Locking in the Customers

Build it - they will come? It's just not that easy. Every business wants its website to be more than a billboard. A good site helps a business extend its capabilities. But how does a business harness the net's capabilities to reach out to customers and cement brand loyalty? iXL's Benjamin Chen provides net solutions for Fortune 1000 businesses and shares the secrets of Internet strategy and design.

Lock in Your Customer

The net gold rush is on, said Chen, and businesses that grab customers first are most likely to succeed. "The gold rush is about locking in your customer," Chen said. "Provide your service and use the Internet to know your customer better. Customers want the ability to have choices. They want to be able to go on at any time and they want control." "Whatever you provide as a product or service, it's my job with the web to allow you to get that information. I want to enable you to be the expert," Chen said. "We're creating a relationship. It's wonderful when you walk into a hotel or restaurant and the maitre'd or the waiter knows you and says, 'It's good to see you again. The regular table, the regular drink?' Your shopping experience should be like that."

The net has lowered the cost of customer service, but not the necessity for responsive service. "Our ability to have real-time interaction allows us to develop this relationship," Chen said. "If you're going to tell me you're going to sell goods online, that's only one part of the relationship. What's going to happen on the fifth good when the individual calls up and says 'I didn't get it, or it doesn't fit.' How do I get it back to you? How are you going to take care of that customer then? Really, 80% of the work is behind the website. It's about how we've organized our company, how we've set aside those resources to address this issue."

Integrate Customer Service

In the old days of doing business, producers, suppliers and distributors had to work together seamlessly to serve customers. With the advent of the web, it became possible to integrate the steps in the supply chain. See more interviews on site design: CEO Interview with MSNBC Online Interview with GolfServ Online Interview with ABC News "It doesn't matter anymore whether or not you're a supplier, whether or not you're a producer or a distributor," Chen said. "You can be any one of those companies and you could go out and grab the land, the gold rush, and attach a relationship to your customer."

Once a customer has formed a relationship with a business and is being served well, he or she won't want to go elsewhere, Chen said. "What I'm seeing now is call center integration with online capabilities and then tying that even back with other feedback loop mechanisms," Chen said. "It's a whole circle of making sure that you have the ability to touch and have a relationship with your customer. In today's environment, if you don't have an integrated system and you haven't figured a way to make it all talk together in real-time, you're in trouble. There are only two types of companies: the quick and the dead."

Get in Gear

The point's been made before, but here it is again: the web moves fast. Businesses who aren't as agile may be lost in the rush.

"Don't act recklessly, but you need to act now," Chen said. "If you must do analysis before building, you better do that analysis in a month. The reality right now is time to market is crucial. It's absolutely paramount crucial. If a company like Amazon.com can come from zero branding with no brick and mortar and become the dominant category killer in that space in literally a few years when companies have been doing it for 50, 100 years, you've got a situation that's a wake-up call. Get out there. Figure it out. Get your team together and make it happen."