{"id":1048,"date":"2012-04-09T04:45:09","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T08:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acscreative.com\/acsblog\/?p=42"},"modified":"2012-04-09T04:45:09","modified_gmt":"2012-04-09T08:45:09","slug":"website-cater-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/?p=1048","title":{"rendered":"How Well Does Your Website Cater to Your Customers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cTechnology is changing your customer, and your customer will change your company,\u201d reports Forrester Research CEO George Colony in a recent blog post. \u201cThe 2009 customer is unrecognizable from the 1999 customer. \u2026 If your business looks the same now as it did in 1999, you are risking irrelevancy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>How different is your business today than it was in 1999? And more specifically, how different is your Web site now than a decade ago? Because online technologies and consumer use of them has grown rapidly in the past several years, if your business website looks and acts the same as it did even just a few years ago, you might not be supplying what your customers require\u2014or what they desire\u2014to do business with you. It\u2019s a good time to revisit exactly how well you\u2019re catering to your customers online. <!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>What Customers Require<\/h2>\n<p>You might be tempted to think that what customers require from a Web site today isn\u2019t much different than what they required 10 years ago\u2014but that\u2019s certainly not the case! The development and adoption of new (and superior) Web technologies since 1999 has escalated customer expectations\u2014and often customers are quick to reject a business that doesn\u2019t provide the functionality that they\u2019re accustomed to using.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a short list of requirements that today\u2019s customers expect a business website to deliver:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"lists\">\n<li>Easy \u201cfindability\u201d through search<\/li>\n<li>Valuable content that presents objective information to help with purchasing decisions<\/li>\n<li>A direct and clear path for completing specific tasks and actions as quickly and painlessly as possible<\/li>\n<li>A secure, easy-to-use interface for online purchases<\/li>\n<li>Interaction with you and others in brand-based and industry communities<\/li>\n<li>Experiences (e.g., authoritative content, authentic engagement) that build trust<\/li>\n<li>Compatibility with major browsers (e.g., Chrome, FireFox, IE, Safari)<\/li>\n<li>Accessibility in all screen resolutions<\/li>\n<li>Consistent messaging and seamless experience with offline channels<\/li>\n<li>Easy accessibility to your presence in social networks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What Customers Desire<\/h2>\n<p>Desirable Web site features are many and frequently focus on factors that help customers save time. Some desirables, though, are unique to specific types of businesses or industries. For example, if you\u2019re an online retailer (think Amazon.com), customers might desire a custom, \u201csmart\u201d checkout system that takes advantage of personalization and past-purchase history over a basic shopping-cart system.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, here are typical desirables that customers want today\u2019s business Web sites to deliver:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"lists\">\n<li>Readable text (e.g., large font size, dark text on light background)<\/li>\n<li>Professional design that supports and enhances task completion<\/li>\n<li>Easy-to-find information (e.g., onsite search functionality)<\/li>\n<li>Familiar, intuitive navigation<\/li>\n<li>Quickly scannable content (e.g., short paragraphs, bulleted lists)<\/li>\n<li>Obvious access to a corporate blog and social networks (e.g., large, easy-to-find tabs, links, buttons)<\/li>\n<li>Fast-loading pages<\/li>\n<li>Content and features (e.g., blog, tool, game) that spark and sustain interest and encourage exploration, engagement and visitor contributions<\/li>\n<li>Enhancements for mobile accessibility<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Become a Caterer<\/h2>\n<p>So, how well does your Web site cater to today\u2019s customers? If you\u2019re like most businesses, on close inspection you\u2019ll likely find there\u2019s room for improvement. Perhaps you\u2019re very good at meeting basic customer requirements, and for that reason, you\u2019ve been content to maintain the status quo. But keep in mind that if you\u2019re not taking strides to evolve with your customers online\u2014and your competitors are\u2014you won\u2019t retain or grow your market share. Take time to determine how your Web site can better serve your customers. They\u2014and you\u2014will be glad you did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cTechnology is changing your customer, and your customer will change your company,\u201d reports Forrester Research CEO George Colony in a recent blog post. \u201cThe 2009 customer is unrecognizable from the 1999 customer. \u2026 If your business looks the same now as it did in 1999, you are risking irrelevancy.&#8221; How different is your business today [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8,9],"class_list":["post-1048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-websites","tag-customer-service","tag-user-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}