| • Basic
Information Site. This may sound plain-jane, but again, it's a
question of the purpose your site needs to serve. Examine the
product or service you wish to sell. Does your site need to sell it
for you? Or does it simply need to augment your sales? Any product
or service which is the result of direct interaction between
yourself (or your corporate presence) and your customer may be best
served by a basic site function of informing and explaining. For
example, if you are an optician, you need to have a patient in your
dispensary before you can fit her for glasses. There is no "way
around" direct contact and interaction for some businesses, nor
should there be. High-end "custom service" will never be
better served by an automated facade. It is a contradiction in
terms. (Did you come all this way in determining your business
"attitude" just to undermine it with your website?) In
this case, the best use of your site is to provide information about
yourself, your company, or your service, and present it in a manner
which entices the customer to follow up with direct contact.
For a site to fulfill this function does not necessarily mean
that it will not be attractive, interesting, and exciting to view.
It means that it has an ancillary role. Its job is to push more
customers toward the actual site of the business, not to assume your
primary business operations.
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