Internet - The World Wide Web
Putting the Web to Work for You

Putting the Web to Work for You

Putting the Web to Work for You
Web success is based on information. The success of your Web endeavors will be directly proportional to the amount and quality of information your Web site gathers and distributes. Over time, the information generated by and distributed from your Web site is likely to have a major impact on the way you do business.

This change, of course, does not have to be disruptive. Change can be introduced as rapidly or as slowly as desired. In most cases, moderation is a virtue. Your firm’s transition to a Web and information-based business can take place gradually, without serious dislocation.

Let’s start by taking a brief look at the Web’s twin roles as an information collector and distributor.

The Web as information collector
As a collector of information, the Web makes it easy for you to sell more efficiently, fine-tune your product and/or service offerings, and do a better job of supporting your customers—which will lead to repeat sales and word-of-mouth recommendations. The Web does this by facilitating communication and dialog.

1. Sales. If your business is set up to accept credit cards and if your product or service can be shipped, orders can flow directly into your Web site for immediate fulfillment. In many cases, however, sales will continue to involve face-to-face encounters: visits to your store or your client’s place of business, telephone calls, and/or personal encounters.

2. Leads. Most businesses grow one prospect at a time. By making it easy for customers to identify themselves—by registering—a properly promoted Web site can create a constantly growing reservoir of new business leads for you and your sales staff to follow-up in person or via e-mail. In addition to basic name, address, position, and area of interest information, your Web site can be set up to provide you with increasingly sophisticated data about your market and its intentions.

3. Questions. The Web offers prospects a nonthreatening, noncommittal way to ask questions without committing themselves to a face-to-face meeting. Two things happen when you encourage Web site visitors to ask you questions. First, by engaging them in dialog, your credibility increases and the customer begins to feel comfortable dealing with you. Second, by keeping track of the questions that customers ask, patterns will emerge that you can use to improve your Web site in the future.

4. Referrals. To the extent that your Web site offers genuinely helpful advice—or meaningful content—visitors to your Web site will refer it to their friends and coworkers. More important, your registration form can directly generate referrals by inviting visitors to submit the names of others who are likely to be interested in the information your Web site contains.

5. Suggestions. No business is perfect. Every business can learn from its customers and prospects. The Web makes it easy for prospects as well as customers to provide real-world feedback at no cost. Since nobody knows your customers better than they do, and nobody knows how well your products perform in the field than your customers do, your best source of market intelligence may be contained in the next customer Suggestion Box feedback form submitted to your Web site.

6. Complaints. All too often, dissatisfied customers are more likely to complain about poor treatment or unsatisfactory performance to their friends rather than to the business itself. By offering free and easy communication, the Web provides an easy way to find out where your business needs fine-tuning.

The above six benefits of a Web site, of course, are based on the creation of a Web site that is more than just an “electronic brochure,” a derogatory term used to describe a Web site that simply provides a one-way exchange of information. Successful Web sites involve a two-way exchange of information. The visitor must be able to choose the information they want to view and the sequence in which they encounter it. Visitors must also be encouraged to submit their e-mail and postal addresses, as well as other pertinent information, so you can involve visitors in the five-step customer loyalty cycle.

The Web as information distributor
Your Web site will succeed to the extent it distributes the right type of information to the right prospects at the right time. There are eight basic types of information your Web site should distribute.

1. Offerings. At the very least, your Web site should describe the products or services your firm offers. The Web is ideally suited to these descriptions because, as David Ogilvy wrote in his Confessions of an Advertising Man over twenty years ago, “the more you tell, the more you sell.” The Web offers you space to communicate as much information as needed to arouse desire for your product or service.

2. Credentials. “Why should prospects buy from you?” Second in order of importance to describing your product and service is the importance of explaining what makes you the best place to buy. Is it your location, your selection, your experience, your warehouse pricing, or what?

3. Education. Ultimate success comes from not only offering the right products and services at the right prices, but also educating your market. Web sites with a strong educational component expand the market by attracting new buyers to your product or service. Adding an education component to your Web site also allows you to step your prospects up to higher-quality products by explaining to them the advantages they will enjoy if they purchase a higher-quality product. Education also enhances your credibility because it proves that you possess unusual expertise. If customers do not understand the benefits of buying what you’re selling, or don’t know how to identify quality when they encounter it, they’re unlikely to buy on more than the basis of price.

4. Incentives. You can close a higher percentage of sales by offering incentives for immediate purchase, such as discounts or premiums. More important, you can use the Web as a promotional medium, inviting prospects to special events or offering visitors to your Web site special discounts or premiums.

5. Ordering information. If your firm is set up to process credit cards, you can often close the sale right then and there on the Web site using a ordering form. In other cases, you’ll want to include ordering information such as delivery and set-up charges, shipping information, directions to your office or store, and mailing or telephone information.

6. Support. Products are no better than the support the seller offers the buyer. A computer software program that doesn’t load or a color printer that doesn’t print frustrates the buyer—often trying to set it up in the middle of the night—and can cost the seller hundreds of dollars in support costs as well as negative word-of-mouth. By providing answers to frequently asked questions twenty-four hours a day, Web sites can simultaneously reduce customer support costs and create happier customers. Customer support often involves replacing time-consuming telephone calls with e-mail; for example, many car dealers offer customers the ability to schedule maintenance on the Web.

7. Enthusiasm. Experienced salespeople know that the initial sale is just the first step; the easiest and most profitable sales come from repeat customers. The Web offers excellent opportunities for maintaining customer enthusiasm by showing customers not only how to make the most of their purchase but by suggesting additional purchases that can augment the pleasure they receive. Web sites can maintain enthusiasm by showing how others enjoy their purchase as well as by rewarding customers by offering them specialized content not available to those who haven’t purchased yet. For example, car dealers can describe weekend drives and provide recommended restaurants and favorable reviews of the cars their customers have just purchased.

8. Image. The above information, plus the colors, layout, and typeface designs used to communicate it, together create an image of the company. Image operates on a nonverbal, emotional level. Image creates feelings of like or dislike towards the firm. Your Web site should project an accurate image of your firm, communicating feelings like youthful, conservative, expensive, high-tech, anti-establishment, or academic.