UKFast Newsletter
June 2006

To bring you the most relevant and practical information, we’ve added an extra Top Tip this month, which comes from our Accounts department. As if this weren’t enough, the Spotlight on the Client is also much more wide reaching. In fact, it’s about all of you, because we are announcing the opening of nominations for the UKFast Internet Awards 2006.

In UKFast news, the beginning of the month saw MD Lawrence Jones placing himself on the front line. Following an appearance on BBC Radio Manchester as ‘Mr Manchester,’ Lawrence joined with Yahoo and a panel of experts to talk to businesses about optimising their online presences. The event was a great success. Find out more in June@UKFast.

Content is King on the Net and this month we look at two of its forms, specifically audio and video, that are becoming more and more prevalent. I’ll be introducing The Naked Scientists podcast and discussing the conflict that IPTV is presenting for ISPs, broadcasters and users.

So, with the summer well under way, we’re looking forward to checking out the submissions from the best of the network while the days are still long.

Inside this Issue

June@UKFast – A month of talking and listening
Tip from the Techies – Perfect passwords!
And one from the money minders – Be direct and make life easier!
A Marketing Minute – Stay functional
Spotlight on the Clients – The cream of the UKFast Network
Hot Topic – Video on demand but will it be supplied?
Top Ten – Secrets of Web based customer service

As always if there’s anything you’d like to share, then please feel free to get in touch by email jonathan.bowers@ukfast.net or phone 0870 421 1585.

June@UKFast – A month of talking and listening

We began the month with a couple of Lawrence Jones features: one personal, one professional. The new look BBC Radio Manchester invited Lawrence on to the Phil and Gail show as their Mr Manchester on Tuesday 6 June. You can listen to sections of the interview on the UKFast in the Media pages

The next evening Lawrence spoke to a more select group. ‘Optimising Your Online Presence’ at Cube in Manchester was attended by 65 MDs and marketing managers. The event, run in conjunction with Manchester Digital saw Lawrence share the stage with Clare Johnson, managing director of digital marketing company Adoofa, Peter Cobley of Yahoo Search Marketing and Heather Hopkins of Hitwise.

For a full report on the event, you can see the UKFast News pages.

And for some more insightful views on online marketing, you can now subscribe to Lawrence’s blog at www.lawrencejones.eu.

This month we’re pleased to welcome one of the world’s most downloaded science podcasts (60,000 every week!) to the UKFast Network. The Naked Scientists ‘strips down science’ as only an audio programme can! It’s the brainchild of Cambridge University Professor Chris Smith and it has the backing of a tremendous team of professionals at the university and beyond.

The show is transmitted on BBC Radio East and Radio Five Live every week and then made available to download from iTunes, Podcast Alley, Yahoo Podcasts and of course their own Website. It covers everything from the sublime to the ridiculous and is hugely engaging. So, if you want to know the answers to questions such as “How many organs can I donate and still function normally?” then get yourself acquainted at www.thenakedscientists.com

And finally we’d like your feedback this month. We’d like you to vote for your UKFast employee of the month. Maybe one of the tech team has saved your bacon, or an account handler has eased what could have been a tricky transition. Why not help us choose? To vote, email me with the name of your winning employee in the subject field. Congratulations go out to Lucy Bridges of the Linux team for winning the May award.

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Perfect passwords There’s obvious concern over passwords these days and this month’s tech tip looks at; a) vendors generating a large volume of passwords for registering visitors and b) users choosing personalised passwords that are memorable yet obscure! Every now and again we like to share with you our innovations, from the mighty ground breaking ones right through to the clever little gadgets. And having sent out thousands of passwords over the years at UKFast, we added a password generator tool to the Resources section of the website not so long ago. Why not download it and take away the pain of creating endless preliminary passwords for people who are likely to change them anyway. You can find it here: www.ukfast.net/whois.html at the bottom of the page. And who better to advise you on creating your own personal passwords than the Online Protection department of the world’s biggest portal – Yahoo! Back to top

It makes your life a lot easier, you don’t need to worry about organising the bills every month and we also give you two weeks to pay – so you get your invoice and then know that the money will not be taken from your account for another fourteen days.

Our other hassle free alternative is the new automated credit card payment method. All you need to do is enter your credit card details on the Client Area or give them to Paula who will set you up in the click of a button and the wink of an eye! Then every month on due date the money can be transferred.

It’s that easy! And just think – no more chasing phone calls from Paula!

Why not do it right now?
Or you can download the PDF and post it to us.

Here’s the address:
UKFast Accounts
Abbey House
32 Booth Street
Manchester, M2 4AB

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Vote for UKFast

Please vote for us in the Web Hosting Directory

We did well with Webhost Directory in 2005 so we're after your help again to challenge for their Host of the Month award this year. Please click on the link and follow the brief instructions to vote for UKFast. Many thanks.

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Stay functional

One thing that constantly crops up in meetings about web optimisation is the functionality of a website. You can’t underestimate its importance which is why one of the UKFast Internet Awards is given for this very skill.

Getting people to your site is crucial but giving them a fantastic experience while they are there is the driver for converting, encouraging return visits and fuelling recommendations. Our 2005 winner, Steve Logan of Recruitment-Software Solutions, has been building sites with functionality at their heart since 1998.

Here are his top five pointers for keeping functional while you develop your site.

1: Keep things simple – Keep design, content, and navigation uncluttered. Don't give the user information overload or unnecessary options. Too much content on one page and excessive scrolling turns users away. Don’t confuse web-novices.

2: Keep navigation consistent - Always keep navigation in the same place so that the user knows exactly where to find it if required. Provide links to all pages in the same section as a minimum and make sure that there are also easily accessible routes back to other sections. This also includes making sure that links within text are always easily identifiable as links.

3: Plan properly - Identify the purpose of the site and what you want users to get out of it. Use flowcharts to identify the steps required to achieve this, then build pages and navigation that lead users through the steps as simply as possible.

4: Consider the target users - Understand who will be accessing the site when designing content and layout. Make it familiar and relevant to them. Name links appropriately and give flexible choices for navigation and layout (e.g. text only/low bandwidth content versions) to ensure different user groups can access your site.

5: Plan for errors - Make sure all navigation links work and if there is a problem with a page, rather than a technical error message, present users with a friendly page offering a straight forward route back. Custom error pages incorporating top-level navigation options work well. This also ensures that if a page has been indexed by a search engine or bookmarked and then is moved or renamed, the user can still find what they were looking for easily.

Find out more about RSS by visiting the website, www.recruitment-software.co.uk.

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Spotlight on the Clients – The UKFast Internet Awards are back

As we’re anticipating quite a number of entries this year, we’ve decided to bring forward the submissions process so that there’s plenty of time to judge and get the results out within the year. So the 2006 Internet awards are now open.

And this is no time to be bashful. The Internet Awards are your chance to put your company forward. With more than double the domains on the network than this time last year we're hoping for hundreds more fantastic entries and a fierce battle for awards such as Best Web Design, that Rob Jones and Tom Griffiths won last year.

As always every member of the UKFast staff can nominate their favourite site/client but don’t take your chances, get proactive. You can put yourself forward for any or all of the categories and you can also (if applicable) put your own clients, who reside on the UKFast Network forward.

In each case, just input your contact details, the url of the Website or sites you’d like to submit and a paragraph of notes about the brief, concept and audience.

The categories are:

1. Best Web Design
Well designed websites don’t tend to be all about clever flash animation. While some might be, we’re looking for more than that. We want sites that speak to their target audience and force even the best designer to sit back and admire their appropriateness.

2. Best Web Functionality
Sites with ‘stickiness.’ Easy to use, clear and concise. They're the ones you recommend to other people. See the Marketing Minute for tips from last year’s winner Steve Logan.

3. Best E-commerce website.
Last year we had to split this into SMEs and Large Companies as the competition was so stiff. Whether you sell socks or travel online, we want to hear from you.

4. Best Community Site.
We’re looking not only for sites that offer a resource to an established community but sites that are generating their own community on a large or small scale.

5. Internet Innovator
Last years winner was Dubit, the marketing and communications company providing a unique view on the 14-24 consumer market by creating youth portals. What have you done online to revolutionise your business or even the entire industry!

Don’t put it off.

Log-in to the client area and give yourself the chance to be a UKFast award winner. As always the awards come with Network kudos, press opportunities, case studies and other added extras. So what are you waiting for?

The deadline for submissions is September 15 and the winners will be announced in November. You can find all details on the rules in your Client Area.

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Video on demand but will it be supplied?

At the start of the year, we shone the spotlight on monday9am.tv a website devoted to the streaming of inspirational video interviews created by Nic Askew. Video streaming is all over the Internet now, but its narrowband format is less than ideal. The future is video on demand (VoD) delivered on IPTV.

IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional formats and cabling, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks. Currently it takes two forms: free and fee based. Right now, there are over 1,300 free IPTV channels available. It’s a rapidly growing sector with the playback of IPTV requiring either a personal computer or a “set-top-box” connected to a TV.

It sounds just like the future we’re all expecting. Interchangeable TV and computer, personalised technology at our fingertips. But before this, there’s a hurdle to leap. Content providers need to reach agreement with the broadband providers they rely upon for connectivity.

Earlier this month, Alexander Cameron of Digital TX wrote a research paper for The Register about the emerging battle between ISPs and broadcasters. The technology is now in place for any Telco or ISP to put together a TV network. They’ve got the engineering knowledge to make it work but what they lack are the programme making skills that broadcasters have in droves.

And what the broadcasters don’t fully appreciate is the amount of bandwidth that Internet television requires in order to be delivered at a quality that rivals, no hold on, betters television.

Cameron argues that this lack of cohesion has contributed to the global digital piracy situation. While the big companies argue over who can create the biggest profit margins, demand from users is fuelling the number of peer2peer file sharing sites that provide illegal access to film and TV programme downloads.

It’s like so many situations. Consumers will take the most convenient option and online consumers especially will expect to get the most cost effective option. At the same time the service providers will find the ways to drive up the profit margins without putting off the customers. After all, broadcasters and technology companies all want to make money so they will find a way to make it work.

The longer they flounder though, the more likely it is that piracy will flourish. When Disney discovered that the number one illegally downloaded TV show was Lost they decided to release it themselves for free. A shrewd move to bring the eyes back to the source, but can they sustain this on a mass scale?.

Cameron writes: “The cat and mouse game between P2P networks and content owners is fought in an ISP’s back garden, hence why they are hesitant to get involved.”

However, the longer the ‘connectors’ leave it, the more consumers will find the best quality Internet television through pirated avenues. As Cameron points out “Joe Public is already swimming in content and totally under whelmed by it.”

The real driver though and the reason why IPTV will become a mainstream technology is because it works so perfectly with the personalisation that we are all seeking from our online experience. While SKY Plus offers some this service, it’s a little known fact that BSkyB only reaches one third of all households in the UK. IPTV has a huge geographical power – all you need is a telephone line and/or a broadband connection.

Cameron brings us back to one of the Net’s giants for the solution. Will Google become the glue between the money makers? For the first time ever, viewers could see different adverts during their favourite programmes – adverts personalised to them. Could this generate the revenue content providers need in order to afford the bandwidth necessary?

I’m not sure Rupert Murdoch is happy to wait for such a solution. Since the World listened to his admission, a little over a year ago, that he had ignored the online world, we have watched as he has built himself something of a niche. Firstly, Murdoch spent over half a billion dollars buying the world’s largest social networking site MySpace and in November last year he purchased ISP EasyNet for around $400million. It doesn’t take much to realise that in a couple of swoops Murdoch has brought together content, connectivity and consumer – on a global scale.

I can’t wait to see what will happen next…

I’d recommend a full read of the Research Paper which can be found on The Register’s website.

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- Secrets of Web-based customer service

Just for you, here are the basic attributes that make web-based customer support work

10. Buy experience along with your technology
Partner with a vendor who can help you apply those best practices to your company's online customer service initiatives. It's even better when that vendor can help you optimise the rest of your CRM processes as well.

9. Deliver on the positives your Website promotes
There’s no point making promises that you cannot keep. Customer satisfaction is met when you follow through and achieve your goals. Don’t say you’ll respond within 24 hours if you can’t respond within 12 hours

8. Connect the online world to the real world
Link online operations with real-world facilities. You can provide a searchable database of real-world locations, supplement addresses with maps and driving directions and include contact telephone numbers.

7. Use rich content wherever appropriate
A picture is often worth a thousand words. Photographs, diagrams, and animations are very useful in helping customers solve common problems. They also help to streamline your online customer service system.

6. Let your customers rate you
You can't improve what you don't measure. So provide customers with a way to rate the quality of the answers they find online then weed out what you don’t need.

5. The "80/20" rule
80% of customer questions are answered by 20% of a support knowledge base. Get the most important information up right away and then refine. Don’t hold back until you think you’ve got the "perfect" knowledge base.

4. Integrate all your communications channels
Different customers use different communications channels. Use your knowledge base across all channels. Information you provide on the Web must be the same as via telephone operators, email and chat systems.

3. Keep information easy to find and easy to use
Great content isn't much use if customers can't find it easily. Provide customers with highly intuitive search tools that let them pinpoint the answers they need with a minimum number of steps.

2. Give customers what they want—quickly
The web is about immediacy. You must optimise your ability to respond to customers' needs with online content and ensure that the rapid posting of content is completely customer-driven.

1. Your Website needs to listen to customers
Employ mechanisms and practices that allow your website to provide an attentive ear to: A) clear requests for information and, B) customer needs defined by patterns of navigation, or usage suggesting potential interests.

This months Top Ten is based on information in the white paper ‘The Insider's Guide to Great Customer Service on the Web,’ published by RightNow, international specialists in customer service.

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Just one final tip before we go. UKFast’s new directory site www.ukwebhelp.com is a great way to add extra links to your website. The business directory splits into industry sections and allows you to place your company in the relevant area. We will be growing the directory over time and with your help we can make it a very valuable resource representing the entire Network and beyond.

As ever, I hope the Newsletter has provided a useful insight into UKFast. Once again, I look forward to speaking to many of you before next month.

Best wishes,

Jonathan