|
Maintaining an up to date web site is one of the common problems shared by many businesses especially if they manage a site requiring few changes and don’t have direct control over the content.
As Darlene Goddard, Marketing and Administration Manager, Kinetico UK, comments, “When you first set up a web site it is easy to think of it as a finished marketing project that doesn’t require any other major input. Of course, web technology is constantly evolving but unless you are dealing with web design and development on a constant basis it’s easy to overlook the changes that you should be making to your site. For Kinetico, there were several catalysts that prompted a realisation that we needed to effect some major improvements”.
For Kinetico UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of one of the world’s leading manufacturers of residential and commercial water treatment systems, the need to overhaul their web site became a ‘must do’ once their US based parent company had undertaken a complete overhaul of their corporate identity which then needed to be implemented on a worldwide basis.
However, rather than re-design their entire site, Kinetico felt that the main priority would be to first tackle the branding and functionality of the online store which was embedded in the main site and provided their residential customers with an online facility.
Although the online site enabled Kinetico customers to purchase their water treatment consumables such as block salt, filters and cartridges, it had some serious flaws. As Darlene explains, “Credit card transactions were not automated. Once we received details of the credit card we would then have to manually re-input the details to complete the process. Not only was order processing inefficient but we also wanted to ensure that credit card transactions were completely secure and we were complying with best practice.”
Like many other businesses with web sites created at the time of the dotcom boom, Kinetico did not have access to a Content Management System and were unable to quickly and easily make changes to content.
Instead, they had to rely on an external web developer to effect any changes and had become frustrated about the time delay for each and every change. This inflexibility also meant that there was little incentive to make any but the most important updates.
One of the other major problems was that Kinetico’s systems did not capture the account, contact or transactional details of each customer that purchased online. Nor was there any method of customers being able to register their warranties online. Not only was this frustrating for customers – each visit required re-inputting basic contact details – but it meant that Kinetico were unable to build a database of their online store customers for marketing purposes such as special offers, text alerts etc and represented a major weakness in their online trading capabilities.
The other more complicated area that required investment was the integration of web orders with their back office system so that finance, warehouse and fulfilment systems could be automatically updated.
The task of undertaking this re-branding and functionality update was handed to Web-Feet. As Darlene comments, “We were looking for the convenience of a locally based web developer that had a good track record in these areas and were able to implement the changes on a cost-effective basis.”
The rationale for Kinetico’s investment in a new online store is certainly compelling. About 60% of all UK households are in hard water areas and yet the number of households that have installed water treatment or drinking water systems is thought to be only about 10% - so the long term potential for the residential consumable market is huge now that there is increasing awareness of the damaging effects of limescale and increasing concerns about the quality of drinking water. More importantly, Kinetico have to compete with only a limited number of serious competitors and are one of the few suppliers that can offer ‘non electric’ solutions powered by the ‘kinetic’ energy from the water supply
For Web-Feet, the design of the new site was fairly straightforward as the corporate brand guidelines were easy to implement and there was little change to the navigation or the number of product lines. So their main objective was to implement a series of changes which would make it easier for customers to find the online store and to quickly locate and purchase their consumables - and to also achieve efficiencies through the automation of back end processes.
As Andy Coley, Technical Director, Web Feet comments, “We first advised that they should rename the link to the online store – Kinetico was not in the address and this was hampering search engine recognition. We also wanted to make it easier for customers searching for Kinetico products to bypass the corporate site and go straight to the relevant page in the online store. At a product level, we also wanted to make the imagery more appealing.”
The new site went live in May 08 and the early signs are encouraging with order volumes increasing month on month. Darlene comments, “Web-Feet delivered an online store which totally met our expectations and requirements for design, functionality and cost. The look and feel was right and the project was delivered in less than 8 weeks. The only area that caused any difficulties was the back office integration which was much more complex and costly than both parties originally thought – but is now working very well. The Content Management System provides the control we were looking for and opens up plenty of options for targeted communications. Just simple things like automated credit card transactions have helped us make enormous productivity improvements”.
The new site has now brought Kinetico right up to date in e-commerce and put them ahead of a lot of other businesses that don’t have any integration into their back office systems.
For Darlene, the creation of a new online shop is just the start of a more wide ranging web site development programme. “Our next step is to bring the main UK site into step with corporate branding and also to ensure consistency with other Kinetico European subsidiaries. We’re also evaluating how we can use our web site to become a more effective tool for promoting the services of our nationwide network of eighty dealers and distributors. At the same time there might be some advantages in providing a secure, login area for resellers to order online systems and consumables at trade prices. However, this also depends on our success in encouraging each of our distributors to invest in their own web site – currently about 50% still need to get online.”
As Darlene concludes, “Web technology and functionality is constantly improving and it’s essential to work closely in partnership with a web developer that can keep you up to date with new ideas, information or best practice to ensure that your site is achieving your business objectives. Site maintenance is now top of our agenda.”
|
