Week 3 Questions

1. In two paragraphs explain why a customer centric Web site design is so important, yet so difficult to accomplish

"Customer-centric" means creating a Web site that is centered around customer wants and needs. Savvy businesses are realizing that focusing their site on customer benefits and ensuring its visitors a unique experience are key drivers of sales, loyalty, and much-desired word-of-mouth advertising. By proactively considering the needs, wants, and beneficial preferences of your customers, you can make more effective decisions about the content, offerings, design, and processes available on your site." http://www.4hb.com/0520cpcustomercentric.html

It is very important as the preferences of the customer base can dictate what sites they visit.

The difficulty in being customer centric is that you can never truly cater to all the needs and wants of the customers, therefore it is more poractive to focus more on the market.

2. Define the term 'presence'. Write an additional paragraph that describes why firms that do business on the Web should be more concerned about presence than firms that operate in the physical world.

"Web presence refers to the appearance of a person or organization on the World Wide Web.

A company has web presence if it is available on the web. The amount of web presence can be measured in the amount of sites an organization or individual has, which can include their own website, social network profiles, and their site's search engine ranking, traffic, popularity, and backlinks." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_presence

A business that operates completely online should be more concerned about presence because they do not actullay operate and have face to face contact with its clients. By being able to communicate in person when buying goods or services, firms in the physical world can entice a customer and make them feel more confident in what they are buying.

3. Write three paragraphs to briefly describe the things that Real Estate Agents can best accomplish through (1) their web sites (2) Mass media advertising (3) Personal contact

1. By having web sites, Real Estate agents can have a large range of houses and property that can be very easily and quickly viewed and clients can find what they are and arent looking for rather than spending time driving between properties.

2. They can accomplish what mass media advertising is designed to achieve reaching a large audience and if the need for their services ever comes up they will be on the clients mind as they have seen the advertising for the Agent.

3. By having personal contact with clients, Real Estate agents can be more personable with their clients, and clients will feeel confident that they can communicate with their agent and then open up to their needs and wants and what they are looking for. By having face to face contact they are making clients feel safe and confident with their agents knowledge on market and housing issues.