The Rational Approach To Web Sites And Online Services

Monday 18 October, 2004

by Bruce Drury

This paper is written for all those business owners who don’t have a web site or online services, but think maybe they should, or those that do have these services, but would like to do more with them. It also attempts to answer the most frequently asked question of “How much will it cost”.

Introduction

A web site is exactly that, an introduction. As a starting point it is your building signage online. It can be more than just the display of information. It can be used for online services such as interacting with the public, doing business online, and providing applications that can be used by staff on the road.

It can start out being a simple display of some company information, but can grow over time to provide a range of services. Therefore to avoid wasted costs and to get the best out of the investment, you will benefit from preparation of a high level online plan, which supports your plans for the business over the next three years. This need not be a complex exercise, just a bit of forward planning that will save you a lot of angst and costs later.

Service types

The types of services you can provide fall broadly into three categories Learn, Transact, Interact. The diagram below shows typical services in these categories.

Development path and levels of complexity.

Basic Content. Most basic web sites will start with displaying static content. The only transaction will generally be an “email us” link. A basic site can range between $1,000 and $10,000 depending on the level of professionalism required.

Dynamic content. Including brochures, downloads, news etc that are changed and updated regularly and frequently. This will generally require the use of a content management tool to make it possible to keep it updated. This can add between $1,000 and $10,000 to the cost of the site.

Customer database. This is where the web site is linked to some form of customer database, to hold email lists, user preferences, validate login for client only content and services. Again depending on the supplier of the site these additional services can add between $1,000 and $10,000 to the costs.

Non financial transactions. This type of service is where there are online applications and forms to register for an event, participate in an election and other services. Here you are now potentially into web software development and costs are speculative, other than to say that these applications can start at $5,000 upward.

Financial transactions. This is the type of service where customers can purchase items, pay bills etc, normally by credit card. Aside from any application development as above, the main thing required is access to an online payment gateway. While the technical side of implementing online payments is not too complex, the internal business processes need some serious consideration. The online payments run 24x7 and there is no “end of day”. For fun contact your bank and ask them to tell you what the 24-hour “day” is for credit card payments. A little planning here goes a long way.

Interactions. This is often towards the end of the development cycle, but can be earlier. These include online forums, surveys, voting etc. Again this will have an impact on internal staffing. There is no point in having an online forum running on your web site unless there is some who is monitoring and learning from what people are saying.

Useability, the key

There are two important design considerations for a successful site, information architecture and useability. If you want a site that attracts people because it is easy for them to find out what they want and do the tasks they want, then you need to invest in good professional web site architecture design. Because you have little control over how people will attempt to use your site, the architecture should follow acknowledged useability principles and should be formally tested for useability.

How to work out what you need.

So, what do you actually want or need? I believe every company should have a web site, just the same as you have business cards and a fax machine. Whenever I meet someone in business, or they give me a business card, I will have a look at their web site, to find out more about their company. In many instances this is the only thing you need, a place where people can find out a bit more about your company and how to contact you.

Unless you go to a lot of expense, do not expect that a web site is necessarily a business drawcard. However if you have some really unique products make sure that search engines such as Google index them. That means that someone can find you if they go searching.

Once you go beyond a basic web site that tells people something about you and has contact details, you should undertake an online services plan, discussed above.

You will need to think carefully about what you want over the next three years or you may find that you scrap your investment after 12 months and start again.

The plan should consider who you are trying to target the site towards, what services you want these people to be able to do, and what are your goals for success. For example a goal may be to reduce the cost of people transacting with you, by filling in a form online rather than sending it to you on paper.

Corporate consistency and integration

The web site will be another customer channel and must therefore be consistent with all of the other ways you deal with customers.

Consistency of branding. Ensure that the design follows all of the look and feel of your current published material. Preparation of a new web site can also be a good catalyst for reviewing your current branding.

Consistency of information. You definitely do not want your customers receiving different information and messages from your web site to what they would if they phoned or read other published material.

Consistency of customer channels. The information you have about a customer must also be consistent across all customer systems, especially if the web site is linked to a client database. The client database for the web site should be integrated to and consistent with all other client databases. If a client updates their details on the web site (to save you time and cost) then these updates should flow to to your other contact systems. It is better not to set an expectation of a service, than to not deliver on it.

Costs and benefits

In many cases it is impossible to put a dollar benefit on a web site, as the value of its existence may be intangible. In these cases it is as much a cost of doing business as the signage on your premises. You may never know that someone has heard about you, and decided to check what you say about yourself on your web site, before deciding to call you.

On the other hand there are some very real cost saving to doing transactions online. We recently built an online application to allow people to register online for an event (previously people had to register by sending in a paper entry form). There were 10,000 entries for the event. Previously it had cost over $4.50 per entry to handle the paper forms, versus about 50 cents via the new online entry, giving a saving of around $40,000.

Conclusion

A website is as important as the signage on your premises, and it may be as simple and as inexpensive as that. However there are some significant benefits to providing selected services online. The key to implementing these services is to plan well and to ensure that the services are consistent with all other corporate systems and branding.

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Source:ceoonline.com