Significant improvements associated with the customer
However, the response of the e-merchants will not be long in coming. The study highlights how, for a four-year follow-up, most of the sites studied have achieved significant improvements in various sections relating to its relationship with customers. Some have achieved success and have continued to innovate before seeing how consumers ‘tired’. Others have made significant efforts to migrate from a traditional conception of internet marketing experience, to develop or adopt bolder solutions.
With data in hand, for nine types of online businesses ranging from financial services, travel, B2B supplies to the online stores that sell things as diverse as refrigerators or books, Meta Group found substantial improvements in various categories of services to customers.
In less than 8% of sites utilizing databases with security systems and information protection in 2000, spent, for example, in June 2001, more than 43%. Other clear examples of positive developments are found in the numbers of online businesses that offer the possibility of immediate contact via e-mail (99%), those with a toll-free or reduced-price call-center (93% ), those who put self-management tools available information on the web site itself, based on FAQs or forums (87%), and virtual agents including support for the purchase, 63%, which stands out quite 2% last year. Moreover, for all these services, the values ??in early 2000 remained, in most cases well below 10%.
Apart from this improvement in customer-oriented services, also the usability of the sites has made great progress. Thus, the search engines within sites are now more simple, powerful and well designed, have increased their rate of positive responses by 70% in just two years. In addition, 48% of the sites and systems including purchase order and are managed with less than three mouse clicks and 92% of the sites contains records online shopping where the consumer can consult your data: keys, passwords, previous purchases, and to obtain a profile of their level of expenditure over time. Elements unthinkable only a couple of years.
Therefore, the study shows that companies know how to adapt and respond. The bad news is given by the fact that changes by the companies tend to be slower than the changes that occur in consumers. The companies, in general, under pressure from changing demand and competition, ie a posteriori. These improvements so positive, however, may be sufficient to retain certain types of consumers or to surprise the new cibercompradores. But those who ‘suffered’ the shortcomings of electronic commerce in its infancy are usually very reluctant to return, even though these improvements.
Consumers today are satisfied, on the other hand, might end up taking the same path if the changes do not stagnate or tune in its rapid development and learning within the network of networks. What we must not forget those who are responsible for the design of marketing tools is that online consumers, as they acquire more and more experience, are also wanting to have more and more control over their online relationships, ie they want impose, make clear in any case, how and with whom they interact, in this case, commercially, on the internet.
So the companies said MetaGroup should be able to give them different ways and options until you find the combination that makes them feel more comfortable in every moment. Always bearing in mind that consumer preferences will change and that the company must move with its constellation of resources, around and in the sense that such changes occur.
For starters, every company should be clear that it will be difficult without integrating strategies, especially without clearly integrate the actions of e-mail marketing in a global CRM strategy, in addition, marketing activities should not take the consumer as a passive recipients, but must find a way to motivate, engage and make him share everyday activities and challenges. The base, MetaGroup advised, on which all this is the consensus should be established, the principles of what is known as ‘permission marketing’ are increasingly important to maintain the scope of such campaigns on consumers experienced, demanding and changing, which is how they will be, not in a long time, 100% of Internet users.