A good working relationship between a customer and a business establishment is the key factor for a flourishing business venture. Growth-oriented connectedness between people that benefits both parties is the sign of a healthy relationship. What I am going to discuss here is how technology can be used to foster relationships, and especially with reference to relationships online.

Just imagine a scenario
Let's say you that have just built your dream website. A place where you hope to get the right target audience and who will interact with each other in a mutually beneficial manner. Now, this could be a dating site, or an e-commerce site where you sell products or services. Or a simple website that fosters a sense of community among it's members.

And then you notice that although your website manages to get the right kind of customers, they don't stay long enough. You'd like your website to be more sticky, and your customers to contact you regarding your services. How do you solve this problem? What can you do to this website that will make your customers contact you?

A customer who keeps coming back to your site often will eventually contact you and use your services. Now, how do you get them to come back often? A possible solution could be to add more interactivity to your site.

What kind of interactivity are we talking about here?
We are talking about the users on your site becoming registered members and then interacting with each other through forums, discussion groups, bulletin boards, instant messaging and the like. These tools help establish a community and it is found that once people become a member of a community that they are comfortable with, they rarely switch to another one.

In the same manner, in an e-commerce website, if customers are able to put their queries to a 'live customer support' person and get their questions answered in real-time, the website would definitely see more sales happening. Would not the fact that he gets immediate replies and is able to carry on a one to one conversation help him in what he is seeking from the site?

Among these interactive tools, the most popular one is a chat application tool. A chat tool constantly searches the net for friends and associates who may be logged in at some terminal at the other end of the world .Now that your friend has also logged in you can begin one-to-one conversations by either sending messages or by sending voice over the internet and also see the person you are chatting with.

Chatting is the most preferred means to communicate with other members in a community, to chat with customer service staff in an online store, to exchange knowledge, to ask for help etc. The capabilities of chat clients range all the way from one-to-one text-based communication clients to the two-way audio and video conferencing tools. Once a site is able to offer chat to its business associates and also to other visitors the chat automatically starts building on the existing visitor base and each user draws in his friends and associates till it becomes the preferred meeting point for informal discussions, and business meetings for all the users meaning more visitors who stay on your site for longer and more income.

Video Conferencing - Sending and receiving streamed images (video streaming) over the net .The user requires a Web Cam to send Images across the net and he can receive images from other associates or colleagues who also have a web cam at their end. This application can be coupled with a chat application to provide a complete Audio-Visual interface for interacting with Associates and Clients. Viewing multiple Video windows and simultaneous chatting or talking over the net with all associates logged in to the application is possible. This feature ensures that registered users of the site can use the site as the interface for doing business transactions and communicating with friends, seeing the person at the other end, talking to him or chatting with him.

Features of a Video Conferencing or Chat Application:

• See and talk live over the Internet
• Video Instant message
• Multiple windows that support group video chat
• Creation of your own chat rooms which can also act as discussion forums

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