Competent websites enable superior communication - by S. Rizal A competent website (CW) enables superior communication for any business big or small. CW's are those that have site architecture, navigational architecture, and design functionalities to distribute and collect information in correct proportions. CW's balance color, design, content, multimedia and are dynamic with ecommerce capabilities. CW's facilitate superior communication, thus having a very big impact on the business model. They help to communicate more at less cost and most important they enable communication flow in both directions, from business to prospect and vise-versa. In short they create a dialogue between a prospect and the business. A CW is both an information distributor and a collector. It distributes the right type of information to the right prospect at the right time. It describes the product and services that is to be sold. This is based on the advertisement principle, the more you tell, the more you sell. It focuses on the advantage that a firm has over its competitors. It can be a variety of reasons like experience, location, products etc. A CW turns a prospect into a customer. It then turns a customer into a repeat customer. To keep this cycle going on it maintains enthusiasm by rewarding or offering special content to customers. CW's distribute information that has great value to the buyers. It replaces telephones with emails and does not frustrate a buyer. It also educates its customers. This is a good way to bring in new customers to a pool of loyal customers. Educating customers helps making them understand the benefits of the product. A CW always projects actual image of the firm. It is the image that enables customers to like or not like the firm. It always distributes good quality information and in the right amount. The information generated and distributed has a very big impact on the business model. Being an information collector a CW helps fine-tune products and services, enables efficient selling and performs a good job of customer satisfaction. This leads to customer loyalty and word-of-mouth recommendation. The power of a CW to bring in dialogue between a customer and business is its main key advantage. As an information collector it can perform several functions. It has an ordering form built in it with all necessary details. It is setup to accept credit cards thus promoting online sales. However, the business should have the capacity to ship orders. In some ways it could replace a physical store. CW enables customer registration, one of the key tools that help generate and develop a database of potential customers. It also allows customizing the experience of every visitor. One can pre-qualify oneself by indicating ones interest, previous experience and a website offers every visitor a different experience depending on the response. It gives great opportunity for converting a prospect into a customer. As the prospect does not have a face-to face encounter a feeling of comfort is there while asking questions. These questions help to develop the business model and upgrade the website. A CW helps to promote word-of-mouth. It has meaningful content and layout. In an imperfect world we cannot expect a website to be perfect. However, feedback from prospects and consumers help a lot in gathering market intelligence. The power of a CW to accommodate complains helps in fine-tuning a business. It is more than an "electronic brochure". A CW helps customers to qualify themselves. It qualifies visitors by asking questions on the home page. Qualification is important because no two web site visitors have the same information needs. By helping web site visitors qualify themselves, it makes it easier for them to locate important information and does a faster and more efficient job of satisfying their information needs. Properly handled qualification questions can perform important functions. Visitor's response to a series of qualifying questions can direct visitors to the pages of a web site offering desired information. For example, a software publisher may sell products for different users. By asking qualifying questions it saves the visitor's time by taking them directly to the information they are interested in. By offering an opportunity for customers to qualify it can track the option each visitor chooses and it can add this information to the database. It converts communication from a monolog to a dialogue and responds to a visitor's request for information. The www was invented to enable scientists and military share information. However, it has evolved and become an important business tool, marketing vehicle and shopping and entertainment medium. It has succeeded in making the world a global village and touches the lives of millions of people everyday. Although most business people feel that a website is no longer optional a lot needs to be done to reap its ultimate benefits. Embracing the web enables to take advantage of the latest technology and offers an opportunity to re-examine a business model. Benefits of new media by S. Rizal New media (the Internet) has more benefits compared to older mediums of communication such as print and TV. Color sells because it communicates better. It is easy to notice, remember and be read by a larger audience. It is also more convincing and looks organized. Although, with the advancement of technology the cost of colored ads, brochures and other materials have gone down yet remains to be significantly high. However, the web is the only medium where color is free and communication can be done better without increasing cost. Color photographs do a better job of communicating and are very costly. Web offers free color photographs and the cost does not increase with size. It also gives the flexibility of changing photographs without cost as compared to printed materials. Compared to old media the web enables enough space to describe the product. At the same time allows a visitor to concentrate only on the information they want by a method called hyper links. It is very flexible to update and this is the major advantage as compared to the print media. Print communication is static but everybody likes movement. Web permits movement to online communication and attracts more people. It also allows adding music and video, which is the demand of younger generation. Web has successfully converted a business to a seven day/twenty-four store. Statistics show that most online companies do business at night. It gives a global presence. It converts communication from a monolog to a dialogue and responds to a visitor's request for information. Old methods of advertising transfer the same message in the same sequence. Website permits to go directly to the information a visitor wants and avoid information he or she does not want. It also allows customizing the experience of every visitor. One can pre-qualify oneself by indicating ones interest, previous experience and a website offers every visitor a different experience depending on the response. It also allows easy follow-up and flow of communication between a prospect/consumer and the business. Registration forms are good tools for the creation of databases. A visitor visits a website because of its message. Unlike radio and TV the visitors attention is monopolized by the computer screen a website dominates the prospect's mind. Personal computers have become part of our personal lives and web sites have become a mass marketing medium. Electronic delivery has reduced the cost of distributing information. Pass-word-protected files enable to sell important information at low cost and no time. Music is also sold over the Internet. Posting answers to FAQ can reduce customer support costs and frustrations. Prospect can pre-qualify by indicating their interests and previous experience which enables focused selling. Vendor relationship becomes better as the web enables to involve the vendor in each transaction. Though the initial cost of setting a website may be very high, in the long run it eliminates many costs associate with traditional marketing in the process of distributing a message. It reduces newspaper, magazine ad costs and also printing and postage costs. It also eliminates costs associated with color photographs and enables a business to be price competitive. It offers new opportunities. Both superior communication and reduced cost bring new opportunities into the business. It changes the initial business plan in most cases. It gives a global outlook to the business and necessitates rethinking in terms of customer relationship and product. With all the benefits there are also challenges? The web lacks tangibility. The message disappears when the visitor turns off the computer. New technology creates frustration. Every customer is not connected. In some areas due to lack of bandwidth the web is slow and also some customers may have older systems. Also, visitors use different browsers. If proper promotion is not done, customers and prospects will have difficulty in finding a website. A very successful business website may fail in due course of time if it lacks the human touch. In spite of the challenges a website does a better job of communicating and convincing a prospect compared to the old media. Services are provided anytime and anywhere. People will have a choice of channels to information and services that are convenient, easy to use and deliver what is wanted. Services will be more integrated, customer-centric and efficient. Information and services will be integrated, packaged and presented to minimise cost for people, non-profits, businesses and the government. People will be better informed and better able to participate by having easier access to information and processes.