what do customers want

[obietemp]

Hi
Here's a loaded marketing question. I have worked in retail for over 20 years and am very sensitive to customer demands (and trends). My question is:
Aside from fabulous graphics, what do potential website customers want from their site?
What results do they expect?
Sure professionalismn is a must, but what are the characteristics that they have been asking for most. Shopping carts? Flash?
Are they mostly retail sites?
WHO are the customers?
what careers are they in?
Has anyone tapped into any new areas?
How have you marketed youself as a designer?

I would really like to what your experiences have been....what the customers have been asking for across the board.

thanks

Pat

[Gary Golden]

That is a good question and if anyone knows it he is probably rich mainly because we are all different and our likes and dislikes change with the wind making us truly unique.

From doing alot of surfing though and judging from the types of websites out their, the ones that are in business are not "flash" (MSN, YAHOO, GOOGLE, TRAVELNOW and all the rest), the company sites are "flash". So when representing a corporate image flash is okay but if you want volume a clean site that is well organized.

I agree that it is important to make your site interactive as long as you do not sacrifice speed.

It sounds to me like you want to recieve as much input so you can develop a site incorporating the hot points that will help you succeed, don't forget the most important part of this equation, the search engines that do not necessarily like the same things people like. As Webmasters you have to incorporate the best of both and hope the mix works, some of us have been hoping longer than others though.

Anyways if you figure out the mix share it with the rest of us!

Good Luck!

[voodooboy]

That IS a loaded question. Who are the customers? I have had a menagerie of customers from attorneys to evangelists, Mom and Pop shops to search engines and auction sites, models to movie prop manufactures. They are the guy next door, your own parish or small town grocery. Everyone is a potential client And I mean, EVERYONE.

What do they want? What they want is to succeed, create recognition, increase market share and profit margin. (But isn’t that all of us?) Surprisingly enough, I would say 80% don’t know what they want. Their competition is online so they feel they need to be also. They want to communicate their message, but don’t know how to get it across online. They want to beat their competition into early retirement and be the next big dog on the heap!

The question should not necessarily be what they want? But what they need. Everyone wants to have the number one position on the search engines. But realistically, can everyone be number one? Does your client really need to be number one on Yahoo? It really depends on the clients industry. Are they a niche market, are they global or local?

What most clients need is someone who can tell them what they want when it comes to design. They need someone who can listen to what they think they want, and then evaluate their company and industry and help them to develop to their real needs. Some people want this size font and these colors and this photo on the front, and a clock, a search engine and a couple cool scrolling text scripts that flash and a text based cursor tail to follow their visitors everywhere they go. But is that really what they NEED? 99.9% of the time, no.

We are the designers of this industry, most of us have gone to school to do this, and some of us have had to extend our current fields to incorporate this new industry. But not everyone is a designer. A banker does not design and should be reminded not to try too. That is our job. That is why they came to us. We should not agree that they need a 500 product shopping cart if they only ever plan on selling 10 items. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying to design to restrict growth, but keep them in the realm of the real world. I would never sell someone on a Flash intro if they don’t need it. I would try to talk them out of it by explaining WHY they don’t need it. Some people would do it just for the money. But I look at it this way; they entrust us with their business, their first impression (which means everything) and their budget. What they want is not always what they need to achieve the 3 primary goals: recognition, profit and market share.

WOW! Soap box, exit left. Sorry, I just get going sometimes. The point is that most people have any idea of what they want, but get disillusioned by the options and technical abilities and can’t rationalize the difference between what they want, and what they need to achieve their goals. There are some that know exactly what they want and have done their homework, and we should be grateful for those few as it makes life a little easier when you come across them.

As for marketing myself, I believe strongly in giving the customer what they need (as you can tell above) which gives them what they want even if they don’t see it at first. This gives me a very satisfied customer. Then I begin marketing. I ask for a testimonial regarding my services (credibility) then I ask for 3 referrals. The best marketing is word of mouth. And believe it or not, word of mouth is not necessarily local. You can go national by word of mouth marketing before you know it. Then there are the local business chambers, join one or two of them and watch traffic hit your site. Join a couple user groups and network with those that compliment your services. If you are a designer, then network with programmers and database administrators. They can bring you work and visa versa. I put my URL on everything (and I mean everything) I send out or hand out. From business cards, holiday greeting cards, stationary and emails. Always keep plenty of business cards on hand. If someone asks me for a piece of paper, all I have are business cards (even if I have my organizer with me). That way they write on the back of my card and it is a note they wrote, so they are going to keep it. Eventually they are going to turn that note over and see my card. And yes, I have gotten business that way. I guess if I pushed the online marketing and print media (newspapers and such) I would get more business. But word of mouth actually brings in enough for me.

I know this is more than or not at all what you were looking for, but it is a great question and I hope that between your question and my (long winded) answer, we can get some good input.

[golferboy]

Obviously there is no one answer to the question as there are so many different types of businesses, along with different goals.

But way too many people build flashy sites with tons of graphics and 95% of the people they are targeting don't have the patience for the site to load. Surfers tend to be in a hurry and if they are forced to wait for a site to load, they are off to the next one.

Site designers and the people who hire them have a tendancy to go overboard and forget that most people are still on dial up, dinosaur connections. Yes it is getting better, and will continue as more people get DSL and cable connections, but even my cable connection is relatively slow. I have "lite" vs. heavy duty.

So in most cases I would suggest having a landing page that loads fast, tells what you have to offer, grabs their atention, and then directs them to the fancier, flashier pages which could be loading behind your landing page.

With all the competition on the net, you need to grab their attention fast and while flash and lots of graphics may be pretty, they seldon accomplish your goals of grabbing a new customer or client. Keep it simple initially, and you will have more success with you site being "sticky" rather than slam, bam, goodbye!

Jim Longnecker
http://www.4adot.com<br /> Domain r... hosting<br />

[Greyhawk]

The easiest answer to this is "They want their own way." I recently met with a prospective customer and discussed her current website and what needed to be changed. I told her that the navigation was impossible to figure out(not in those exact words though) and she would need to have a menu bar at the very least.

To make a long story short she went with some one that told her the navigation was NOT THAT IMPORTANT, I figured fine and decided that I would send her to Webpro World to check out some of the sites. That was my good Karma deed for the day.

Greyhawk

[Elite Skills]

customers want what they're looking for to be aquired in the simplest way possible without and frustration or hassle. Whether it be entertainment or fake dog poop you have to target your audience well and be sure you don't make things too technical.

[obietemp]

These answers are all great. Thanks for your imput. I am just starting out and have been doing pages for years as a hobby. I am thinking of actually trying to make a little money at this....without quiting my day job. I agree with the 'simple' way and wondered if the customers really wanted what the designers said they should want. I sort of want to focus on businesses that are not retail based.

Is there a niche that you just wish you could break into?

I work at a college and wondered about making pages for grads/alums as resume pages using their own domain name. Has any one tried that? I know that there are central sites out there like monster.com but I wanted this to be a bit less 'cattle call'....was just curious.

I could ask the students what they think, but sometimes what they think they want and what they actually end up doing could be totally different. I would love imput on that as well.

Thanks a bunch again.

Pat

[kneelsit]

Hi Pat,

Your idea of starting out producing a resume, Curriculum Vitae (C.V.) or "Brag Sheet" as one of my cheeky sons would call it sounds great - particularly as you are at the heart of the action so to speak surrounded by potential customers. This could be prettied up with the appropriate small badges of their past schools, Sporting Club etc. alongside their achievements.

Three simple but most important rules I would ALWAYS apply for any website are:-
1. Fast loading.
2. Simple, obvious and easy-to-follow navigation.
3. Interesting, informative content.

Any graphics should illustrate and enhance the text-based statements.

I am self-taught and have been selling on the net since 97. so I can only say what seems to have worked for me. My only showroom is my website and my customers come from all over the globe. Oh, and I am always in the top ten for my major keyword phrases on Google, Yahoo and MSN.
( My bit of a brag sheet :) )

Good luck.

[gohitech]

- Fast Load
- Ease of Navigation
- Good and straighforward contents
- Informative
- If taking online orders or processing informaiton online, it should be userfriendly and secure


sorry for spelling ;)

[Ejaz]

An online presence ?

Dough ?

Ease off some Customer Service burden ?

Cut down overheads in transaction processing ?

Too many to list...

[Moyeed]

Problem Statement Research :
According to Forrester Research, 40% of first time visitors to Web sites do not return because they are unable to find the information that they are looking for.
- 90% of online shoppers consider good customer service to be critical when choosing a web merchant.
- (WebGreeter.com) Most importantly it is the 95% of " REAL CUSTOMERS " ( serious customers ) you loose because they ( your prospective web customer) could not find the information that they are looking for and there was no one to help.

Solution : ( Provide Online Chat Help )
A) SOFTWARE :
A lot of the companies provide softwares in the market to engage web visitors in conversations to realize what are the customers looking for and give them the information then and there.
B) SERVICE :
Its the human behind the software that is important. Most websites will find it difficult (unaffordable) to dedicate their sales staff sit in front of the computer for 10 - 15 hours a day, every business day of the week.
C) ( SOFTWARE + SERVICE ) :
The combination sounds perfect but the pricing ? Is it affordable ?
Visit www.WebGreeter.com - and have a look at what it provides.

www.WebGreeter.com

[obietemp]

Thanks everyone for taking time to answer my LOADED question.
I have approached a couple of the students I see every day and asked them what they thought about having their own website, posting their resume headshots and even video clips. ( I work in the Theater and Dance Department.) They are very excited. I have engaged them as 'marketing deputies' They will help gather opinions and objections for me.
I spoke with one facutly already about what her opinion would be as a director casting a play, and what she thought about resumes with urls to enhance the vitas. During the conversation, she showed great interest herself about getting a site.....

So thanks everyone for helping me get some nerve.
Pat
http://www.river-tree.net

[Pacific]

Customers want to feel that you are genuinely interested in them, and that you will help them with their goals.

They want to know that you have the experience, knowledge, and tools to get them what they want.

They also want to make money with their project.

Alan
Pacific Websites