Electronic Marketing

1. Electronic Marketing Chapter 13Considerations for Ongoing Customer Communications 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

2. The Value of Repeat Customers • Retailers and wholesalers along with their suppliers are looking for new customers and are trying to determine what new customers like • It is the retailer or service’s responsibility to produce products and services attractive to a niche market and then retain these customers through product satisfaction and customer service 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

3. The Value of Repeat Customers • Marketers should consider spending a fraction of the marketing budget to satisfy and enhance the goods’ and services’ delivery to past customers who are satisfied with the product or service • Electronic marketing provides excellent tools for focusing efforts on fewer persons, attempting to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

4. The Value of Repeat Customers • The Web’s capabilities can: • Be programmed to deliver gratitude to longtime customers • Congratulate new customers or encourage prospects • Supply confirmations to existing clients’ orders • Provide technical support for new product users • Conduct surveys inquiring what changes the customer would like to see • Expand communications to outside suppliers and the general community • Supply associates with the latest company news first 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

5. Where Do You Stand? • It is best to learn what customers think about a product or service before the marketer launches new, ambitious customer service programs • The Web is well suited for conducting prospect and customer, supplier, and ex-customer opinion studies • Many companies today strive for value-added customer service strategies 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

6. Where Do You Stand? • Electronic marketing tools allow the customer extensive knowledge about a product or about the company through information on a company’s Web site or through hyperlinks on the Web site • The marketer should develop a full customer service plan and test it before putting it on the company’s Web site • Customer response or opinion polls can be conducted on Web sites or by e-mail to determine the advantages or disadvantages of the performance of an existing product’s Web site to gain feedback on proposed new product changes 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

7. Where Do You Stand? • Companies are finding substantial cost savings in information transfer between offices that have heavy paperwork involving high sales volume tied to customer service records • Companies with extensive human resources records also benefit from electronic tools 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

8. Should It Be Called Customer Communications? • The value of positive customer relations is glaringly apparent from these customer research findings: • A company loses half of its customers every five years • Two-thirds of the reasons for customer displeasure are breakdowns in communications • One-third was attributable to actual product failure or poor service 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

9. Should It Be Called Customer Communications? • Customer relations are vital for the long-term benefits of both parties, and never before has customer communications been as expedited and rich as with today’s electronic vehicles • Studies have shown that dissatisfied customers will tell at least 10 other people about their bad experience (which, of course, is bad word-of-mouth advertising for the company) • However, with the Internet, that figure could potentially be multiplied by thousands 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

10. Should It Be Called Customer Communications? • Sites should develop or utilize some form of “auto-knowledge” that responds to all incoming reports stating that the question was received and estimates a time frame for how long it will take to respond to the question • It is the marketer’s job, therefore, to initiate, nurture, and improve the customer service program 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

11. Establishing the Electronic Customer Service Program • The marketer might begin establishing an electronic customer service program by asking, “How would I like to be treated if I were the customer?” • The marketer might then investigate competitors’ customer service pages and programs, particularly the successful competitors 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

12. Evaluating the Sources of Feedback In any plan for commerce, online or traditional, “listening posts” must be identified and ranked so that communications mechanisms can be set to gather opinions, either positive or negative. Sources of feedback can be: • Customer complaints • Direct customer contact • Your own e-mail • The formal customer survey • Suppliers and manufacturers • Employee and associates’ sessions • Your neighborhood • Community involvement • Online community involvement 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

13. Evaluating the Sources of Feedback • Delivering services as a number one priority • Sometimes the only concrete proof of an e-commerce firm is its performance in customer service • In organizing a customer service program, two ingredients create a winning effort • First, the marketer must insist on hiring excellent representatives • Second, superior training of these representatives must be undertaken 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

14. Evaluating the Sources of Feedback • These two steps can be followed up with the other portions of the customer service program • Setting standards for customer service • Time-lapse elements • Activities schedule to solve problems 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

15. Making Web Forms • Forms are one of the most popular features on the Web for conducting business • They can add a flexible connection of interactivity to your Web documents by allowing the marketer to conduct surveys, take orders, sign up users, gather feedback, even administer tests • Forms can be very simple or highly complex • A form is a graphical user interface (GUI) that uses text entry fields and areas, buttons, checkboxes, pull-down menus, scrolling lists, and other specialized graphics 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

16. Making Web Forms • The “action” attribute points the form to a URL that will accept the form’s information and perform some task • In order for the form you create to work, it must have an accompanying script or small program that deals with the information to and from the form • The script performs some manipulations of data and composes a response that is typically sent back to the user’s browser as an HTML page 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

17. Making Web Forms • The “method” attribute tells the form how to send its information back to the script • The most common type of “method” is “post”, sending all the information from the form separately from the URL • The other option for “method” is “get”, tracking the information from the form to the end of the URL • “input” is a single tag option for gathering information 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

18. Making Web Forms • Input types vary and are important to creating the perfect form • Most input types require a “name” attribute that sets a unique name for the information being passed to the server • Input tags also use the “value” attribute to assign an original or default value to the input • “text” type displays a simple line of text • “textarea” tag provides an area for multiple-line text entry 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

19. Making Web Forms • Types of input continued… • The “checkbox” type is a valuable resource for surveys and order forms • Radio buttons are grouped together using the “name” option • “file” type provides a file upload feature • The “image” type is used to create an image-based button • The “select” tag shows a list of choices in either a pop-up menu or a scrollable list 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

20. Making Web Forms • Types of input continued… • The “password” type is a modified text field displaying bullets instead of the characters actually typed • The “hidden” type attribute uses “name” and “value” • The “submit” type displays a push button with the present function of sending data from the form to the server • The “reset” type displays a push button with the present function of clearing data from the form to the original values 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

21. How to Make Forms Function • For the forms that you create to function, each must have an accompanying script or small program that deals with the information to and from the form • A script for forms is usually created in a programming or scripting language • The script and the form must match up in order for the script to handle the information the form is passing 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo

22. How to Make Forms Function • Cold Fusion, ASP, and PHP are application servers - programs that work in conjunction with your Web server to deliver Web applications--not just plain Web pages • A Web developer will build Web pages with special tags similar to HTML • The application server interprets the special tags, replacing them with results of whatever calculation or database queries were specified and sends a completed HTML page to the Web Server 2004 Joel Reedy and Shauna Schullo