Getting the Most From Your Presence in Cyberspace
This year, number of Web sites will grow at an unbelievable rate of 1,000 percent.
The strength of a Web presence is that any organization can look as good or as bad as any other firm on the Web.
Getting on the Web with a home page is a no-brainer.
Getting the most from the Web’s global reach takes a lot of gray matter.
Most Web home pages are developed, controlled and managed by marketing, because “they have the budget”. But the team needs to involve IS, marketing, engineering, advertising, public relations, engineering and customer service.
IS needs to be involved because they are ultimately responsible for protecting the organization’s most critical resource, computerized data.
Before you commit to a home page design, surf the Net and Web. Visit large and small, complex and simple Web sites. Study their strengths and weaknesses.
Determine how to make yours an effective and profitable Web site.
Advertising and marketing materials are usually the first items put on the home page because the Web is often viewed as a new promotional media.
Unfortunately, most organizations stop here; but they’ve really only scratched the surface.
The Web site is an excellent place for marketing and product research. An integral part of your home page should be an evaluation/feedback section. Get input on how you can expand/improve the information presented to help the “reader.”
The Web site can be an open forum for new product ideas and product enhancements as well as a repository for input on products/services customers would like to see.
Your Web site can be an excellent tool for providing timely and cost-effective customer service and customer support.
Customer service and help desk managers agree that 80% of the customer support queries can be solved with the first call, because the questions have been asked before and the solutions are known. Over time, self-help help desk managers estimate that over 99 percent of the customer questions can be answered without human intervention.
Like any publication, the information must be fresh and timely. If the information isn’t continually reviewed, refined, revised, updated and enhanced, the Web site will quickly become a creative shrine with few visitors.
