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December, 2000:
Make Your Web Site Talk Back
Once your Web site is online, the next step is to liven it up and get it to “talk back” to your visitors.
By adding interactivity and communication to your site, you can engage your visitors, draw them back, and build a community. Big companies like Yahoo! and eBay have great communities, but of course, on a much larger scale. Regardless of what your Web site is for, there are many ways to go about getting your site to talk back. Let's look at a few.
Forms
Sometimes it’s just good to start with the basics. :)
Forms are a great way to bring some interactivity and life to your site. The standard way of communicating with your customers electronically is via e-mail, so why not leverage it a bit?
While you can simply highlight a block of text or an object and assign it an e-mail address, all this does is open up a blank message for the visitor to fill in; it doesn't help you gather information or ask specific questions of the visitor.
There are a few options to choose from when dealing with forms. Let's look at some of them.
- Mailto
—Mailto is the simplest way to get a form to send data, but, and this is a big BUT, it doesn’t not work with all browsers and sometimes will just open up a blank e-mail if the visitor’s default mail settings aren’t right. I’d recommend only using mailto when you link to a block of text or an object and want to open up a blank message on the visitor’s computer, not when you’re building a form.
- The Forms Handler—NetObjects Fusion ships with a Forms Handler component that essentially is a CGI script that NetObjects Fusion uploads to the server when the site is published. The script allows the form results to be either deposited in a text file on the server, or e-mailed to a specified address.
CGI scripts have been the most common way to process form results for a long while. The problem is that a bad CGI script can do bad things to a Web server. For this reason, many, hosting services do not allow their customers to run their own CGI scripts i.e. no forms handler.
Because of this, most hosting services offer a range of scripts they have approved and set up already—this almost always includes a forms handler style script. They´ll give you the info on how to set it up, just ask!
CGI scripts require permissions to set on the server so there is no option to “just do it.” Contact your hosting service and check. You can read more about the permissions required for the forms handler here!
- CGI Scripts—If your hosting service allows you to run your own CGI scripts, and you are a little bit adventurous, you could opt to use one of the many free scripts. Matt´s Script Archive is a great place to start looking!
Even better than finding your own, most good Web hosts already have mail scripts installed on their servers so all you need to do is ask them for the path to the script, check any specific requirements the script requires (usually found in an FAQ on the Web host’s site), add the path to your form and away you go.
Check the NetObjects Fusion User Guide for more information on implementing scripts with your forms.
- Third-Party Components—Two NetObjects Fusion component developers, BitMotion and Coolmaps provide excellent server-based components that make processing form results a snap. A simple component is dropped on the page and configured by you via the Properties Palette. When a visitor posts the form, the developer's server processes the results as you've specified.
Though both developers charge a fee for these services, the fee is nominal when you compare the time it sometimes takes to set up a CGI script to run your form. This option wins hands down for ease of use to you. Also, both companies have been a part of the NetObjects Fusion community for several years. They are good guys.
- Online Solutions—You can also use online services to process your forms. The downside here is that you will need to manually configure the form in NetObjects Fusion—no component. Also, the provider is typically not a part of the NetObjects Fusion community, so may not understand your requirements.
The upside is that some of the online services are low-cost, even free (you may have to place an advertisement on a page however). A good place to start looking is at response-o-matic.
One final note about forms: If you use them, make sure the method you choose provides some feedback to the site visitor. Simply put, the visitor should know that their submission was successful. You can provide this feedback in different ways. Once the form is submitted, send the visitor automatically to a “Thank You” page or, even better, send them to the “Thank You” page and have a thank you e-mail message sent to their inbox!
Message Boards
Message boards are a great way to build a community. Through message boards you can create and generate discussions on topics relating to your product or service. You can set up password-protected areas for one-on-one customer discussion or provide an open customer service/technical support forum. The possibilities are endless.
The advantages of this open communication is that as the forum grows, it can live on its own. But be sure to set ground rules of what’s OK and not OK to discuss, and assign a moderator. The moderator isn’t really there to tell people what to say or not say, but more to guide them and keep the board on the topic as you intended.
There are many services available that can help you set up a message board for your site. Some are free to use but require banner ads on your page to offset the “free” aspect. Or you can pay for a board via a monthly subscription; this will allow you to make it your own with no third-party ads, unless you place them there. Now, if you are tech-savvy enough, you can build your own and host it on your server.
Here are a few examples of different kinds of boards you may want to have a look at:
[ezBoard]
[boardserver]
[Ultimate Bulletin Board]
There is also some great information on communities at eFuse.
Live Support
By far, the live support service has been one of the cooler things I've run across in the past while.
In a nutshell, with these services you place an icon on your site that says something like “Click here to chat live with customer service.” Clicking the icon will launch a small chat window in which will appear the name of the support person you will be dealing with. You and your customer/visitor can chat in real time. It’s much like ICQ, MSN Messenger, or AOL Instant Messenger except the visitor doesn’t need to have any software installed on their machine. It’s very cool and way cheaper than a phone call!
Of course, if you run a small business, you may be customer service, accounting and sales, so naturally you can’t be online waiting, so, with most of these applications, you can post an “away” message and visitors can send you a normal e-mail message. And who says you can´t do customer service online?!
Much like the message boards, the live support services range from free to fee. Here is a sampling of a few of the services available:
[HumanClick]
[LivePerson]
Mailing lists
Looking for an easy way keep your visitors informed? Mailings lists would likely classify as the grand daddy of interaction over the Internet. Through a mailing list you can keep visitors informed about upcoming events, sales, you name it. And best of all, you can run them, if your list is small, through your e-mail program. But if you have a big list, you may want to look at online or software options that are mailing-list specific.
There is some excellent information on mailing lists on eFuse. There, you’ll find information on what to do and not to do when creating and running your list, software and services you can use, and much more. It’s well worth a look.
Some things you may want to remember when running a mailing list include:
- Let the visitor know what kind of information they will be receiving and how often.
- Be up-front with your privacy policy. In essence, what will you do with their e-mail address? For instance, are you going to resell it?
- Provide a means to unsubscribe from the list. Even better, include this in each mail out.
The more information you provide at the outset, the more professional you are, and the more likely a visitor is to sign up.
And don’t forget to follow up!
Now that you have your site talking back to your visitors, there is a key area that you must not forget—you must follow up and establish the relationship. After all, that’s how you build a business.
If you use forms, provide the visitor with feedback that tells them that their submission was complete. Also, be sure to respond to their questions within one business day. Anything longer is almost unacceptable on the Internet. Faster is better.
If you run a message board, be an active moderator. Read the postings daily, answer as you need to, and keep the forum on-topic. You must be active to build your community. Your visitors will appreciate you being active and keeping things orderly.
If you use a live support service, allow a certain time of day to be “live” —even if only a few hours each day, so your site visitors know when you will be available to chat.
So, go out and get your site talking back to your visitors and remember, if they are talking to you, they expect you to talk back! :)
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