Business owners of companies both large and small can achieve rich
improvements in their operations if they start to ask themselves regularly, "I
have just been handed a powerful new tool. It essentially lets me costless
communicate with anyone on the planet. How can I best use it to my advantage?"
To focus, business owners must first ask themselves two questions: As a business
owner, what am I trying to achieve?
Marry your answers to the diverse communications capabilities of the World Wide
Web; you will inevitably create some powerful and highly beneficial new
initiatives.
In exploring strategies for success in the developing environment, it is
essential to recognize a fact that is often overlooked: The Internet is
fundamentally a new communications vehicle. As a consequence, a large part of
its value arises because it permits cost-effective communications — down the
street or on a worldwide basis—that were not possible before its emergence.
Why is this so important? Because many people have a very different view of the
World Wide Web. They will suggest that the Web is an entertainment medium
—something that has more in common with the television than the telephone. This
focus is easy to appreciate; the typical person is more interested in the new
offerings on the Web that can entertain him or her than the less exciting
details of enhanced communications capabilities. In addition, Internet use is
the first activity in over forty years that has been clearly documented as
something that causes people to spend less time watching television. It's
therefore natural to think of it as a substitute for this medium.
Benefits of Internet Telephony to Your Business:
1) Availability Completely under Customer Control. With the internet,
visitors—potential customers —come to Web sites at their convenience, making
them far more receptive to what companies have to say because the customers
aren't being intruded upon (as happens with telemarketing).
2) One-to-Many Communications Performed Seamlessly. The Internet offers
one-to-many communications systems without losing the privacy or interaction
possible by phone. A single posting at a Web site reaches as many people as
visit the site that day
.
3) Reduced Effort, Time, and Cost. The Web makes things easy and affordable.
Not all businesses are currently bringing in added profit via the Web yet;
nonetheless, every business needs to be working on it in order to be competitive
today.
The Web makes it possible for companies both large and small to develop new
communications processes that save time and money while enabling faster
responses to customer needs.
Many industries rely on widely distributed field sales forces that may consist
of independent agents or company employees. In today's fast-moving business
environment, providing these frontline soldiers with the most up-to-the-minute
information and the best possible tools and support is critical to success, and
by using the Web, companies can do so at far lower cost.
2) Availability Completely under Customer Control.
With the Internet, visitors—potential customers—come to Web sites at their
convenience, making them far more receptive to what companies have to say
because the customers aren't being intruded upon (as happens with
telemarketing).
3) One-to-Many Communications Performed Seamlessly
The Internet offers one-to-many communications systems without losing the
privacy or interaction possible by phone. A single posting at a Web site reaches
as many people as visit the site that day.
4) Reduced Effort, Time, and Cost.
The Web makes things easy and affordable.
The Web makes it possible to communicate regularly with a large volume of
customers at virtually no cost.
Businesses can generally benefit by disseminating information; yet up to now,
there has not been a cost-effective, satisfactory way of timely customer
notification. Not only is direct mail costly, but the timing of delivery is
erratic and an overwhelming amount of it is never even opened. The telephone is
timely, but information disseminated by telephone is also costly and runs the
risk of alienating customers who don't want to be bothered by solicitors.
Enter the Internet. The World Wide Web gives companies a low-cost method to
communicate with existing customers and to reach out to potential ones with a
timeliness that has never before existed.
The new capabilities created by the Internet far exceed what could be
accomplished with the telephone. Consider how a well-designed Internet
customer-communications system can work:
1.) Orders are confirmed by e-mail —first immediately after they are placed, and
again when they are shipped out. The shipping confirmation notice includes an
internal tracking number to help customers locate the package if it fails to
arrive on a timely basis.
2.) Customers can register for e-mail notifications of various kinds. By filling
out an online form, customers can request to be notified about newly available
products that are likely to be of interest to them.
3.) "Missing" customers can be inexpensively lured back: If a frequent customer
has not made a purchase for some time, the electronic retailer can send a $5 or
$10 digital coupon to encourage a return purchase. These types of ongoing
efforts to build loyalty can be triggered by well-designed automated databases,
combined with virtually costless e-mail, to create an inexpensive, potentially
high-return, and customer loyalty program.
This suggests a central strategy for any business today: Gather e-mail addresses
from customers (and permission to contact them using these addresses), even if
you don't yet have an interactive Web site. Every business from a major
manufacturer to a regional discount store to the local plumber will find that
well-designed e-mail messages can be a low-cost, highly effective means of
building profitable revenues. In Strategy 7, I discuss how a local pest-control
business might benefit tremendously from an e-mail-based initiative.
The Importance of round the clock availability
Like a good catalog and 800 numbers, the Internet makes your company accessible
to customers worldwide twenty-four hours a day. However, the “Web” is better
than the world's greatest catalog."
Here's why:
Additional visuals as well as more written detail. Catalogs face an inherent
limitation: Paper and postage are costly. As a result, details —other views of a
product as well as more written description—often have to be left out. So while
the 800-number operator can read to customers the special washing instructions,
if the product is offered on the Internet, the consumer can read the special
washing instructions for him- or herself, scroll through a more lengthy product
description, and in all likelihood, see more than one view of the item.
Expanded offerings. Today catalogs
typically list only a portion of a company's offerings, simply because more
listings mean expansion of printing and mailing costs. The Web obliterates this limitation.Remember too, that anything that can be accomplished online instead of by phone
is more cost effective. A five-minute call to order a $50 item, at a cost of $1
per minute, means that the call is a significant percentage of the cost
structure, and a five-minute inquiry—with no purchase attached —creates a
financial loss in addition to time lost by personnel who might have been making
a sale to someone else. This contrasts with use of the Internet, where—to the
extent that communications cost exists—they are trivial, and consumers bear the
cost of company contact by paying their access service.
The Internet has now led to a new definition of what customers have come to
expect: In the emerging era, businesses are almost required to provide
twenty-four-hour Internet communications, so that the consumer can shop from
home whenever he or she wants to. Sites that prosper will be more than
order-taking vehicles; they will provide a creative, educational experience that
builds knowledge about their products and services and engenders sales as well
as ongoing customer loyalty.
Whether your business specializes in Porche luxury cars or temporary employment
services , the Web offers you the opportunity to find people who are looking for
what your company sells.
Arthur Fellon Document Preparation
Ace Employment Service Agency
www.badgerlinux.net
www.aceemploymentservices.net
link to : Site Map Url list
link to : Site Map Title List