Topic 3

In case you haven’t noticed the web is changing. There is a huge movement underway toward clean, simple, user friendly websites that promote productivity and, consumer interaction. The average consumer doesn’t care how creative a design team you have or, how technically advanced your development team is. They want information. Honest, peer driven information.

Whether a potential customer is at your website company to buy a product, comment on your organization, read reviews, download a podcast or, read your latest blog entry, it’s your job to keep them interested and coming back. This is what customer-centric website design is all about.

So what is a customer-centric website?

Simple.  A customer-centric website focuses on customers and what they want. Today’s online consumer is not interested in the company, products or services – they are interested in themselves. 

A customer-centric websites is structured so the customer can easily find what they want or get answers to their questions. By focusing a website on customer benefits and, ensuring a unique user experience, it will not only increase loyalty it willl generate the much coveted word-of-mouth advertising; both key drivers of online sales.

There are a few basic steps to take to get started on the road to a customer-centric website
 :

• Clearly define the product or service and how customers will benefit from it


• Make sure the contact information is never more than a click away
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• Clearly organized and easily navigable site content


• Allow customer feedback on products, services and the site


• Make it easy for customers to get what they want


• Ask customers for a bare minimum of information to register or sign up


• Include in-depth, well written FAQ’s


A successful customer-centric website is created by meeting customers’ needs better than anyone else. 

By focusing every aspect of the website on meeting customers’ needs you’re much more likely to remain a preferred provider. The customer is the best source of advertising for a company that's why you have to meet their needs.

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Presence is defined as “a theoretical concept describing the effect that people experience when they interact with a computer-mediated or computer-generated environment” (Sheridan, 1994). Having a web presence you have the ability to let others know what it is you can do for them. A website presence can mean anything from a website or a blog. Both are very good ways to get known (Miller, 2008). Web presence relates to website design, accessibility from search engines and links, effectiveness of information and how easy it is to find what the user is looking for. Word of mouth can be both a negative and positive for a website. If a user has a bad experience in most cases they will not visit that site again, they may also tell others not to bother with the website either.

Firms that operate through the web should be more concerned about ‘presence’ than those firms that operate in the physical world because it is there only form of contact and means of satisfying the potential customer. Online firms are competing for the consumer the same as the firms in the physical world, although there is a lot more competition for sales online, because of the fact there are tens of thousands of firms in each particular industry in operation. Online firms need that extra something to catch the eye of the consumer. Firms in the physical world have the options of outlets, employees, face to face sales, customer service, Physical presentation and presence in the community. Although online firms have these features to some extent, in the end all they really have is a webpage, a webpage that will bring success to the firm through ‘presence’. 

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Real Estate agents have the opportunity through there websites to reach a higher percentage of the population. Newspapers generally are targeted at a local area, whereas a website is global. Through a website agencies can display a greater number of listings as appose to a newspaper. It also offers an almost endless amount of space to display everything and anything about the listing, photos, videos and virtual tours just to name a few. A search option will give the users a quick and targeted way of searching for properties that suit there needs and not have them searching through endless amounts of properties that don’t suit what they are looking for. “Internet marketing for real estate agents is one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to find new clients and advertise real estate listings” (Brandon, 2009).

A Real Estate Agent will use mass media advertising to show that they are advertising to a large scale market and that they are quick and efficient in doing so. The agency would not use mass media advertising for a particular listing, but for the agency itself, in displaying information about the business.

Personal contact for a Real Estate Agent is very important in that it builds a relationship between agent and seller, and agent and buyer. It shows that the agent is willing to deal with the customer on a one to one basis to help with any problems, questions or misunderstandings they may have. A Real Estate Agent nurtures both the buyer and seller through the biggest transaction they will make in there lifetime, and this is why personal contact is so important.


e-lsa !


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