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In the previous section "Setting the primary purpose of your business website", we defined the website's primary objective and discussed basic principles. We will now discuss the identification of secondary objectives.
To start, we need to define the website as a tool. This can be generally divided into two parts: informational and functional. In practice, one part can not always be purely separated as the function often contains elements of information.
Business website informational means
What would the presence of a website mean to your company business for information?
Statements such as "Information about the company" and "Information about products and services" are mundane, along with clichés like "this is your office 24 / 7 online". Nevertheless, this part is worthy of consideration as in practice these concepts are used very inefficiently. An "About Us" page containing a two or three paragraph description does not begin to fully utilize informational means for your website.
"Provision of information about the company" as a means should be of interest to you only as an answer to the question "What kind of Information?". One of the most effective methods to answer this question is to analyze information provided by your staff on a daily and weekly basis to company contractors as well as potential and existing customers. The abstract word analysis hides a simple action: make a list of materials, letters, price lists and other information that is regularly sent to the outside world. Ask your company's secretaries and managers, who continually (and painfully) cope with client communication. For more accurate results that are readily accomplished, hand each employee (discussing matters on the phone and engaged in forwarding information) a blank sheet to weekly record all questions answered by phone, register documents that were sent. In one week, you will have a list of what constitutes "provision of information". Pay particular attention to regularly recurring actions; this is time spent inefficiently. If the typical prospective client request requires your staff's time to constantly provide the same information, send the same documents (basic contracts forms, specifications for products, etc.), and submit the same pricelists and specifications-THAT is wasted time. It is not merely that routine operations waste time (and therefore money); this also has a negative impact on employees' job performance.
Making a list of F.A.Q., routine information, requests, and documents provided by your company on a regular basis can answer the question stated earlier--"What kind of information?"--in the form of an exact list. Further, this information can and should be used as a "popularity rate"; this purpose will be explained in greater detail.
Within a list of standard documents, questions, and requests, you actually have accomplished some secondary objectives for your company's website: reducing staff time on routine operations by providing this information on the site. This is also true for updates, even if done regularly; it is sufficient to update the site's file so it is available. If your contractors are used to receive this information by e-mail, update your mailing list for all recipients.
Your previously made list of popular materials creates structure and defines sections. Without delving into this right now, it should be noted that this list can help determine the structure or thematic blocks on the site as well as to understand the target audience and answer the main question "Why people would visit your site?" We will examine this later.
Business website functional means / tools
Part two is functional means of a site; let's define this.
Customer communication, from your staff's perspective, may sound like this:
- Are you an individual or a company?
- For up to one month or up to six months?
- Please give your phone number or e-mail...
- What is the name of your company?
- Will you, please, repeat?
- And contact person name?
- Is that your real name?
- And e-mail? What is the letter after @? G or J? Will you please spell it again?
An outside observer of that kind of communication might find this humorous; however, that would be misleading because of the important time lost. Names, phone numbers, company names, and more are often incorrectly written. We all make mistakes with spelling and name pronunciations; an e-mail that "bounces back" can mean a return call with a message such as "We've sent, but it was returned with error..." It is not anything special; incorrectly recorded information, such as labeling or size, can result not in mere clumsiness, but rather a problem.
How does this relate to the features of our website? Forms on the website provide the way for the user to get necessary information in a much more effective way than "telephone comedy" which wastes time and money. At times, opinions are voiced that "site forms are featureless, it repels and frustrates visitors, it is not live..."; such statements sound like "You could not swim in May - the sea is cold". Well, choose a different sea; with the help of your website developer, make these forms convenient for your site visitors. Useful forms and interactive site elements are effective not only for you to obtain full-structured and correct data; they are also convenient for visitors. The correct user friendly form is an asset to your visitor. Has it ever happened that you received a provocative telephone questionnaire or survey and the conversation was subsequently delayed or postponed? You were not ready for a question, did not suspect you would be asked, needed time for a decision, or just were not able to provide the necessary information. Alternatively, the follow-up question "What can you offer?" turns conversation into a routine monologue, describing all the possible options and their differences.
When completing a well written form, a visitor does not need to hurry, has time to answer every question, and has access to background information such as footnotes or a link to detailed description page, where he can get all necessary information. This is how the informational means of the website combines with and is part of the functional means.
As a result, the visitor does not feel incapably left stranded with frustrating fields, unclear what should be filled in it; rather, he makes his choice with the help of tips and additional information. Imagine how much time can be saved and used more productively? Instead of a sales manager taking valuable time to call a customer about routine information regarding a product or service, that manager could compose and respond to requests received via the form on the site. Furthermore, to answer questions and communicate by telephone with more than one client simultaneously is hardly possible.
Here is the answer to another common misconception: "In order to communicate with the client, we necessarily need a personal contact". If you are a dental or medical clinic, you may well need a personal contact; even then, you might be able to place an appointment form on your website where visitors can enter personal data and the desired date and time while seeing what is available. If you are not able to maintain information about available hours at the website, no problem; the date and time can be verified by a phone call. This still saves time writing the name, phone, desired date and time, and more.
In conclusion, we have defined your website secondary objectives, including a list of data to be published on the site, and basic forms as well as a list of common questions and fields.
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