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Let_Your_Little_Website_Shine_Part_3
| Let Your Little Website Shine Part 3
Thanks for joining me again for this series! One more note about
your website before we move on. To enable faster loading, make
sure you designate the size of your graphics in your code and
create alternate text (the alt tag) for those who dont feel
like waiting for your page to load. Now we move on to just plain
good customer service: 4. Quick response when people request
information, report trouble: This one pretty much speaks for
itself, but it is worth mentioning a couple of things about
this. Try, if you can, to check your email at least 3 times a
day. Many people are shut-ins or retired or homeworkers, and
they expect a quick response to their questions or complaints.
If your Internet Provider can give you access to
Auto-Responders, these are fairly successful in giving your
website visitors a quick response that says you've received
their email and will respond as soon as possible, but sometimes
these auto-responders annoy people more than they put them at
ease. Human beings always prefer to talk to human beings. This
is especially evident in the fact that people still consider
voice mail and answering machines a necessary evil. Some may see
your auto-responder as just that. Auto-responders are more
effectively used when someone wants some detailed information
and wants it immediately. If at all possible, ask for their
phone number so you can call them and give them answers live. I
cannot count how many times I have answered our corporate line,
only to hear a big sigh of relief on the other end, followed by
the person saying, "Wow, I got a live voice!" Many people prefer
not to be called on the phone, so give them a choice when they
write to you. Some are paranoid that you're going to try to sell
them something. If they email and expect email in return, make
it polite, prompt, and helpful. If you are not sure what they're
asking, don't try to create an answer from incomplete facts from
them. Ask them to clarify by return email so that you may answer
their question more effectively. Customer service, customer
service, and more customer service will make you stand heads
above your competition. Try a little experiment with some of
your competitors. See how long or in what way they respond to a
question about their site. As far as reporting trouble on your
web page operations, this was mentioned in Element 3 above. If
they are reporting trouble about a product or service you sold
them, offer them choices of restitution. Most people will not
want to return something if it can be resolved over the phone.
Give them a liberal guarantee, like 90 days or something.
They'll appreciate this more than you'll know. 5. Is useful:
There is nothing worse than going to a website that you expected
to find "content" in, only to discover it is just a bunch of
garbage sales talk or just plain trash. This is usually the case
when a company does not understand how to sell on the web or is
just plain too lazy to plan their content carefully. A website
should be useful to the target market of buyers you are aiming
at. If you are selling widgets, have a section of FREE
information just on everything you can find out about the
history of widgets and all aspects of using them. If you provide
a service, have some information that is useful background for
the buyers of that service. Sit down with a pad of paper before
you ever design your website, and make a hand-written plan of
how you want it to look. Include the elements described in this
article. Giving something free on your site, like free
information that is really worth something, will make them feel
more at ease about purchasing whatever it is you are selling. If
a website only sells something but gives nothing in return, it's
just plain garbage. Many MLM websites are like this. (no offense
to MLMs!) In contrast, one couple decided they really loved
peacocks, so they created a website based only on information
about peacocks, such as how to raise them. The website started
out as just a hobby type of site, but the end result now is that
they sell more peacocks than they can breed. They are sold out
as soon as babies are born. The other end result is that the CEO
of the company wrote a full-length book just on peacocks and
sells that on his website now, too. Another example was a man
who decided he was a pretty knowledgeable government contractor.
He wrote articles on his site about how to have the upper hand
when it comes to being awarded government contracts. His site is
now selling a lot of information, as well as providing it free.
His company was recently purchased by another company and sells
books, CD-ROMs, and all sorts of other information about this
subject. These websites, in contrast to those websites you see
that just look like sales letters, are useful. They serve a
purpose that keeps people coming back. No one wants to see a
whole website dedicated to "I love my company and this is what
we do". They only care what you do if you dedicate one page to
"About Us", and the rest of the website keeps their attention
with useful information. Plan your website around your expertise
on a given subject. Eat, breathe and sleep that subject. Learn
everything you possibly can about the subject, and write about
it. Gone are the days that you can have a website that just
sells information. You've got to "give away" some of your
expertise, too, or your website hits are going to be pitiful at
best. You'll be lucky to get 10 people a day to come and look.
Enough said on this little pet peeve of mine!
About the author:
Lynne Schlumpf is the CEO of Route 66 Cyber Cafe, Inc.,
http://www.r66cci.com, a Web hosting and design company
specializing in promoting websites for new owners, building
affordable e-commerce sites, and providing reliable web hosting
solutions as an affiliate of Virtualis Incorporated.
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