No, you can't hide in the dark recesses of your little office any longer. You're going to have to actually (GULP) talk to people!
By communicating, your customers will be more likely to make a purchase -- and also be more likely to return and make future purchases as well! They will be able to get answers to questions they might have about your company or product that were not available on your web site as well as have discussions with past customers.
The How-To's of Online Communication:
The Internet offers many new and efficient ways to help you
communicate with your customers than are available in the
"Real World". Some of these include:
- Real-time chat
- Forums/Message Boards
- Newsgroups
CHAT:
Chat rooms are a great place for you to meet with (potential)
customers and also for customers to meet with other customers
to discuss your product or service.
Where can you get a chat room without spending loads of money?
There are many free chat services on the Net which will allow
you to have your own custom chat room -- running off their servers, and not your own.
Click Here
for a list of several good chat services.
FORUMS:
Forums/Message Boards are also a good way to interact with your
customers. For those on a tight budget or limited time, the best
option is a "free hosted forum".
You can find a listing of several of these
Here.
If you have time, money, and desire a more customized forum, you
should take a look at:
CGI-Resources: Perl
and go to the "Bulletin Board Message Systems" category.
These forums will need to be set up on your own server, and
require that you have a "cgi-bin".
NEWSGROUPS:
You should search and frequent the newsgroups (also known as Usenet) to
see what customers are saying about your company and your
products. Feel free to post replies to their questions and
comments -- this will help them to gain confidence in your
company.
EMAIL:
Start a free Newsletter or Ezine (such as the AC Ezine) to keep your customers
posted on what's new with your company. But don't stop there!
If all you have to say is "blah" about you, they'll lose interest
real quick. Include some free tips, links, or whatever you can
think of in your newsletter to keep those subscribers reading!
Offer visitors to your site plenty of opportunities to subscribe.
Once again, see:
CGI-Resources: Perl
in the "Mailing List Management" category for ways of implementing
your newsletter.
Of course, there are many other ways you can communicate with your customers online, but this particual tip is getting awful long... guess you'll have to do some thinking on your own! Ahhhh!!!
