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Anyone who has ever thought about communication understands that to be
effective interactions between parties have to involve a little listening as
well as talking. In business, the concept of active listening is critical.
Business improvements, new products, and enhancements in service represent
just a few considerations that are inspired by feedback. Website
entrepreneurs who do not lend an ear to their visitors or apply the data
provided by site statistics tools are missing out on big opportunities to
build and establish a solid client base.
Building and maintaining an online presence, particularly a small
business interest without a storefront, can be fairly solitary and isolating
work. Apart from the relationships created with online service providers and
partners, many webmasters are slow to develop important listening skills
that can provide critical feedback necessary to success.
A great place to start is by inviting communication. Probably one of the
most obvious listening posts available to a web administrator is ye olde
guest book. Yes, I know you think its been done to death, but depending on
the type of site, guest books can provide for some interaction and a peek
into the mind of visitors. The fact is, while many surfers will not pull up
their email programs to send comments, guest book forms make it simple to
key a few lines of text and perhaps provide the web builder with some
important customer impressions about the site. Additionally, visitors who
leave their email addresses in your guest book are freely giving you
valuable contact information for future site promotions. These are targeted
leads, folks nothing to sneer at there! So what if many signers are
promoting their own sites, by leaving their own URLs? Consider it an extra
service you are providing to your visitors.
Guest book programs are available everywhere. A simple search on any
engine will provide a heap of options for free scripts. Guest books probably
work best for websites that are advancing a homey or neighborly image. This
includes everything from pages promoting dog-training services to an online
jewelry business. Just remember, guest books can t do a thing for you if you
don t maintain them. Thank your guests for dropping in by inserting your own
comments. Visit your guest book and think critically about what is being
said about your business. Address criticisms and praise appropriately.
Closely akin to guest pages are feedback forms. These are simple scripts
that provide your customers and potential customers an easy way to contact
you. While guest books give visitors a free hand at leaving whatever
comments they wish, feedback forms allow you to elicit the specific data you
need to keep your online business fresh and dynamic. Are you contemplating a
big design change? Do you need to know what material visitors found most
useful and the least helpful at your site? This is great stuff to get
directly from people already interested in what you have to offer.
While considering web site tools aimed at acquiring more visitor
interaction, it is easy to mistake a vote for this site or awards we have
won element for feedback. The fact is that while there is nothing at all
wrong with these programs, their primary purpose is site promotion.
Certainly, some surfers will love your content and design and may want to
reward your efforts with a vote or an award icon, but the result of such
activities are links and increased traffic excellent and noble business
goals, but not helpful in getting you precise information from your paying
customers. Your vote for us program is a tool for driving visitors to your
site; feedback forms are tools that will help you hone the site to
perfection.
Of course the most obvious method for inviting visitor feedback is by
providing a page at your site for contacting the company and at the very
least, an email link to the webmaster or customer service department on
every single page. To do less is not professional and will hurt your image.
Emails from customers and surfers provide important insight into the hearts
and minds of your client base. Some web administrators treat questions as
annoyances and you know it by the sort of language they use in their
content. How many times have you seen web pages that informed you not to
email them unless you had read the FAQ? Or worse, indicated up front that
they only check their email once in a while and may not get back to the
sender for a lengthy period. I once visited a graphic designer s site that
offered work at a discount price (I am truly graphics challenged!). While
submitting my work request form, one question actually stopped me cold. I
was asked to check a box indicating I! understood that my request might not
be responded to for up to 30 days! Can you imagine? I cancelled immediately.
Who wouldn t? Never indicate in web text that emails from visitors are not
appreciated. Encourage interaction. Search for an email autoresponder to
utilize if necessary, but whatever you do, be present at your site.
Contact pages, guest books, and feedback forms are all good examples of
invited or solicited feedback, but there are also many invaluable tools for
getting good information to the web administrator that are not visible to
surfers. They are unseen listening posts. The problem is are web builders
getting their messages?
New webmasters undoubtedly learn quickly that external links can help
them to grow in page rank on some search engines, but do they know where all
of those links are coming from? Google offers a quick look-see at who is
linking to your page. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that you are
becoming popular among a particular web audience. By entering link:
www.yoursite.com into Google s search field, you'll get a quick return of
sites that have deemed you worthy of a link. Try it once and see if you don
t get hooked on promoting more links. If you don t find anyone linking to
your site, then you've got a little work to do. Begin by reaching out to
some webmasters whose sites compliment yours.
Site statistics provided by some web hosts are also excellent sources of
feedback. A good host might offer data such as referring site URL
information, providing another glimpse into where your traffic may be coming
from. Search Engine Optimizers offer insight into creating keyword rich
content and web pages that search engine spiders can crawl efficiently.
These tools are all indispensable when it comes to planning your next new
online business direction or simply making some improvements overall.
Businesses must use every tool at their disposal to create a successful
online presence. With so much effort being spent on crafting exactly the
right message and format, entrepreneurs would do well to remember that
successful communication is a two-way street. And just as we would never
think of hanging up on a sales call, neither should we stifle the vital
feedback from our online customers.
*****
Lisa Casey Perry owns a custom writing service at
http://www.YourWriteSite.com .
She has written successfully for businesses and individuals as well as
published original fiction. You can visit her online at her personal site,
In Vacuo at http://www.geocities.com/perry5@swbell.net.
