Should Generating Revenue From A Website Be The Prime Motivator?
A pure sales site has only one purpose... to generate as much revenue as possible at any cost. In other words, your experience--good or bad--is inconsequential to the ultimate goal of the site and may well sacrifice customer satisfaction to make a sale.
How many times have you gone back to buy from a website you've had a lousy experience with? My guess is not very often. I know I don't. How many times have you gone back to buy from a website you've had a great experience with? What was the difference between the two experiences? Do you think the website you had the great experience with was a customer oriented site? And, might it be the other website you had the bad experience with was a sales oriented website?
A business can't survive very long if it's prime motivator is purely focused on sales and revenue. Sure, it may last for a while, but not long-term.
As webmasters and marketers, we must strive to create a long-term business relationship between ourselves and our customers so that they will continue to buy from us for as long as they have a need or desire for our products or services.
No One Does It Better Than Amazon.com
Arguably, http://amazon.com is one of the largest customer oriented and successful website businesses on the planet. They're proof that "build a customer oriented website and they will come." They go out of their way to personalize the shopping experience for every single person.
When I visit Amazon.com, I see a very different selection of products than Linda, my wife, sees when she goes shopping. They know what I've purchased in the past and understand my buying habits. They also understand that my buying habits are different than Linda's and are different than yours. So, they tailor the individual experience for each of us. It makes us feel like the site has been designed around our specific desires.
Amazon.com has gone to a tremendous amount of effort to individualize our experiences. Why? Customers are their prime motivator. Would it have been easier and cheaper to build a strictly sales oriented, sales motivated website? Sure. Would they be the most successful website on the planet if they had done that? Do I really need to answer that?
Customer Oriented, Customer Motivated Website
Okay, so you get the drift of where I'm going with this. You may not be out to kick Amazon.com from the top of the ladder, but the principles are applicable to any website whether you're selling one product or millions of products.
With that in mind, you've decided that your website is going to be customer oriented whereby customers are the prime motivator and your business will revolve around their satisfaction.
You already know from your past experiences that customers will go back to websites where their experiences have been positive. You also understand that the web's a finicky place and it's a "one strike and you're out" business environment. Therefore, you're going to develop your website using your own experiences as a customer as your guide.
What did or didn't you like about the websites you've done business with in the past? What brings you back to the ones you've had good experiences with time after time?
Give Your Customers What They Want
Customer oriented websites will win out over sales oriented sites every time and for the long haul. Develop your customer oriented website to ensure them a satisfying experience and they will tell their friends about you and so the word gets around. Pretty soon your site will be flooded with friends of friends of friends who will all become life-time customers. Lots of happy, satisfied and paying customers means a long-term, profitable and prosperous business. Enough said?
Author Bio:
John Wright is the co-founder and vice president of Your Site Solutions (http://amazon.com) and has many years in the Internet industry. John's experience covers website development, copy writing, deployment and marketing.
Your Site Solutions is a single source provider of e-commerce software, hosting, products and services to meet the needs of tomorrow's Internet businesses.
If you've just finished building your new website (or revamping... Read More
My mother used to take me along when she visited... Read More
ActiveX uses an interesting method for enforcing security ... it... Read More
Choosing the right typeface for your website copy is important,... Read More
No, that's not the real question. The real question is... Read More
So you want to build a website here I will... Read More
~A man [woman] is a success if he [she] gets... Read More
A question we frequently get asked is, "how do we... Read More
Over the years, the internet has grown into a marvelous... Read More
Questions to ask when designing a Web Site for your... Read More
Getting a customer is not easy.Getting a visitor to decide... Read More
This is a two-part article about creating a web site... Read More
A professionally presented business website is a powerful and essential... Read More
Thinking about designing your own website? Think again about adding... Read More
Think of the people who visit your site as blind... Read More
The internet is filled with sites and they are good... Read More
Don't just put your slogan in the title tag when... Read More
If you have a website, you want your visitors to... Read More
Don't mess with those links! When you're designing your site,... Read More
What are websites? Are they sales tools for vendors and... Read More
Conventional Wisdom states you should use Sub-Directories to organize your... Read More
We would all like to have the best looking website,... Read More
Page ranking by search engines such as Google are not... Read More
In today's age of fast food and high-speed Internet, a... Read More
Due to the large number of people offering website design... Read More
Airbnb cleaning service Mundelein ..A Double Ad Tracker is an Ad-Tracker that points to... Read More
Setting up a survey on your site is extremely simple... Read More
You have only 10 seconds to impress your potential buyer.... Read More
There is no doubt that reprint articles can serve lots... Read More
The Internet is a relatively new medium. What works for... Read More
Websites, there are literally billions of them out there in... Read More
Everybody talks about the importance of testing your sales copy... Read More
In this article I will give advice and tips of... Read More
One of the single most important aspects of effective navigation... Read More
Think of the people who visit your site as blind... Read More
Web Design is a very subjective process. Your idea of... Read More
Here's the single most important part of your website: YOUR... Read More
Do use a consistent look and feel Your site should... Read More
With an increasing number of employment portals emerging, it is... Read More
Everything you say and do says something about you. This... Read More
Then it was a choice among crayons, paints and palettes... Read More
In today's world, a web site is virtually mandatory for... Read More
It's a fact, Page Not Found, known as a 404... Read More
"Oh, my eyes, my eyes! What an eye sore. Quick,... Read More
There are two important reasons to build your website from... Read More
Before you take a road trip it is usually a... Read More
1. DO NOT use excessive graphics or banner images on... Read More
Whether you're hiring a designer who has created 10 sites... Read More
Usability isn't only for Web design. It's also applicable in... Read More
Your home page is the most important page of your... Read More
Web Design |