Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Casual Articles - The Technology May Change, But Human Nature Remains The Same
India is probably the leader of offshore BPO outsourcing, and there are certain reasons why executives in American countries tend to entrust their BPO needs to their Indian colleagues.Firstly, India possesses a well-developed system of higher education, which accounts for about 85,000 graduates each year, who can boast of a solid reputation in the international business community.Secondly, with the help of BPO outsourcing to India an American firm can reduce their costs up to 40-50% percent in comparison with the sum of money they would have to pay to an American or European employee for a similar job. This gives an organization a great chance to stand out in front of their competitors. Thirdly, employees of BPO outsourcing companies are Indians, who strive for quality and carefully work with the customers' d
No matter how much money and technology some Web businesses throw at automating customer contact, they're doomed to failure. You can only successfully automate something you UNDERSTAND. Unfortunately, many of our dotcom whizz-kids have never had to make a living from real customers in the real world, so they just don't 'get it'. What online businesses DO need to do, is to understand what the customers' needs are in the sales process, and fulfil them.
What is really needed, is a caring, thoughtful fulfilling of customers' needs and expectations at every step in their experience with a Web business site. The better all the small steps are performed, the less need there will be for real-time human intervention (and the higher will be the conversion rate). This means;
-a professional, friendly tone to the complete website
-information about who you are- the company, the founder, the staff. Let your customer know that there are real people there
-sensible ads that don't mislead and set up unrea
Web search engine optimization is necessary for internet businesses that desire good ranking in the search engines and relatively free advertising. By obtaining top ranking through web search engine optimization a business will benefit from increased, targeted traffic that results from their website being displayed in the search engine results requested by prospects that are searching for what they have to offer.Many website owners that realize the vast benefits of web search engine optimization desire to have their websites optimized for the purpose of attracting traffic from the search engines. Though web search engine optimization can be vital to a website's performance, few website owners know how to achieve top ranking.Because of this gap between desire and skill, many
"The technology may change, but human nature remains the same!"
In this wonderful Internet Age, we are all struggling, and succeeding to different degrees, to keep up with the technology. It's a never-ending battle. Web Technology! When it's good, it's often poorly executed, and when it's bad- it's fatal.
Frankly, much of the time, the technology gets in the way of the sales and communication process. Unfortunately, it seems that many people responsible for website design understand the technology available and what they want, more than they understand their fellow man- their potential customers, and what THEY want.
Whoever...?
Whoever got the idea to ask for your name and email addresses before you can enter a site? Try that outside the front door of the local McDonalds!
Whoever got the idea for fancy Flash presentations that take 3 minutes of your time to show off how good the graphics designer was? Try telling people that they have to watch a video presentation before they can enter Wal Mart!
Why can't more than half of Web shoppers find the product they want on a site? Would that be acceptable at the local sports store, or in a mail-order catalog?
Why do more than half of Web shoppers abandon their purchase after they've selected goods and placed them in their shopping trolley? Wouldn't that send your local supermarket broke?
What About The Customer?
This is truly a fascinating time to be a Marketer, and to watch what is being done in the name of Marketing. Look at any successful business in the 'dirt world', and you'll find that it is being rewarded for responding to the needs of its customers, and making more than enough profit to pay its bills. Then look at what has passed for popular success on the Web, and you find that it has to do with how exciting the concept is, how many eyeballs it attracts, how innovative the 'business model', or how revolutionary the technology used is. Nary a word about about the customer satisfaction or profit that are necessary in the real world.
I note with pleasure that some wiser heads are now writing about the "New New Economy", and noting that it's looking more like the Old Economy all the time! This trend will help give credit to those businesses that have been truly successful on the Web (and there are plenty of them), and set up a realistic expectation for those that come onto the Web in the future.
The Fundamentals Still Apply
Take away the technology, and to succeed in Web Marketing, you still need to deliver the basic requirements of Marketing:
-A good Product
-At the right Price
-At the right Time
-At the right Place
It also helps mightily, if you have a good rapport with your customer.
I was delighted a while back, to be asked to lead a Clickz Forum. It posed the following question...
"Whether, in a high-tech age when dot-coms are rushing to automate as much as customer contact as possible, there's still an important place for 'high touch'-- old-fashioned one-to-one sales."
MY answer, was a qualified 'Yes', and my belief is that 'one-to-one sales' isn't 'old-fashioned' at all! Have a look at all the 'new-fashioned' sites that tried to sell autos. They were dismal failures. People used them for information, then went right on down to their local dealership to haggle and buy from real people. No matter how good a job the programmers did of automating customer contact, the customers didn't feel confident enough to complete the transaction on the website. Some businesses are so "high-touch", that wise marketers would choose to use a website only as an information, branding and lead- generation tool, with real people following up the leads.
Sure, you're right, the auto example is an extreme case. And, no, you can't afford to have a real-live salesperson selling that $9.99 CD online. I understand. Even in the real world, we have vending machines, so we don't need a human holding our hand in every sales transaction. It varies with the nature of the product.
Understand Your Customer's' Needs!
No matter how much money and technology some Web businesses throw at automating customer contact, they're doomed to failure. You can only successfully automate something you UNDERSTAND. Unfortunately, many of our dotcom whizz-kids have never had to make a living from real customers in the real world, so they just don't 'get it'. What online businesses DO need to do, is to understand what the customers' needs are in the sales process, and fulfil them.
What is really needed, is a caring, thoughtful fulfilling of customers' needs and expectations at every step in their experience with a Web business site. The better all the small steps are performed, the less need there will be for real-time human intervention (and the higher will be the conversion rate). This means;
-a professional, friendly tone to the complete website
-information about who you are- the company, the founder, the staff. Let your customer know that there are real people there
-sensible ads that don't mislead and set up unreal
There are plenty of free tools online for marketing. And many will get you sign ups and sales. This report is not a commentary on the quality of all free marketing programs. We agree some do work. This report provides an alternative to the "long term" usage requirement necessary in order to find the free "working" programs. It's purpose also is to help eliminate the "seeming" reluctance of free signups to upgrade. It is a way to virally market and to help eliminate long waiting periods when trying to get sales while using free marketing tools found online.1. You Must Ask Advice Before Utilizing Free Tools. You might be surprised what you find out and the secrets that you can learn.Asking advice instead of jumping right into freebee land (to market online) is the smart way to begin your online career. Don't be enticed by the o
Why can't more than half of Web shoppers find the product they want on a site? Would that be acceptable at the local sports store, or in a mail-order catalog?
Why do more than half of Web shoppers abandon their purchase after they've selected goods and placed them in their shopping trolley? Wouldn't that send your local supermarket broke?
What About The Customer?
This is truly a fascinating time to be a Marketer, and to watch what is being done in the name of Marketing. Look at any successful business in the 'dirt world', and you'll find that it is being rewarded for responding to the needs of its customers, and making more than enough profit to pay its bills. Then look at what has passed for popular success on the Web, and you find that it has to do with how exciting the concept is, how many eyeballs it attracts, how innovative the 'business model', or how revolutionary the technology used is. Nary a word about about the customer satisfaction or profit that are necessary in the real world.
I note with pleasure that some wiser heads are now writing about the "New New Economy", and noting that it's looking more like the Old Economy all the time! This trend will help give credit to those businesses that have been truly successful on the Web (and there are plenty of them), and set up a realistic expectation for those that come onto the Web in the future.
The Fundamentals Still Apply
Take away the technology, and to succeed in Web Marketing, you still need to deliver the basic requirements of Marketing:
-A good Product
-At the right Price
-At the right Time
-At the right Place
It also helps mightily, if you have a good rapport with your customer.
I was delighted a while back, to be asked to lead a Clickz Forum. It posed the following question...
"Whether, in a high-tech age when dot-coms are rushing to automate as much as customer contact as possible, there's still an important place for 'high touch'-- old-fashioned one-to-one sales."
MY answer, was a qualified 'Yes', and my belief is that 'one-to-one sales' isn't 'old-fashioned' at all! Have a look at all the 'new-fashioned' sites that tried to sell autos. They were dismal failures. People used them for information, then went right on down to their local dealership to haggle and buy from real people. No matter how good a job the programmers did of automating customer contact, the customers didn't feel confident enough to complete the transaction on the website. Some businesses are so "high-touch", that wise marketers would choose to use a website only as an information, branding and lead- generation tool, with real people following up the leads.
Sure, you're right, the auto example is an extreme case. And, no, you can't afford to have a real-live salesperson selling that $9.99 CD online. I understand. Even in the real world, we have vending machines, so we don't need a human holding our hand in every sales transaction. It varies with the nature of the product.
Understand Your Customer's' Needs!
No matter how much money and technology some Web businesses throw at automating customer contact, they're doomed to failure. You can only successfully automate something you UNDERSTAND. Unfortunately, many of our dotcom whizz-kids have never had to make a living from real customers in the real world, so they just don't 'get it'. What online businesses DO need to do, is to understand what the customers' needs are in the sales process, and fulfil them.
What is really needed, is a caring, thoughtful fulfilling of customers' needs and expectations at every step in their experience with a Web business site. The better all the small steps are performed, the less need there will be for real-time human intervention (and the higher will be the conversion rate). This means;
-a professional, friendly tone to the complete website
-information about who you are- the company, the founder, the staff. Let your customer know that there are real people there
-sensible ads that don't mislead and set up unrea
A product consists roughly of two main elements. The function of the product – what it does or is capable of doing and the usability of the same: how it does it.Product developments starts often focusing on the first element. Compare for example the evolution of the windows operating system. When the first windows (95) arrived we were all amazed (may I say so) with the amount of possibilities we (not Mac or Nextstep users, etc) couldn’t imagine. If you look at the latest release of windows (called vista) the amount of (functional) features is not extensive. Yet the user interface has been improved a great deal. When comparing the four main releases (95, 98 XP and Vista) of the operating systems you could say that in the beginning the increase in functional features dominate where as in the end the non-functional and usability elem
I note with pleasure that some wiser heads are now writing about the "New New Economy", and noting that it's looking more like the Old Economy all the time! This trend will help give credit to those businesses that have been truly successful on the Web (and there are plenty of them), and set up a realistic expectation for those that come onto the Web in the future.
The Fundamentals Still Apply
Take away the technology, and to succeed in Web Marketing, you still need to deliver the basic requirements of Marketing:
-A good Product
-At the right Price
-At the right Time
-At the right Place
It also helps mightily, if you have a good rapport with your customer.
I was delighted a while back, to be asked to lead a Clickz Forum. It posed the following question...
"Whether, in a high-tech age when dot-coms are rushing to automate as much as customer contact as possible, there's still an important place for 'high touch'-- old-fashioned one-to-one sales."
MY answer, was a qualified 'Yes', and my belief is that 'one-to-one sales' isn't 'old-fashioned' at all! Have a look at all the 'new-fashioned' sites that tried to sell autos. They were dismal failures. People used them for information, then went right on down to their local dealership to haggle and buy from real people. No matter how good a job the programmers did of automating customer contact, the customers didn't feel confident enough to complete the transaction on the website. Some businesses are so "high-touch", that wise marketers would choose to use a website only as an information, branding and lead- generation tool, with real people following up the leads.
Sure, you're right, the auto example is an extreme case. And, no, you can't afford to have a real-live salesperson selling that $9.99 CD online. I understand. Even in the real world, we have vending machines, so we don't need a human holding our hand in every sales transaction. It varies with the nature of the product.
Understand Your Customer's' Needs!
No matter how much money and technology some Web businesses throw at automating customer contact, they're doomed to failure. You can only successfully automate something you UNDERSTAND. Unfortunately, many of our dotcom whizz-kids have never had to make a living from real customers in the real world, so they just don't 'get it'. What online businesses DO need to do, is to understand what the customers' needs are in the sales process, and fulfil them.
What is really needed, is a caring, thoughtful fulfilling of customers' needs and expectations at every step in their experience with a Web business site. The better all the small steps are performed, the less need there will be for real-time human intervention (and the higher will be the conversion rate). This means;
-a professional, friendly tone to the complete website
-information about who you are- the company, the founder, the staff. Let your customer know that there are real people there
-sensible ads that don't mislead and set up unrea
How do you secure your rights over intellectual property? When a software development project is finished, who retains ownership of both the software’s source code and the intellectual property rights?These are valid concerns that should be addressed before outsourcing your software development needs, commences. To develop software inside the company’s premises is undeniably safer, but lower cost alternatives nowadays, are enticing.Programs and equipments needed to build software are expensive, local skilled labor may be scarce and time may not be on your side. Offshore outsourcing of your software development needs to India will give you the in-house advantage of being with a virtual team of your own choosing, cost effective, and you will be introduced to a broad spectrum of competencies far advanced than your own.les."
MY answer, was a qualified 'Yes', and my belief is that 'one-to-one sales' isn't 'old-fashioned' at all! Have a look at all the 'new-fashioned' sites that tried to sell autos. They were dismal failures. People used them for information, then went right on down to their local dealership to haggle and buy from real people. No matter how good a job the programmers did of automating customer contact, the customers didn't feel confident enough to complete the transaction on the website. Some businesses are so "high-touch", that wise marketers would choose to use a website only as an information, branding and lead- generation tool, with real people following up the leads.
Sure, you're right, the auto example is an extreme case. And, no, you can't afford to have a real-live salesperson selling that $9.99 CD online. I understand. Even in the real world, we have vending machines, so we don't need a human holding our hand in every sales transaction. It varies with the nature of the product.
Understand Your Customer's' Needs!
No matter how much money and technology some Web businesses throw at automating customer contact, they're doomed to failure. You can only successfully automate something you UNDERSTAND. Unfortunately, many of our dotcom whizz-kids have never had to make a living from real customers in the real world, so they just don't 'get it'. What online businesses DO need to do, is to understand what the customers' needs are in the sales process, and fulfil them.
What is really needed, is a caring, thoughtful fulfilling of customers' needs and expectations at every step in their experience with a Web business site. The better all the small steps are performed, the less need there will be for real-time human intervention (and the higher will be the conversion rate). This means;
-a professional, friendly tone to the complete website
-information about who you are- the company, the founder, the staff. Let your customer know that there are real people there
-sensible ads that don't mislead and set up unrea
It’s a fact that some people are not content with their current job and are looking for more challenges but are wary of the loss of security this may entail. Many others have that urge to start a business but are not sure when, where and how to make the jump to relying upon themselves. Starting out a business can seem overwhelming. Issues such as what you really want to sell, the legal technicalities of starting up a business, developing your business and marketing strategies and building that all important, customer base are just some of the initial obstacles entrepreneurs face. Here’s 4 steps for you to follow. 1. Form and define your ideas. Work out what you want to sell, in what format and who you want to sell it to. Find out what your potential competitors are doing and work out what you can do that is slightly
No matter how much money and technology some Web businesses throw at automating customer contact, they're doomed to failure. You can only successfully automate something you UNDERSTAND. Unfortunately, many of our dotcom whizz-kids have never had to make a living from real customers in the real world, so they just don't 'get it'. What online businesses DO need to do, is to understand what the customers' needs are in the sales process, and fulfil them.
What is really needed, is a caring, thoughtful fulfilling of customers' needs and expectations at every step in their experience with a Web business site. The better all the small steps are performed, the less need there will be for real-time human intervention (and the higher will be the conversion rate). This means;
-a professional, friendly tone to the complete website
-information about who you are- the company, the founder, the staff. Let your customer know that there are real people there
-sensible ads that don't mislead and set up unreal expectations
-relevant descriptions from customer searches of Directories and Search Engines
-quick-loading web pages
-easy-to-understand page layout, with clear information
-easy-to-understand navigation
-a Privacy Policy to allay fears on privacy
-a Returns Policy and strong Guarantee to allay fears of making the wrong choice
-a clear description of your products or services, and clear pricing options
-secure credit card and information handling to further allay fears on privacy
-a friendly, easy-to-use shopping cart
-a sincere Thank You, and information about what will happen next
If all of these things are done, there will be little need for one-on-one selling on MOST sites. You will already have done the job. Through understanding your customer and providing excellent service, NOT by spending more on technology!
Of course, offering some 'one-to-one' contact is a real plus for any business, and necessary for those that are more "high-touch". There are now a number of programs, some even free, that allow a customer to contact a live operator at your site. Check out LiveHelper.com and HumanClick.com Making it easy for your customer to contact your business site by phone, fax and email should be fundamental.
I read once that the definition of fanaticism was "Redoubling your efforts when you've forgotten your original aim". Solving a lack of customer rapport by throwing more technology at the problem, comes perilously close to the definition.
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.casualarticles.com/article/86235/casualarticles-The-Technology-May-Change-But-Human-Nature-Remains-The-Same.html">The Technology May Change, But Human Nature Remains The Same</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.casualarticles.com/article/86235/casualarticles-The-Technology-May-Change-But-Human-Nature-Remains-The-Same.html]The Technology May Change, But Human Nature Remains The Same[/url]
Related Articles:
Idling Away The Hours Surfing And Spending On The Internet
Bookmark it:
|