Traditional purchasing habits and brand loyalties are a thing of the past. They've grown accustomed to shopping and interacting with businesses over the Internet. They want personalized service and satisfying experience. Learn what you can do to keep up with these trends.
Does Your Site Pass the "Total Customer Experience" Test? Three improvements you can make right Here are a few questions to ask your self now to enhance your customer's experience. about your current Website and backend network. By Eric J. Adams Does my Website: Here's the good news: After years of tinkering, your Website is finally well-designed and running smoothly, you've got Flash .animation, you've got the e-commerce bugs worked out, and you've Persuade, engage emotion, or build trust got a handle on site metrics. on every page? . Provide customers with fast, easy access to sales, service, and support resources? Now the bad news: Customers are demanding more. They are .fickle in the face of a wealth of choices in what and how they buy. Provide rich Web content that reinforces Traditional purchasing habits and brand loyalties are a thing of the marketing objectives? .past. They've grown accustomed to shopping and interacting with Offer customers multiple methods of businesses over the Internet. They want personalized service and getting service while delivering a satisfying experience. consistent personalized experience? . Offer efficient e-commerce capabilities, such as online ordering, order tracking, "In short, Web visitors want to be persuaded, they want their and online support? emotions engaged, and they want assurances of trust," says Susan . Offer a consistent customer experience Weinschenk, Chief of Technical Staff at Human Factors at every point contact? International, Inc. The Fairfield, Iowa-based company with offices in .the United States, Europe, and Asia, provides consulting and Integrate with walk-in or contact center training for Web and software usability. sales and support? . Use Web 2.0 services to extend my brand beyond the site? Weinschenk collectively calls these customer expectations a PET (persuasion, emotion, trust) scan, and visitors do it every time they view a Web page. "You need one of these three reactions to inspire Does my network: the next action - be it clicking for more info or making a purchase." . Offer employees multiple ways to quickly Here are three steps you can take right now to ensure a successful and securely access customer data, PET scan on your site: history, and order information? . Provide multiple ways for employees and trusted vendors to gain secure access to 1. Build Trust with Web 2.0. One way to build trust with company network resources? customers is to be a legitimate provider of useful and .objective information. There are so many new services and Provide reliable network connectivity for tools for sharing and delivering information these days that remote branch offices and mobile or at-experts are collectively using the phrase of Web 2.0 to home employees? describe them all. If the answer is "no" to any of these Take, for example, HousingMaps.com, which combines the questions, you've got some work to do. But power of Google Maps with real estate classifieds posted now, at least, you have a goal. Create a plan on community site Craigstlist.org to deliver to potential of action that will take your Website to the buyers satellite images of an advertised property. Users next level. Contact a Cisco certified partner can visualize the property's exact location and to learn more about how Cisco Secure simultaneously view information about the property. Network Foundation and Unified Communications can help your company And Cisco itself is one of many companies offering selected maximize its Website and help ensure news and information feeds via a RSS (Really Simple customer loyalty. Syndication) feed, another Web 2.0 technology. Once customers subscribe to an RSS feed, they are sent automatic updates and alerts as they are released by the content creator. Many companies are using Web 2.0 technologies engender trust with customer: o Interactive maps o User-written Websites, called "Wikis" o Blogs o Real-time social networking
Today, many smaller businesses are using what's called "mash-ups" to combine blogs, RSS feeds, and other tools. For example, a site might combine industry news with commentary and customer insights. Although all three elements were originally created for, and posted on, different sites, they're combined and presented in a single Web view. In this way, Web 2.0 tools allow companies to add immediate value and their unique perspectives to developmen... [download for more]
