Chapter 25

 Next Stop: Information Superhighway

Let’s take a ride onto the wide-open road of the Information Superhighway.

Is this your first trip? You might be wondering what kind of ride you’re in for. We’re pleased to tell you that your journey on the Information Superhighway will be delightful, enlightening, and crucial to your ability to service your customers now and in the future.

This chapter will provide you with ideas and case studies guaranteed to help take your customer service to higher levels—electronically. But first, let’s take a little time to sort through all the new names, gizmos, and gadgets that are born out of this brave new world. We promise you it will be painless. Hey, if dentists can now work on your teeth with high-speed drills that don’t hurt, we can surely provide you with a pain-free primer on the definitions you’ll need to get your bearings and safely navigate the Information Superhighway.

The Information Superhighway

If you’ve been following high-tech developments with one eye and ear (or less), there are probably lots of new words and phrases you have been exposed to but aren’t really sure what they mean. Here’s our painless version of what you need to know to get your Learner’s Permit for the Infobahn, and get you prepared to drive your customer service to the next level.

The Information Superhighway is a metaphor for electronic data flowing between computers, usually over phone lines. Computers use devices called modems to send and receive information in electronic form, including text, pictures, spreadsheets, even software programs, audio (like news broadcasts and music), and video (such as product demonstrations).

Here, explained in simple, easy-to-understand terms, are some common terms associated with barreling down the infobahn.

• Internet: Our colleague Wally Bock, who helps companies develop strategies and products for the digital age, describes the Internet simply as: a worldwide collection of computers, the links between them, and standards about how information will be shared over those links.

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   Quote, Unquote
  Think of the gymnasium floor in your local college or high school. On it are different colored lines—red for basketball, green for floor hockey, and gray for indoor volleyball. Each game you play uses different lines, different equipment, and different rules. The Internet is like the gym floor. It is the wires, hubs, routers, and switches that the different services run on. E-mail, Web transactions, file transfer, chat, and other services are the “games” that are played on the Internet.
  —Bill Ringle, Director of Internet Services, Star Communications Group

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  The Internet involves everything associated with the Information Superhighway. The word Internet means interconnected networks. The Internet is simply many computers connected to each other through phone lines, cables, and satellites. The Internet is a system that lets computers send information in many forms to other computers—all over the world!

  With a few basic tools, the Internet lets you become an electronic publisher. That means anyone with a properly equipped computer can access your information from wherever they are. And that, as you soon will see, is a great way to connect with customers—at their convenience.

• The World Wide Web (WWW or simply Web): An information storage and retrieval system that uses the Internet to present text, graphics, photos, sound, and animation for access by any properly equipped computer connected to the Internet. Such information is made available at distinct locations known as Web sites.
• Web site: This is a place on the World Wide Web where a particular company, organization, or individual makes their unique information available to visitors from the world at large. On your company’s Web site, you can post product descriptions, price lists, annual reports, list your locations or contact information for your sales offices . . . and any other information you would like to make accessible to the world. In addition, your Web site can be interactive—allowing customers to ask questions about billing or technical support issues, check the delivery status of orders, or even place new orders right online. This electronic information is easily transferred between the Web site and the visitor’s computer through a Web browser.
• Web Browser: Software that allows you to search for and access any type of information on the World Wide Web. There are several kinds available, including Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• Intranet: Private Web sites within companies for access by their employees only. Companies use these to post policies, current company information, announcements, and job postings, as well as store—in a searchable form—employee manuals, product information, and so on.
• Keyword: If you need to find information that you think might be available on the Internet, you can search for it using special software—available right on the Web at no additional cost. All you have to do is go to the section of the search software where you enter the term(s) you want to find (usually titled Keyword or Search Term) and type in a word or name that describes what you’re looking for. The browser will then bring to your attention all sites that contain that name. For example, suppose you’re looking for IBM’s Web site and don’t know their address. Simply type in IBM in the keyword section and you will most likely find their Web site address. Click on it, and, wham! there you are, getting the scoop directly from Big Blue.

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   At Your Service
  Most Web site addresses start with http://www. “Http” sounds like a sputter—if you’re used to speaking in English. But it’s like an ignition key to your computer’s drive-train. Http://www is the first part of most, but not all, Internet addresses. When your Web browser sees it, it revs up for the open data road. The WWW stands for the World Wide Web. Most big companies have reserved domain names in their company name to make for a simple Web address, as in www.ups.com.

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• Internet Address: This is the address, like a street address or telephone number, of the information source you are looking for. Techies call it an URL (pronounced “Earl”), or universal resource locator.
• URL: Stands for Universal Resource Locator. It is a path that takes you directly to the desired site on the World Wide Web. For instance, http://www.LeadWell.com/ is Don’s URL.
• Hyperlink: A hyperlink is like an electronic doorway that takes you directly to certain information, such as an e-mail address, or another page on a Web site, or another Web site altogether. You can immediately access that information, which might be stored on a computer clear on the other side of the world, simply by clicking on hyperlink phrase words (usually shown in a different color of text and underlined) or graphics (icon). For example, Don’s Web site lists the many books he’s written, with links to several online booksellers that let you instantly purchase the books right from your computer.

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   Word to the Wise
  You might be wondering what the various suffixes in a Web address—such as com, org, and so on—mean. Well wonder no more. Here are some secret codes unmasked.

   

  .com = commercial (assigned to profit seeking organizations)

   

  .org = organization (assigned to not-for-profit organizations such as trade associations)

   

  .edu = education (assigned to schools, universities, and so on)

   

  .gov = government (assigned to civilian governmental agencies)

   

  .mil = military (assigned to military agencies)

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• Domain: This is the part of an Internet address that is unique to the organization that sponsors the information location along the highway. The domain name for Your Company might be “YourCompany.com.” Domain names are unique. There can’t be two companies or organizations with the same Internet domain name, just as there can’t be two companies with the exact same telephone number.

  As with any word or symbol that identifies your company, it’s imperative that you immediately do a search and reserve your company’s name or slogan as your protected domain—a name that no one else can use in their URL address. Don’s protected domain is Lead Well. Therefore, no one else can use the URL address of http://www.LeadWell.com.

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 Watch It!
If you have a name you want to protect as your own domain, conduct an immediate search to see if it has been used already. If not, reserve it immediately. There are companies that specialize in searching and reserving domains. Most companies that offer Internet services can search for the availability of the Internet domain name your company would like to use for its Internet site, and can reserve it for you for a modest cost.

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That’s it. No more definitions. Now wasn’t this painless? You now have the background and understanding of the Internet elements to begin comprehending the value the World Wide Web has to offer you.

The Web for Service

Your Web site is the place where customers come to do their business with you. There are several things you can accomplish with your Web site, such as:

• Retrieve product information. Most every Web site offers product information hyperlinks (including our own).
• Place orders. Example: Dell Computer sells about $1 million a day of products ranging from low cost PCs to complex systems costing in excess of $30,000.00. Revenues are growing by 20 percent per month. Web site orders average 10 percent more than phone orders. Example: 1-800-Flowers. Don uses the Web site of this popular phone-based direct merchant for business and personal floral needs. The site has pictures of the flowers or plants you are ordering—arranged by occasion, type of gift, and price range. And it lets you enter the message for the card exactly as you’d like it to appear.
• Download product/service bulletins in electronic form. Dell Computer reports that every week 20,000 customers download support information. We go online and visit Web sites for vendors we deal with and associations we belong to. The virtually unlimited capacity of the Internet means you can offer customers detailed and timely information like no other medium in the history of man has ever done. (That may sound puffed up, but it’s really true.)

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   Word to the Wise
  The word download refers to transferring the information from the Web site to your computer’s hard drive. Upload involves sending information from your computer to the Web site or Internet Address you are communicating with.

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• Track shipments. Example: UPS ships over 12 million packages a day. Its Web site handles 65,000 tracking requests a day, with that number doubling every 4-6 months.

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   Tales from the Real World
  Ron wanted to check to see if his materials arrived in time at a hotel in Florida for an upcoming presentation. Instead of calling UPS’s toll-free customer support number, he had his computer dial into the UPS Web site using America On-line for access to the Internet. Once he was on AOL, it took only a few seconds to get into the UPS Web site. Once in the Web site, after Ron entered his tracking number, he instantaneously found out the exact time of delivery and who signed for it. Now that’s Great Customer Service. Other shipping services, such as Federal Express, also offer the same kind of service options.

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• Accounts payable and receivable. Typically, these functions are protected by passwords and secure technology. Using this technology, you can offer your customers a direct route to seeing if you received their latest payment, and how you applied it.
• Access answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs, which we discussed in Chapter 13). Research indicates that some 80 percent of the calls taken by call centers are in the “frequently asked” category. So if you could get people to visit your Web site instead of calling your call center, you could help more people faster at less cost. And you could combine your FAQ section with auto-responder technology we discussed in Chapter 24 to send information to your customers in their own mailboxes.

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   Watch It!
  If you go through the expense of creating a Web site and don’t immediately respond to any and all e-mails addressed to you at the site, you’re committing commercial suicide. You’d be better off saving your money and not having a Web site at all.

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• Send e-mail to company executives. Example: If you go to IBM’s Web site http://www.ibm.com, you can click on the hyperlink “About IBM.” When that page comes up, you will be able to access IBM CEO Lou Gerstner, read his latest articles, his bio, and even send him an e-mail.
• Find out the latest company information. Most publicly held companies will have their latest earnings statement on their Web site. You don’t have to look for the statements in the newspapers, bug a broker for them, or wait to read them in their annual report. General Electric even puts their entire annual report on the GE Web site.

A well-crafted Web site can allow your customers to handle all business functions electronically if they so desire—and if your system can support these functions.

Creating an Effective Web Site

There are great Web sites and there are Web sites that are nothing to write home about. A Web site is your new Internet calling card. And to some of your customers, it might be the only contact they have with your company. It is a piece of advertising; it is an extension of your relationship with your customers. It may be the first or only piece of advertising for your company that your customers are exposed to. It better be one of your better pieces of advertising if you are going to entice your customers to visit and stay awhile.

When televisions started coming equipped with remote controls, a whole new society of channel surfers was created. Come on, admit it, you’re one of us. You will click that remote or mouse button the instant you lose interest in what you’re looking at. Just as TV producers work hard to hold viewers’ increasingly short attention spans, your Web site has to hold a visitor’s interest. It better be informative, pleasant—even entertaining, and easy to use.

To successfully influence your customers, you need two things from them; their time and attention. When someone clicks on your Web site, you have their time. But if you don’t grab their attention, your time with that customer will be limited to a few short seconds.

Granted, if the customer is contacting your Web site in search of service, you will have their attention, unless your site is too difficult to navigate and the customer can’t find his answer fast. Technology has reduced the amount of time customers are willing to wait for their answers. The faster something gets, the faster we want it to go. Customers, we’ve been saying, are never satisfied.

One of the changes coming out of the Internet revolution is the disappearance of the line defining service and sales. Today, customers usually refer to both issues in the same breath. If your Web site creates an easy environment in which your customer can do business with you, then you’re considered to have great customer service. If it’s too difficult to place an order, your service is considered to be poor. Service today no longer refers only to technical and support issues. It’s a bigger envelope encompassing the entire relationship between all of your company’s resources and the customer.

Your Web site must create an environment where the customer finds it easy to do business with your company. And that, of course, encourages the customer to do more business with you.

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 Quote, Unquote
We are trying to integrate United Parcel Service (UPS) into our customer’s business processes and take our customers out of the customer service business. Now, instead of having to field delivery tracking calls, our customers can have their customers track it themselves on our Web site, or their own Web site. Imagine having the ability of having your buyers track their purchases at your Web site. Whichever way our customers want to handle it, we can provide it to them.
—Rakesh Sapra, Manager of Interactive Marketing, UPS

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Let’s take a look at the components of a great Web site:

• Easy to find. List your site with the major Web directories and search sites. If you have an outside firm maintaining your Web site, they can do this for you.
• Easy to Use. Your customers want to easily navigate your Web site and find what they’re looking for with as few mouse clicks as possible. If you have a section on technical support, it should only take one mouse click to get there once the customer is at your Web site. The more clicks they have to use, the more likely they are to get confused and give up their search. As with voice mail, you don’t want your customers going through layers of menu options. Once customers are sure they’re in the right place for help, they’re usually willing to complete forms, and send your company information that can help you help them.

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 Tales from the Real World
When Ron wants to know how much it will cost to ship product and media kits to his clients via UPS, all he has to do is input three things: origin and destination zip codes, weight of the package, and the type of service (for example, next day air). Instantly, he gets the cost information he is looking for. This is UPS’s Quick Cost feature on its Web site.

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Put the most commonly used areas up-front so people can get to them fast. Many companies put hyperlinks on the first page to areas including Product Information, Technical Support, Ordering, Shipment Tracking, Company News, articles, and so on.

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 Tales from the Real World
Paul Goldner, professional speaker and author of Red Hot Cold Call Selling, was working in Europe for the Dow Chemical Company. He was having a discussion with his contact on how to justify the cost of their sales training programs. Paul promised to send his client an article he wrote on this very topic upon his return to the United States. Before the meeting ended, it dawned on Paul that the article was also posted on his Web page. Paul and his contact immediately dialed into Paul’s Web site and printed the article. He was able to solve the customer’s problem on the spot. This is what you call Just in Time Customer Service. Another way of saying Great Customer Service.

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• Fast Download Time. Your Web site shouldn’t have more graphics than you really need to serve your customers. Remember, you’re dealing with impatient channel surfers. If it takes too long for someone to get into your site (anything more than 10 seconds) because they’re waiting for the big color photo of your company president—and the dancing logo—to download, poof, they’re gone. Once customers are into the site and requesting information or files, let them know the download time. Estimate actual download time, or at least give a little warning (“this could take a few moments, please be patient”).
• Fast Response. Your Web site must be backed up by a computer system that can handle the load of traffic it receives. Again, time is everything here and customers won’t wait around too long for answers to their inquiries.
• User-Friendly Design. The design of the Web site should be pleasing to the eye and able to capture one’s attention. This is business with a touch of show business. If the print is too difficult to read or the graphics are sloppy and not appealing, forget it; you’ve lost the customer’s attention.
• Relevant, Well-Organized Information. The information on your site should be relevant to the needs of your customers. “People will come to your Web site looking for one of two things,” technology expert Wally Bock says. “They either want an answer to a question or a solution to a problem.” People don’t have time to wade through a lot of material they don’t have any interest in.

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   Watch It!
  Having an attractive Web site doesn’t mean deploying every bit of the latest high-tech bells and whistles. Do you really need your company logo doing the hula in 3-D animation? Those kinds of gimmicks usually increase the time it takes your site to load in your customer’s computer, and shortens the time they’ll wait before they go somewhere else.

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• Reinforce Your Company’s Mission and Brand Name Recognition. Your Web site should serve as a stellar reminder of what your company is known for and how it wants to be remembered. Your Web site must be memorable if you’re going to succeed in word of mouth advertising. You want customers telling their friends to check out your Web site—not because it’s the most gimmicky, but because it’s the most helpful.

Having a Web site isn’t to show the world that you’re hip to cutting edge technology. Who cares! Your Web site’s purpose is to provide a fast, convenient mechanism for communicating with—for serving—your customers. People don’t come to your Web site to be impressed with flying logos and multimedia amusements. They come for help. Keep this simple truth central to the design and execution of your Web site.

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 At Your Service
More and better software is becoming available to make transacting business directly on the Web easier and more affordable even for small businesses. Products such as Domino from Lotus allow smaller businesses without huge computer departments to maintain attractive, functional Web sites and take orders directly from customers online.

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The Web’s Value

Hopefully by now you will have realized the benefits the Web can offer your customers and you. Now let’s look at some of the value you can receive from using the Web.

Bottom Line Value

Earlier in the chapter we mentioned that UPS handles 65,000 tracking requests a day on its Web site. Imagine how much money it’s saving from not having to handle these requests by phone!

By using the Web for service, companies can realize the following cost savings:

• Phone bills are reduced because the companies receive fewer calls to toll-free support numbers.
• Labor costs are reduced because the companies don’t have to staff so many phone lines.
• Levels of service are increased without having to spend additional resources on additional labor and facilities.
• Printing costs may be reduced as brochures, bulletins, pricing lists, and annual reports can all be accessed off of the Internet.
• Postage costs (sorry, Mr. Postman) will also dramatically decline as more mail is sent via e-mail and information is accessed on Web sites.
• Time it takes to support your customers is reduced. When time is reduced, so are all the associated labor costs.

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 Watch It!
Building and maintaining a Web site is a big, ongoing job. It requires planning and resources. A Web site must be figured into your total operational plan. It can’t be a whim or be loosely assigned to your in-house “computer guru.” If running the Web site isn’t his “real” job, your site will be in trouble fast. Yes, properly designed and maintained, a Web site can help to lower other service costs and please more customers. But only if it’s providing useful and timely information week after week, month after month. Long before unveiling your site to the world, answer this question: Who’s going to operate this thing on a day-to-day basis?

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In short, the Internet and all of its components hold the potential to drastically reduce the cost of doing business these days—even when you factor in the costs of developing and supporting the necessary technology. The key is to use the technology appropriately.

• Make your customers aware of your Internet site and what information and services you offer there.
• Build your site to offer maximum value to your customers, not maximum promotion for your company.
• Keep your site current. If it’s out of date or not functioning properly, you’ve probably done more harm than good.

Let’s face it. The service wars of today and tomorrow are going to be fought on the Internet as well as by phone and in person. As society becomes more and more computerized, more normal daily functions are going to be computerized. It won’t be too long before all of us are doing our banking electronically, shopping electronically, and paying our bills electronically (some of us already do all those things now).

Eventually, most every commercial market is going to be “electronically driven.” How long it takes to get to that point is a matter of speculation and debate. But eventually we will all wind up there. So you have a choice. You can either wait until everyone is there and you have to play catch-up. Or you can jump on the bandwagon now and strive to be continuously ahead of the curve by leading your industry into the electronic future. That future is now and it’s here to stay.

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 Tales from the Real World
With 10,000 customers checking order status and 20,000 customers downloading support information every week, Dell Computer estimates that its Web site is producing a direct cost savings of $500,000 per month from these two features alone.

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Differentiated Value

With very little perceived difference in the types of products and services being offered in many industries, companies are being forced to concentrate on differentiating themselves by how they offer their products and services. Today, the Internet is no longer a luxury or high-tech plaything. It is a serious business tool, and a “must” for any company that desires to excel in the game of customer service with customers who use personal computers.

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 Quote, Unquote
Just a few years ago, having an address at a fancy office building downtown was a status symbol. Today, it’s an Internet address, because in the global economy you may never come face to face with many of your business customers. These customers may live in different time zones and different countries, but they want to purchase goods and services from you if they can find you on the Internet and you show that you’re responsive to their inquiries.
—Bill Ringle, Director of Internet Services, Star Communications Group

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It used to be that a company that was first to market with a new product was guaranteed the leadership role. Hertz was #1 in Rental Cars, Federal Express in overnight delivery of letters, and so forth. Companies are finding out that today being first represents a limited window of opportunity. It won’t be too long before someone provides a similar level of service. Being first is useless unless there’s a commitment to stay #1 and do what it takes to stay ahead of the pack.

So here’s a rule for you to follow. The moment you come out with a new type or level of service, consider it obsolete. Why? Because it will only be a matter of time before your competition catches up to you with similar offerings. If you aren’t developing the next innovative service offering while enjoying the results of your latest offering, you will be crying in a short period of time.

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 Tales from the Real World
Federal Express was the first to offer package tracking on a Web site. Over time, UPS saw Federal Express’s advantage dissipate as UPS began concentrating on providing superior customer service. It started managing all points of customer contact by: drivers, salespersons, phone support, and via the World Wide Web. UPS sees the Web as not only a means for providing customer service, but as a means for doing business—making it easier for their customers to conduct new business. They have taken what FedEx started and are striving to take it to higher levels to achieve differentiation.

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Like time, innovation does not stand still. The clock is always ticking; customers are always more demanding. Dynamic market forces require companies to continuously raise the bar on the level of service they offer their customers. If you don’t, then your competition will pass you by and leave you with nothing but their dust.

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 Quote, Unquote
At UPS we want to delight our customers. Our Web site is a critical component for providing superior customer service and raising the bar of the value we offer our customers.
—Rakesh Sapra, Manager of Interactive Marketing, UPS

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As you define how you’re going to use the Internet to create your differentiated service, remember that it must support the overall mission of your company and the promise you make to your customers. Like any other tool, this technology shouldn’t become the emphasis of your strategy. It should support the implementation of your strategy.

See y’all on the Web.