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Online communication is key

By James Lawson, ITWeb journalist
Johannesburg, 29 Apr 2010

Web sites that are 'brochureware' are set to become a thing of the past. Consumers are demanding Web sites that are easy to access, easy to use and fun to visit, and companies are going to have to deliver them.

So says Birger Lundgren, country manager for EPiServer SA, in an interview prior to the release of the company's Web 2.0 survey that ran online on ITWeb from 8 to 26 February.

“Change is in the air. Availability and use of the Internet in SA is about to explode, and it's all going to go down in 2010,” says Lundgren.

He adds that it is this change that has brought on the need for a survey that will help gain insight into how South African Internet users view the maturity of the Web market, and what will be important to them in this next generation of engaged Web sites.

Now that the survey has closed and the results are in, it is interesting to see that companies are still locking out customers to important contact information from their online presence.

“The survey shows that 39% of people looked to search engines when looking for company information, with 36.9% looking on the company Web site,” says Lundgren.

He adds that 76% of the respondents regularly use the Web to find offline contact details, such as telephone numbers and addresses. “Over half the survey respondents want to communicate directly with a real person via e-mail.”

“In Europe and the US, Web sites are very transparent and it is relatively easy to find information about the people behind a company and to engage with them.”

He adds that it is easy to find details such as office locations. “Its often one simple click on 'Contact Us' and you often find all the information you need: maps, road descriptions, GPS co-ordinates.

“In SA, it often seems that instead of seeing the Web site as a vital channel for communications, it is seen as a place that has to contain barriers to engagement.”

He explains that the worst statistic from the survey is that almost seven out of 10 people say they stopped a purchase or left a Web site because they couldn't find what they were looking for.

“We had the same question on a survey that was run from our global headquarters, in Sweden, which has one of the highest rates of Internet penetration in the world.” He says the rate in Sweden is four out of 10 people.

“It is amazing that sites can be so poor that they can lose visitors over something as fundamental as not being able to find what they're looking for. At the end of the day, lost visitors are lost business opportunities and a potentially damaged reputation,” explains Lundgren.

“South African companies aren't responsive to contact via their Web site or e-mails, creating an e-mail culture that seems to be problematic in SA,” he says, stating that the results of the survey indicate only 16% of people think the e-mail response rate is good. “All the other respondents rated it mediocre to very bad.”

He says this is concerning, as eight out of 10 people in the survey believe an e-mail should be regarded as important as a telephone call or letter. “It is important that in SA we start to see e-mail as the knock on the door for contact. We should take care of our e-mail channel and treat each incoming correspondence as a priority.

“The good thing is that we are seeing a change in the South African market, where companies are starting to make their Web sites more engaging to customers. Our first target is to improve the retention rate until it is as good as global Internet leaders, and then to beat it,” he concludes.

Related story:
New mobile messaging service hits SA

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