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10 Essentials for Building a Solid Web Site:
Service
A common misnomer about web development and
Web marketing is that customer service is
not a requirement. Not true at all. If you
don't believe me, pick out 10 random sites
and e-mail the Webmaster See how long it
takes to get a response, if you get a response
at all.
Sometimes we can be blinded by being
too
close to our sites. We should listen
to our
users for the same reason we seek outside
advice on personal issues, or we ask
others
to edit our writing. You can never
visit
your site for the first time again.
It's a good idea to insert a mail to
link
somewhere highly visible on the home
page.
Encourage users to leave you a comment
about
the site, whether good or bad. Sure,
you'll
get more e-mail than usual. E-mail
can be
hard to manage, but not if you check
it regularly.
When we're working, my e-mail (several
accounts)
is checked every 5 minutes. I don't
read
and respond to it every five minutes.
But
if we get a free moment, we read it,
but
more importantly we pay attention to
it.
No, we don't answer every single piece
of
mail. That's too much to ask of any
Webmaster,
but we answer anything we feel is important.
User comments have helped me more than
we
can express in this article. The questions
we have about our site, such as ease
of use,
clarity, are answered by our users.
Plus,
it's gratifying to hear a positive
comment
every now and then.
Not only will listening to users help
your
future development, but it will also
make
your users feel they have a voice.
The web
has become too impersonal. Any sign
that
the creators/developers care about
the users
is truly a relief. Remember that every
person
who hits your site is an actual person
in
search of something. A Webmaster's
responsibility
is to make that something easy to find.
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