A well known coffee house company invited a number of established customers and a number of people who were unfamiliar with their shops to discuss their experiences and needs in order to formulate ideas for their website. They found that business customers wanted to know the exact location of the various coffee houses so that they could be specific in their invitations to meet clients and associates there.
They also needed the facility to place an order for the coffees in advance, to eliminate the time-wasting queue for coffee on arrival.
This coffee house company realised that it had two distinctly different customer groups, and that these groups were linked to location.
The city centre venues were frequented largely by business people, whereas the out-of-town shopping centres were predominantly used by mothers with young children. Customers at the shopping centre venues were asked what they would find useful on the website. The response was that they wanted to know about children’s activities, and about the items on the menu which were suitable for children, including some information regarding their nutritional values.
There were a number of reasons why certain people had never visited the shops. Some did not like coffee and were unaware that there was a choice of non coffee-based items on the menu. Others had heard that supplies were sourced unethically. These misapprehensions existed because of the lack of reliable information about the company, a matter which could be easily addressed with an effective website.
In terms of YOUR organization, have you asked your customers what they would find useful on your website? Even more importantly, have you asked people who are not customers what would persuade them to use your services? In this way, you can try to identify how your website can provide what is needed to recruit more custom.
To maximize the effect of your website and email communications, it is essential to have a dialogue with customers and potential customers alike, thus ensuring that you are meeting their needs.
If you would like Zarr to work with you in this way, organizing a discussion group with your company to find out how people want to use your website and what they would find most useful, please contact us and we will make the necessary arrangements.
