Replace job titles and stock phrases with two or three sentences per person: what they do for customers, one specific thing about their experience, and a recent, real photograph, ideally drafted in their own words.

The page called Our Team

A grid of photographs, two of them grey silhouettes. Under each, a name, a job title, and a paragraph.

The paragraphs say each person is passionate about customer service, brings a wealth of experience, and enjoys spending time with family. Swap any two and nobody would notice.

The job titles mean something inside the business and very little outside it.

Visitors open this page for a reason, and most team pages do not give them what they came for.

Why visitors open it

Somebody about to call wants to know who they will be dealing with. Are these real people, do they know what they are doing, and will they understand my situation?

For a firm where customers deal with one person over months or years, that question carries real weight. Choosing a broker, an accountant or a contractor is partly choosing the person.

For a trade that works inside people's homes, the question is sharper still: who is going to be standing in my kitchen?

A wall of identical phrases answers none of it. It also suggests nobody at the business could think of anything specific to say about the people who work there.

What a useful bio says

The third is the hardest to write and does the most work. Fifteen years of experience says little; eight years handling claims before moving to the brokerage tells a customer what that experience was, and why it might matter.

Phrases to take out

Passionate, dedicated, committed to excellence, a wealth of experience, a true team player, strives to exceed expectations. Each could be said of anybody, so each says nothing about this person.

Job titles need translating too. Account executive, commercial lines, tells a customer less than looks after insurance for contractors and restaurants.

A line about life outside work can stay if it is true, specific, and the person wants it there. Coaches the under-eleven soccer team says more than enjoys sports.

Pick first person or third person and use it for everybody. Third person usually reads more naturally on a business site, and mixing the two reads oddly.

Why the team should write them

The person in the bio knows what customers actually come to them for, and their own words sound like them rather than like the website.

An owner writing eleven bios in one evening produces eleven versions of the same paragraph. That is where the stock phrases come from.

Asking people to write a bio from a blank page rarely works either.

Three questions work better: what do customers usually come to you for, what is a job you were glad to have done, and what do you wish people knew before they called?

The answers then need editing for length and consistency, which is a job for one person with a firm hand. Three or four sentences each is enough.

A worked example

An independent insurance brokerage in a small city had eleven staff on its team page. Each had a title and the same sentence about finding clients the best coverage.

The photographs came from three different years, and two people had none.

The owner sent everybody the three questions by email and gave them a week. The answers came back in plain, specific language, with more detail than anybody needed.

Each was edited down to three sentences. One account manager's bio now says she looks after farms and contractors, and spent years handling claims before joining, so she explains what a policy will pay for before it is needed.

A photographer came in one morning and took everybody against the same wall in the same light. Callers began asking for people by name, which had rarely happened before.

Photographs that belong together

A team page looks organised or chaotic mostly because of its photographs. The same background, light, framing and day make eleven different people look like one business.

A professional photographer for a morning is usually worth it, and the setup can be noted so new staff are photographed to match.

Real and recent beats flattering and old. A customer who meets somebody whose photograph is ten years younger notices.

Ask before publishing anybody's name or face. Some staff will prefer first names only, or no photograph, and the design should handle that cleanly rather than with a grey silhouette.

Keeping it current

People leave. A bio for somebody who left two years ago sends customers asking for a person who is no longer there, and makes the whole page look abandoned.

Put the team page on the checklist for anybody leaving, so their bio comes down the day they go, and on the list for anybody joining, so theirs goes up within the first month.

Think twice about listing everybody's direct email address. Addresses published on a web page get collected for spam, and a contact form or the main number does the same job without the junk.

The counter-case

Not every business needs a page for every person. A company with a large crew and frequent changes may do better with bios for the owners and team leads, and a group photograph for everybody else.

A one-person business needs a good about page rather than a team page of one.

And staff who never deal with customers do not have to be featured if they would rather not be.

Short, specific bios in each person's own words, with real photographs, for the people customers will actually meet.

This month

  1. Send everybody the three questions.
  2. Edit each answer to three or four sentences.
  3. Cut every stock phrase that survives.
  4. Book one morning for photographs.
  5. Use the same background and light.
  6. Ask permission before publishing.
  7. Add the page to the leaving checklist.

Step one is what makes the rest worth doing. Bios drafted from each person's own answers start specific, and editing specific material down is far easier than inventing it.

Writing short, direct answers of the kind that also suit search results is covered in writing answers for the featured snippet.

Frequently asked questions

What should a team bio include?

What the person does for customers in plain words, who they usually help, one specific fact about their experience, any credential customers recognise, and a recent, real photograph.

Which phrases should come out?

Passionate, dedicated, committed to excellence, a wealth of experience, team player, strives to exceed expectations. Each could describe anybody, so none says anything about the person in the photograph.

Why should staff write their own bios?

They know what customers come to them for, and their words sound like them. One person writing every bio in an evening produces identical paragraphs full of stock phrases.

How do I get useful answers from staff?

Ask three questions: what customers usually come to you for, a job you were glad to have done, and what you wish people knew before calling. Then edit each to three or four sentences.

What makes team photographs look right?

The same background, light, framing and day for everybody, ideally taken by a professional in one morning, with the setup noted so new staff can be photographed to match.

What happens when somebody leaves?

Their bio should come down the day they go. Put the team page on the leaving checklist, and on the joining checklist so new people appear within their first month.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Team page full of job titles?

Point us to the page. We will write the three questions for your staff, then edit their answers into bios.

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