What can your site do for you?
Aside from the usual function to display information to your customers, your site can work much harder for you and your business.
Carefully chosen web site functions can have a big impact on your customer experience on your site and on your business. It's temping to add some interesting widgets or cool features that you really like.
However, you want to be sure that anything that you add to your site is focused on achieving your business or organizational goals. You don't want something to distract your customers with unrelated functions. Keep your site functions focused on satisfying your customer needs and your business goals.
That said, here's a list of some common functions that may serve you and your business.
E-mail - Having an integrated email form on your site gives it a level of professionalism and sophistication. Simply having an e-mail link assumes your customers have their own email program. If they are not on their own computer this may not be true. Worse, the spammers love to scan websites for email addresses so they can flood you with their junk. Who needs that!
Photo Gallery - Photo galleries come in many shapes, sizes and formats. They can be static images on a page or more interactive with thumbnails or slide shows.
Product catalog - This can be a variation of a photo gallery but designed to include product information along with an image or graphic.
News & Articles - Writing useful articles for your customers keeps them coming back to your site. It also gives them a reason to refer their friends and collegues to your site. Topics can be news and events, promotional topics or educational pieces.
Blog - For those with lots to say, a blog can be a daily, weekly or regular communication from you to your customers.
Customer Comments - You can also ask your customers to share their thoughts & ideas with you, in either an open forum or related to specific articles or blog entries. These can be unmoderated (only for the brave) or entries can be reviewed prior to publication.
Guest Book / Customer Login - Build a community of site visitors. This is a great way for your customers to sign up for newsletters, special offers, subscribe to some topic or request notification of updates to your site. Authorized visitors can participate in your blog discussions or access customer specific information.
Customer specific content - You can create content specifically for individual customers based on their login. You can provide reports, product quotes or estimates, services assessments or any other information that is accessible only to them.
Site Search - As your site starts to grow, your customer's may need a fast way to find your content.
Choose carefully. Each function should be something your customer's need to interact with you and organization. Keep it focused!