Do you WILF?
I certainly know that I do. WILF is an acronym for ‘What was I looking for?’ (It’s probably a bit more media friendly than ASS - Aimless Surfing Syndrome).
The term WILF was coined by moneysupermarket.com following a survey undertaken of the online habits of 2,412 adults in the UK. The abundant choice online, and the accompanying distraction that choice offers, results in us bouncing around between sites, partially reading something before we move on to the next ‘shiny trinket’.
Most of the commentary on this phenomenon has concentrated on it from the end-user side i.e. isn’t it a tragedy that we are all wasting so much time. However from the business point of view it is potentially just as damaging.
Leaving aside the fact that your employees are wasting time if they’re WILFing at work, what does WILFing mean for your website? It means your visitor traffic could be great (at least your first time visitor traffic will be). But behind the scenes these visitors potentially offer you very little. In fact if the WILFer is using Google to access your site you’re potentially even paying for the privilege of them bouncing in and out of your website.
WILFing is just another example of the importance of Online Customer Engagement. The need to establish, sustain and spread deeper relationships that deliver value over time remains paramount to any successful organisation.
[Next post on how to start an online customer relationship through ‘Alarm Clocking’]
Technorati tags: WILF, Customer Engagement
