When business users visit your site, what they want is lots of relevant content. They don't necessarily want news. They certainly don't want to be entertained. What they want is relevant content.
Relevant content is content that helps them solve a problem or answer a question. All kinds of usability studies and focus-group research from the inception of the Web confirm that the most important thing to business users when it comes to a Web site is lots of relevant information.
How do you find out what those questions and problems are? Your customers are actually already telling you. Talk to the folks who answer the questions that people call up and ask on the phone. Youâll probably find a good list of questions there.
Talk to the folks who handle your customer service. What are the questions they get most often?
Take a look at the product literature that you send out the most often or the materials most requested by prospects or customers. All of those things give you an idea of what the content of your site should be.
Of course, it's no substitute for actually digging in and finding out what folks want, but it's a great start.
Making It Work
Remember that your business doesn't change when you go online. All you're doing is adding a channel to what you already do. That means that the key business problems and questions that your customers have always had theyâll still have on the Web.
ACTION TIP: Most companies have got an array of tip sheets, ten-point lists, and quick summaries of materials that folks have developed over the years and stuffed into drawers. They've never made it to official company literature, but just about every salesperson, phone-answering person, and support rep has got one or two that they use all the time.
Get those out of the drawers and the heads and onto the Web site by offering rewards for great, unofficial company literature that customers love.
Created/Revised/Reviewed: 30 July 2002
This is only one Big Idea. You'll find more in Wally's book, What's the Big Idea? and in his Big Idea column. There's a complete list on the Main Big Idea page. You may also order the book by clicking here.
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