How leading vendors lure Web visitors
Useful online features keep customers coming back for more.
Lawrence D. Maloney, Contributing Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 6/1/2005 1:16:00 PM
This is a companion piece to "Engineering's indispensable tool," a Web Special Report that we published in the June 2005 issue of Test & Measurement World.
Ask engineers to name their favorite Web sites for job-related tasks, and the same names will crop up again and again.
Among the clear winners in the latest Test & Measurement World reader survey: Agilent Technologies, National Instruments, Tektronix, and Digi-Key. Engineers agree that the first three companies cited here traditionally set the pace for many of the innovations in the test field. And while Digi-Key is known more as a broad-based electronics distribution giant, many test engineers also frequent the company’s site for both components and test accessories, such as cables and connectors.
What are these industry pacesetters doing to keep their Web sites fresh? Here’s an update from the Internet specialists responsible for conceiving new online features.
Agilent Technologies: Shopping online
www.agilent.com
This test industry kingpin divides its Web focus between test and measurement (T&M) equipment and automated test equipment (ATE). The T&M side saw a 20% jump in traffic in the second half of 2004, while ATE doubled its visitors over the last two years to about 25,000 per month.
Agilent recently introduced an online store for US customers looking for quick delivery of basic, lower-cost T&M products and accessories. Customers add products to an online shopping cart from the product page or from the online catalog. Next, they configure the product, select payment options, and place the order. By the end of the year, the ATE sector will also offer some of its electronic manufacturing test accessories in the online store.
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Mike Kawasaki |
An essential key to the company’s Web success is user feedback, including customer advisory boards. Said Mike Kawasaki, manager of T&M e-business, “By conducting ongoing customer research, we see how they navigate or search our site click by click. We then apply this learning to how we design and implement content, as well as to new capabilities that help people complete tasks in less time and with less frustration.”
National Instruments: Top-rated support
www.ni.com
Well-known in the test field for its marketing prowess, National Instruments has fashioned a Web site that draws about 1.2 million visits per month. Among it most popular features:
- Product Catalog, featuring an online store for e-commerce, demos, multimedia tutorials, white papers, customer solutions, manuals, specifications, pricing, and product configurators.
- Developer Zone, where customers can download software and instrument drivers. Engineers also use this section to participate in discussion forums and share information with the LabView community.
- Support, a heavily used section rated as one of the top 10 support sites by the Association of Support Professionals.
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Christer Ljungdahl |
Christer Ljungdahl, director of Web and direct marketing, emphasizes both the depth and accessibility of the information on the NI site. “The scope of the information ranges from product details to applications to troubleshooting guides,” he said. “The intent of ni.com is to become the most efficient way to get answers to any type of inquiry for customers who prefer to use the Web to gather information, purchase products, and obtain technical support.”
Tektronix: Tailor the message
www.tektronix.com
Tektronix reports a whopping 5.4 million visits to www.tektronix.com in 2004, a 26% increase over the prior year. With traffic coming from customers in every region of the world, the hourly visitor rate is nearly consistent around the clock. Key draws: product selection/comparison guides, service manual downloads, and software downloads.
The company’s Web specialists say that the customer’s experience is the defining factor in the site’s success. As one customer noted in a recent Web survey: “I want to get in, get info, and get on with the current crisis.”
Two new features that may further enhance traffic are the myTek Resource Center and the launch of application navigation features. Customers registering with the myTek Resource Center establish a profile that connects them to tailored information resources and online capabilities. The myTek members also get access to the most popular site features, such as manual and software downloads, and they receive e-mail updates relevant to the profile they’ve created.
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Larry Bunyard |
Larry Bunyard, senior director of the Internet Business Group, notes that www.tektronix.com is often a customer’s first point of interaction with Tektronix. “As more users go to the Web and become more selective about the time they spend on our site and the information they gather, it is increasingly important to ensure a high degree of satisfaction,” he said. “Failure in this area hurts our ability to maintain an ongoing relationship with our customers.”
Digi-Key: Fast answers
www.digikey.com
One of the country’s largest electronics distributors, Digi-Key maintains a Web site that boasts 490,000 part numbers from more than 300 different brands. In an average week, the firm adds more than 1500 new part numbers to these offerings. The Web site provides technical information on most of these parts, including data sheets, application notes, photos, links to manufacturers’ sites, and links to Digi-Key’s catalog pages.
That vast product mix has helped generate a 44% jump in unique visitors to the site, based on a study comparing the first two months of 2005 with the same period in 2004. In addition, nearly half of the company’s orders originate from its Web or e-mail resources, with Web-based purchases jumping nearly 20% versus 2004.
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Steve Tsukichi |
Said marketing VP Steve Tsukichi: “Customers said they wanted a fast, efficient, and easy-to-use search engine—so we developed one.”
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