So you've lured folks to your site. Another huge hurdle for on-line small businesses is getting potential customers to remember where they are on the Internet, Attard said. Small businesses have to keep customers at their sites long enough for visitors to remember them or even want to come back. If they don't find the site useful or easy to use they won't return, Attard said. Managing customer satisfaction might be the next battlefield for on-line businesses.
Many people use the Internet for comparison shopping only.
Attard said there are a few key ways to keep customers coming back to your site. That's the first thing to keep in mind. Sites have only a few seconds to capture a potential customer's attention. So, if the site takes 10 minutes to download because of detailed graphics and photos, the customer will probably click to a competitor's site. The site must provide valuable, useful information.