There are number of common website features found on large consumer websites that many businesses are asking, ‘should I have one of these?’ At Loaded we can help you decide which of these are relevant to your business and implement it for you.
Below are examples of features you can include in your site.
Forums
Forums are an interesting discussion medium. With a forum you could use it to allow your customers to post messages such as help requests, queries or general feedback about your services. These messages can then be responded to by either other customers or your own people. With a good search facility this creates an invaluable knowledge base. Keep in mind, as a live discussion on your website, a forum can require heavy mediation and may be resource heavy. These last two points mean for most companies a forum is much more valuable as an internal tool.
Blogs
Blogs are a great way for a company to have a voice in their industry. Similar to a column or opinion piece, what you say in your blog can help branding and provoke interest in your services. With the option to have or not have customer feedback, blogs give you more control than a forum.
Wikis
With a contributory nature similar to forums, wikis are a perfect model for any knowledge base and can also be used as an internal tool or for consumer sites with a community looking to share information.
Job Boards
Loaded can add a very easy to use job board that allows anyone in your company to add categorised jobs that website readers can apply for online. This is a great opportunity to save on recruitment costs.
Live Chat
A happy medium for those who would like a direct response but don’t have the time to call, live chat also gives your clients a record of the conversation. This is a particularly good tool to help in managing customer service.
News Boards
News is the best way to keep your website fresh. Inform new and current customers of what’s happening at your company. The DNN news module makes it easy for anyone in your company to add news items. Archive old news items for your regulars or use the built in RSS feed to keep the promotion going off-site.
RSS Feeds
An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is a stream of data, usually live, that anyone with a RSS reader can subscribe to. Send live information to your members/regulars using an RSS feed, or place an RSS reader on your site to receive live news stories from chosen sources to keep your website fresh 24/7.
Client Lounge (Login Secured Area)
Client Lounges are a great way to provide valuable information to particular customers that you do not want open to the general public. This can be in the form of straight text on the page or documents for easy download. These areas are normally accessed by a username and password login.
Event Calendar
Event calendars are a useful way of posting special events whatever your business is. Using the DotNetNuke calendar module we can set it up so that your customers can register for events and even save the events directly into Outlook.
Photo Gallery
There are a multitude of options when it comes to photo galleries. Talk to us about what and how you want the information displayed for your website visitors.
Polls/Surveys
Polls are a great way to make customer feedback relevant and interactive. Create a competition or place it in a login a secured area for member feedback.