Site promotion or traffic building
Promotion of a site in order to boost visitors is a significant topic that is part of the strategy of developing a website. It will follow the initial development of a site and is described in blog detail Particularly important issues that must be considered during the course of site design are search engine optimisation and the experience delivered on landing pages where the visitor arrives not on the home page, but deeper within the site.
Service quality
Delivering service quality in e-commerce can be assessed through reviewing existing marketing frameworks for determining levels of service quality. Those most frequently used are based on the concept of a ‘service quality gap’ that exists between the customer’s expected level of service (from previous experience and word-of-mouth communication) and their perception of the actual level of service delivery.
We can apply the elements of service quality on which Parasuraman et al . (1985) suggest that consumers judge companies. Note that there has been heated dispute about the validity of this SERVQUAL instrument framework in determining service quality see, for example, Cronin and Taylor (1992). Despite this it is still instructive to apply these dimensions of service quality to customer service on the web.
● tangibles – the physical appearance of facilities and communications;
● reliability – the ability to perform the service dependably and accurately;
● responsiveness – a willingness to help customers and provide prompt service;
● assurance – the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence;
● empathy – providing caring, individualised attention. As well as applying these academic frameworks, organisations can use benchmarking services such as Foresee (www.foreseeresults.com) based on the American Customer Satisfaction Index methodology which assess satisfaction scores based on the gap between expectations and actual service. It should also be remembered that the level of service selected by an online transactional service is based on the relationship between the costs to serve, the value of the product and the likelihood of the channel to increase conversion. the typical situation for a bank. Typically costs to serve increase to the top-right of the diagram, as does the capability to convert through a more extended dialogue and the value generated from sale.
The figure shows a general pattern, but the options are often not mutually exclusive for example, phone contact may be available for all levels, but emphasised for the most complex products.
We introduced some of these methods of delivering service
1 Straight-through processing. Transaction typically occurs without intervention from staff for a relatively simple product such as a savings account.
2 Call-backs. The customer has the option to specify the bank call if there is anything they are unclear on.
3 Live chat. Online discussion between service representative and the client. This may be invoked proactively if analysis suggests the customer is having difficulty in deciding.
4 Co-browsing. Sharing of screen to walk through application process.
5 Phone. Typically this has the highest cost, but often the highest conversion rate.
Two of the most significant frameworks for assessing online service quality are:
● WEBQUAL (Loiacono et al., 2000, 2007) which considers 14 dimensions. It has been criticised for relating too much to functional design issues rather than service issues.
Consider other limitations which could include rating of content or products, trust Typical product:
Savings
ypical product
Travel insurance
Typical product
Car insurance
Typical product
Mortgage or loan
Product complexity
Customer value.
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