Customers, savvy beasts!

While businesses flock to ebusiness to avail of the promises of increased speed, reduced costs and larger market, the costumer too has great advantages awaiting when hitting to online high street.

Consider the website content that is available to customers; it is detailed in depth information, that they can access and assess from home. They have the opportunity to peruse the  qualities and the value on offer from a number of sites to decide what best suits their needs. Open information means they know all about product pricing asymmetry and can find out where in the world they can buy the best deal.

Costumers are interacting with others on line, delivering review of companies, of products, and  discussing the attributes in fora designed just to create a community of informed shopper. The convenience  to go from checking,to buying, to using product all for a couple of clicks and right at the desk is very appealing and delivers almost instant gratification.

While businesses work to the "costumer is king" model of service, in the online world the customer reigns over the vast range and choice of products presented to him. Style, size, colour all available to be browsed, compared, and purchased with just a credit card,and a parcel delivery and all with a no quibble ,money back, exchange policies.

The richness of websites invites customers to spend time there, watch video, enjoy every angle or feature of a product before you make that decision.


Customers are savvy beasts, and for those who don't do well online buying there is "show-rooming";go to the local stockiest,  check it out, get a feel, a smell of it and  then go purchase online with all the advantages that offers, maybe lower price, free delivery, free gift, better return policy.




Being that savvy beast does present customers with some issues though. They want a reputable firm to buy from,using a recommended payments method model like Paypal. This may be a disadvantage to smaller businesses, but worth the investment in ensuring a secure payment system to invites customers and get return business.

Lack of computer skills can be a barrier to shopping online for some people, but when the price is the bottom line more and more the technophobes learn to overcome the fear or find someone to help them out. Many of the golden generation with very little computer skills learned quickly to book flights on Ryanair and book rooms in travel destinations.

Customers will seek out what they want and search for the best value they can get they may be loyal to more than one way of shopping, online or in store. The advantages of ebusiness has not passed the attention of customers and businesses (and ebusinesses) will do well if they remember it is the customer that put them where they are and can keep them there (or not)

Invisible? I'll just keep tweeting.

Giving up social media for 2 days wasn't going to be any big deal for me, I only use my phone for text and calls, never internet, so it hardly seemed worth switching it off. I did switch it off and stayed away from the PC too, no  checking email, Facebook, twitter,Google+, LinkedIn or blogging.

 I did miss the #ping ping# of receiving and sending texts and did go mooching for the phone to check; only to remember, mid mooch,it was off. I missed out on my weekly goggletext with my daughter,( we watch Gogglebox together via text,me in Drogheda her in Dublin). I missed the twitter reviews of the show too, but they survived with out me.

My phone was off for a total of 36 hours and I was a bit excited to switch it on, to see who had missed me, what I had missed, and to let the world know i was fine and back in social media land. What greeted me was a blank screen, no missed calls, no messages, nothing at all! A  little disappointed I ventured to check my  Facebook page, no invites, no notifications,again nothing; nothing on  google+  either, what the heck? Am I invisible? Does no one miss my funny little jokes, my quirky humour? Am I totally irrelevant in this cyber world?

 It is interesting, and more disheartening  to learn  that so many people underestimate their social media presence. A little disappointed, I wallowed in it for a little while, but i am not one to be beat, so I got right back on the social media horse and decided that I can be part of the noise if nothing else.

"If you’re like most people, you probably underestimate the size of your actual social media audience because on social media, engagement doesn't equal reach". Heidi Cohen. http://bit.ly/invisable

Really what is the point? We have the technology now, and the interest in each other, why not use it? Fasting from social media did not leave me harking back to yesteryear, when one phone-box per housing estate qualified as contactable.
The technology that brought us Facebook, snapchat, and twitter is here to stay. It is like one of those optical puzzles; it takes ages to see what it is, but when you see it you can never unsee it; we can never "unsee" the mass communication networks we have adapted so readily.

Ubiquitous

Ubiquitous, what a wonderful word ! I would never get a chance to use this word but for talking about ebusiness. That is what ebusiness is, it is everywhere, always accessible by both businesses and costumers on a global basis, so it has ubiquity.
This ubiquity is one of the opportunities or benefits of ebusinesses;  available everywhere, access to customers at home,at their desk,on the train, and even more as we move into mobile commerce era (mcommerce).

With no geographical or traditional barriers  these businesses operate in a marketspace as opposed to the traditional marketplace, that actually have a physical presence..Alongside these advantages ebusiness has global reach, the marketspace is as big as online users make it, no longer the local, regional, religious or cultural barriers that once prevented business growth.

These advantages are made possible through the universal standard that exists to access the World Wide Web, this just means that all computers connected to the internet can communicate.







What would be the point in this communication if not for the richness offered on the internet, technology has enabled the use of video, audio, pictures and interaction to ebusinesses.

It is this richness that attracts customer/viewers to your eshop or website and keeps them coming back. Richness has also drawn traditional businesses to become join the ebusiness space.  It is well known that it is difficult to replicate the face-to-face experience, the personal touch and the interaction costumers get from dealing in person with a business, but, with the level of interactivity and 2 way relationships  and information density  available online the opportunity to offer a positive experience gets closer to the "real" experience.

the reasons business are successful online can also be considered to be the drivers that make it foolish not to involved in ebusiness. Reduced costs in sales, purchasing,operating, dispatching, mean the savings can, for ebusiness, be spelled, PROFIT.
Online presence encourages competitiveness, it improves products offered,boosts awareness of competitor developments and encourages ebusiness to strive to protect marketshare..Administrative costs are reduced and with the use of Electronic data interchange and Costumer Relationship Management software the efficiency  and personality of the business is enhanced.

It is mainly things outside the business control that cause problems and challenges, poor service provider can cause your website to crash with a lot of traffic or just not open at all. ebusinesses have to be aware of hackers and develop security that the customers will trust,they also have a responsibility to take care of customers information so secure payments and information channels are vital.

ebusiness does refer to businesses operating on the internet and using digitally enabled transactions, but by its unique nature, its rich and powerful impact that ebusiness is the go business model of the era.

Blogging as a strategic communication tool

The Blog Event.

Blogging is "the" event, it is "the" main event in strategic communications for businesses right now. Business needs to develop good relationships with customers, needs to be presenting and exchanging helpful information with customers, and speak the language of customers to achieve its goals i.e. increased market share and positive branding.
Blogging  offers a 2 way dimension to the traditional B2C relationship and this is the type of interaction customers respond to. 



It is this breaking down of barriers and creation of conversation between business and customer that allows ease and humanization of the business, while keeping the business in touch with  customer needs and enforces the business to  remain customer focused, always remember that,          
"Costumer is King."

                              

Developing a business blog is not an easy , quick fix it requires time and thought to establish the target audience and the tone that suits best. For some small businesses the blog is a cheaper more accessible tool than a full blown website, that can be costly.



There is lots of websites, video and information available to demonstrate the importance and "how to" of business blogs, mainly the message is to take time to establish your target audience, and your message, then remain true to your decision.
Be consistent, this may seem obvious but it could be easy to side track and that may cost you your followers (customers)
Write with focus and purpose, convey your message helpfully, customers don't want to be preached to.
Emphasise that your blog is a 2 way process, encourage comments, ask for involvement,and reply or comment back.
Keep it informal,keep it lively,  keep it relevant and a business blog will enhance your business. It will help develop  trust in the product or brand, it will generate publicity and raise company profile.






Blogging is only a tool and is only as effective as how it is used,remember to update regularly, tell stories, praise and comment on other blogs,offer relevant links to the followers,.make it keyword rich, it will present higher on SEO, make it entertaining, include video or audio clips, suggest podcast, ask for feedback.




Blogging does enhance your business, take a look at some statistics