Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Importance of Web Design for Businesses

By Michelle Ming


Businesses and individuals both use the World Wide Web as a means to find, discuss, and distribute information. Using search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo, businesses are able to increase the exposure to their products and services while also enhancing their websites' search engine results. Corporations are constantly competing for consumers' business, advertising their low prices, superior customer service, and business results. Today's consumers have too many tasks needing completion, to be calling customer service for assistance. Today's consumers turn to the internet to self-service a lot of their business needs, and corporations have answered those needs by providing additional options and awarding the members who complete business transactions online.

A catchy mobile website with ease of access makes a world of difference to the travelling businessman who has meetings, conferences, and flights crammed into his busy daily schedule. A self-explanatory and user-friendly website design could be the deciding factor for whether or not your company retains the business for a stay-at-home mom who is juggling kids, bills, and day-to-day life. Consumers gravitate towards businesses that provide informational, quick-loading, and effective websites. Consumers want a variety of easy options to get in, have their needs taken care of, and get out. They want searching options and site maps that will take them directly to what they're looking for, which avoids wasting even a moment of their preciously busy lives. They want online shopping carts that save and list out their selections clearly and in an easy to update format. They want to view and compare the products they are ordering, without waiting a long time for the page to load. Businesses recognize these needs and an increasing number of websites provide consumers the ability to self-order, update, and cancel their vast variety of accounts, policies, and services.

Consumers have been holding businesses to increasingly higher standards for the level of quality and the efficiency of service for their needs. They expect businesses to advance alongside technology and provide newer options for better, faster, easier methods of conducting account transactions from anywhere in the world. As corporations are impacted by the steady demand for more cost-effective and streamlined servicing, business owners need to ensure their websites contain easy to understand, quality information which in turn promotes self-servicing by consumers. They have found an increased need for frequent website redesigns and constant site maintenance to accommodate for such exponential growth. Business owners also need to remember that despite the pressures of consumer demands, consumers don't want the quantity of available methods for account maintenance to overshadow the quality of servicing and websites. Although the world is wrapped up in the conveniences of this technological age, consumers have not forgotten the backbone of good old-fashioned quality service and products.

Business owners ensure their products and services encompass as many consumers in as many different ways possible, by encompassing a variety of marketing tactics. Many businesses have given the consumer the option to self email marketing materials from the websites, and some have even seen a significant increase to their marketing database by means of a "refer a friend" option that existing clientele can utilize. By marketing to consumers via email, business owners have the advantage of reaching consumers when it is convenient for them to view what your company has to offer. With the power and ease of online marketing, businesses have started offering discounts and rebates to their members for conducting transactions online. Many have encompassed a greater variety of web-based marketing strategies to optimize productivity and business results.

With all the demands of the consumer, business owners truly need to be creative and put their thinking caps on when it comes to website design. They need to create an effective and interactive website that encourages not only consumer self-service capabilities, but doesn't slow down with increased access and usage. An increasing number of websites now offer online troubleshooting support for consumers in both chat and forum-based systems. Websites also often have a "frequently asked questions" page, which provides problems and solutions to some of the most common scenarios. By posting a list of these questions and answers, the volume of assistance needed is greatly reduced. This allows the company to allocate that time and resources elsewhere for a more efficient operation. The business owners in this modern era have recognized the necessary changes of redesigning their websites and systems to provide an easy, efficient, and excellent method of providing quality care and assistance to their consumers, both around the clock and worldwide.

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