If someone were to ask you what tools you employ to fight website downtime, your immediate answer would probably be, "An internet site monitoring service" ;.While that answer in and of itself is not just a bad one, if a web site monitoring service is the only tool in your arsenal against the havoc that website downtime can make for your online business, you're not having a comprehensive way of protecting your company from downtime's effects, nor have you been protecting your site's reputation to the best of one's abilities. While a web site monitoring service is surely a "must-have" tool when it comes to fighting website downtime's consequences, it's not the only tool you will need to employ. When you yourself have yet to explore how social networking can be used to your advantage in the fight against the damage due to dreaded website downtime, here are a few items to consider.
Communication Is Key
If your customers can't take action that they wish to do while visiting your website, such as for example create a purchase or browse your site's offerings, they will want to know why the website isn't available when they want use of it Neiva Mara. Obviously, if your website is experiencing almost any downtime, you can't use the pages of your website to get into detail about what's gone awry or give your visitors estimates as to when they are able to expect the website to be functional again. That is where social networking makes play.
While your website might be down, social networking networks such as for example Facebook and Twitter tend up and running. When you yourself have invested time and effort into creating a social media presence and a following on these sites, you should use these platforms to keep in touch with your customers when downtime issues do arise. Let's look at two example scenarios to start to see the difference that using social networking in conjunction with your website monitoring service can make.
Scenario One
Site 1 has gone down. They have no social networking exposure, no accounts, and no followings. They have no method of communicating using their potential customers concerning the downtime they're experiencing or updating customers as to when the website can be expected to be back up and running. When customers visit the website they get one message saying the website is down because of technical issues, but no more information is given. Customers become frustrated with the continued downtime and because they do, they begin searching other websites to generally meet their needs and make purchases. Site 1 begins to lose customers to your competitors, whose websites are up and running and who have better means of communication.
Scenario Two
Site 2 has put social networking profiles set up and the organization has worked on gaining a sizable social networking following in addition to employing a website monitoring service. The company has prepared for the worst and they know that after website downtime occurs, they need to use the social networking tools at their disposal to keep in touch with customers regarding said downtime. When the business is notified of downtime by their website monitoring service, they go to work to determine what's caused the downtime to allow them to communicate the matter with the general public, utilizing their social networking accounts. When the organization has estimated just how long it'll decide to try get the website back up and running, they communicate this using their customers as well. They may even use the social networking platforms to market an "apology" offer that enables affected customers for a set dollar amount off or a percentage off the next purchase to compensate for the inconvenience. Not just does this foster goodwill among customers, it helps make certain that customers will wait until the downtime issue has passed so that they may take advantage of the apology offer rather than likely to a competitor to fulfill their needs.
Which Company's Lead Will You Follow?
You have a web site monitoring service in place. You are made aware the moment downtime occurs. The question is, what will you do if you are notified by your website monitoring service that there surely is a downtime issue occurring? When you yourself have invested time and effort into setting up social networking accounts and creating a customer following, you should use those social networking tools to your advantage, providing transparency to your customers and fostering goodwill and respect amongst them.
When you yourself have yet to place social networking to work for your online business, now is enough time to create a social networking presence so you'll have your customer following created and built before a concern with downtime occurs. Then, as soon as your website monitoring service alerts you that downtime is now a concern, you are able to go to work to utilize those social networking tools accordingly.
Furthermore, if you don't have a web site monitoring service set up just yet, now is the time for you to set that up. The past thing you need is to be notified via your social networking followers that your site is down, making you the final to know about the matter and causing you to lose face in addition to profits.