Despite the large number of company websites that are online today, there are still hundreds of thousands of companies in America and around the world that have little or no significant online presence. Any company that is considering coming online for the first time needs to make sure that there is a professional continuity that is maintained between the offline and online aspects of the business, otherwise bringing your business online in the wrong way could actually have a detrimental effect instead of a beneficial one. It is important to consider the generational gap between the way that you contact your customers, so that you do not switch entirely to email and blogging while those customers who only contact you by telephone are alienated.
One of the reasons that major online advertisers are willing to pay so much money on a daily basis for their advertising budget, sometimes with a five-figure daily budget or higher, is becasue they are not concerned with making a one-time sale so much as they are concerned with the lifetime value of the customer they are aquiring. If you have been running your business in a brick-and-mortar format where most of your customers come from word of mouth, by telephone referral or by other offline advertising methods like newpapers or phone books, it is possible that you will alienate your existing customers if you bring your business online in the wrong way.
Let's take the example of a small company that sells dental supplies. Over the years you have run advertisements in the local newspapers, phone books, and sent out ads to local dentists in order to build your current list of customers. These people are mostly dental professionals who require things like latex gloves and x-ray equipment in order to run their business. Many of these customers have been with you for many years and consider you to be their main supplier of equipment, but let's say that you decide to build a company website where you promote your products to new online customers.
What would happen if you took your company name and put it on a website that offers "safety supplies" instead of dental supplies? This is a much broader category where you can offer a wider variety of products, and while you might acquire new customers with this website it is possible that some of your older customers who perceived your company as one that specializes in only dental supplies might think that you are spreading yourself too wide and are no longer a dental supplies specialist. This could cause those older customers to find a new supplier instead of you, especially if your new website creates a generational gap where you begin to prioritize email orders over telephone orders and everyone at your company is monitoring the computers instead of the phones, when the only way these prior customers know how to contact you is by telephone.
If you have ever stepped onto the train or the subway you might have seen a sign that says "mind the gap" which refers to the gap between the platform and the inside of the train where some people get their foot stuck. In this case you will want to be sure to mind the generational gap with regard to the way that you find customers and the way that those customers contact you, otherwise you could inadvertently facilitate a mass exodus of your current customers that might perceive the change in your business operations as a signal of a lack of trustworthiness.
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Ricky Weber frequently posts new articles about how to
make money online at his personal blog
http://RickyWeber.com
