E-businesses must bond with customers

Time to take Web 2.0 seriously

It has become almost a truism that e-commerce 2.0 is all about the customer. I’m sure there isn’t an e-commerce manager in the land who hasn’t read about how blogs can facilitate an informal dialogue between the business and its customers, and how user-generated content (UGC) can be used to encourage visitors to part with their money. But has this message really sunk in yet?

So many retailers, especially those with a strong bricks-and-mortar heritage, still fail to offer basic Web 2.0 provisions. It is probably not ideal to get the web team to slap on whatever technologies they’ve just workshopped their way through at an internet retailing conference. But it is also increasingly misguided to perpetuate the old Web 1.0 ethos that customers are only there to be marketed to and told what to buy, and should never be given an opportunity to criticise.

In these trying economic times, it has become more vital to attract and retain customers than ever before, and obviously the web must play a huge part in this. It offers the perfect platform for engagement with customers. So what should you do?

First, use UGC to show you are willing to take criticism, act on feedback and provide useful information to potential buyers. Blogs can be used in a similar way. The essential thing is to nurture a community, get people involved, and make your sites stickier. Engage with the marketing, legal and other relevant departments to make this happen.

Still not convinced? Well, market researcher E-consultancy recently reported that adoption of Web 2.0 tools was increasing because business leaders are seeing tangible benefits from deploying them ­and not just because they want to be seen as cutting edge. As its annual Customer Engagement Report noted, those firms that can understand the changes in customer behaviour brought about by the economic slump, and then react to them positively, will have a distinct advantage.

There are plenty more developments to convince the sceptics about the i mportance of customer interaction.

Google’s recently updated web search offering, SearchWiki, is one of the most significant tweaks the internet giant has made in web search in a long time. It essentially allows customers logged in with a Google account to add, re-rank, delete and comment on search results.

Perhaps the most interesting part is the comment function ­ you can see what others have written about an entry. If it takes off, this could reduce the significance of search engine optimisation (SEO) and make it more important to create a web site proposition that pleases customers, rather than a Google algorithm.

Finally, those SEO tweaks that have kept web consultants in Birkenstocks and fast cars for the past decade or so could be surpassed, and firms will have to build their sites for users, not Google.

The other technology that could get you thinking about customer engagement a bit more is a reviews aggregator site called Trustpilot. It trawls the web to pick up independent user reviews and other forms of feedback about sites and their goods and services and collates them in an easy-to-read format. It is also possible for consumers to have this information displayed next to the search ranking entry of a site in an easy-to-view colour-coded format ­ green for a generally positive review, red for bad. So the power of the web now rests with your customers. And their expectations are rising ever higher.

Some might say smaller businesses are more agile and receptive to new ideas and therefore more likely to go for customer engagement tools. But this is an opportunity for all, as long as you are prepared to swallow hard and put some effort into making your site more customer friendly.