41 Great Award-Winning Web Designers, Developers & Agencies from Malaysia Website Awards 2019
It’s a wrap for the Award Presentation Ceremony of the prestigious Malaysia Website Awards 2019 (MWA 2019)!
This time around, the momentous event was held at Colony Coworking Space & Event Spaces, Star Boulevard KLCC on 13 February 2019.
First of all, many thanks to our Sponsors & Partners who worked together with us to make the event a success.
MWA 2019 was co-organised by EasyParcel, EasyStore, EasyWork and Pgeon (Logistic Partner).
Trophy awards of Malaysia Website AwardsThank you Frambie for sponsoring MWA Cert. The quality of the printing never fail! Thank you once again for joining us as a partner.
On top of that, we’re also thankful for the wonderful support from all our partners!
Diamond Partners: KipleBiz & DotAsia
E-Commerce Partner: billplz
Cert&Frame Sponsor: Frambie
Community Partner: Colony Co-working Space
Official Apparel Partner: StartupTshirt
Media Partner: FH Media & Malaysia News TV
Thank you for joining us. It was indeed a fantastic night!
Mr Chan Kee Siak, CEO & Founder, Exabytes was doing the opening remark by sharing the future development of MWA.
The Future Development of Malaysia Website Awards
1. MWA Web Interface & UIUX
The MWA team is constantly working on the website layout, UIUX and the overall web interface of the MWA website.
This is especially true for the process of submission.
The team is constantly working to make the process seamless, for both external and internal use.
2. MWA Mark Transparency
We’ve received several requests for mark transparency. Many participants wish to know their rating for each criterion: Design, Content, SEO, Accessibility & Performance.
We are fully aware of it and will do our best to make it a reality!
3. More Expert Judges & Jury Panel Members
We are inviting more Expert Judges and Jury Panel to join and grow this community stronger!
Stay tuned for more announcements. More are joining soon!
4. More Awards
Currently, we have Site of the Month Award, Favourite Website Award and Site of the Year Award.
We are looking to have more different awards in the next series of MWA!
For example, Best Designer Award, Best Experimental Award, Best UIUX Award.
However, the details are yet to finalize. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements!
Quality of Website Entries On the Rise
Malaysia Website Awards, which started in 2015 (2019 is the fifth in the series), seeks to recognize and reward the outstanding performance, talent and effort of the best web developers, web designers and web agencies; and at the same time encourage creativity, sharing and improvement of overall web design quality in the country.
Over the years, the quality of submissions is on the rise. The quality of website entries we receive is getting better and better each year.
Thus it is also getting more challenging for our Jury Panel & Expert Judges to rate the submissions.
As usual, the Site of The Year Award was extremely competitive as several participants were competing for neck and neck.
So here you go with the Winners of Site of The Year (Grand Prize) for the Malaysia Website Awards 2019.
Commercial category – Site of the Year Award – bikebear.com.my by Bike Bear
Personal category – Site of the Year Award – ceravasarawak.com by CERAVA
E-Commerce category – Site of the Year Award – twogastronome.com by Multimedia Art Workshop Sdn Bhd
If you are currently or recently facing these issues, you probably want to know how to solve it without affecting or decreasing the overall quality of your services.
Now a question may come to your mind: how to solve these problems? You can consider a knowledge base software. With a knowledge base software called customer portal, your customer can solve their own support issues.
Pre-set a time to deal with customers who are facing more serious enquiries. It can save you or your support team time, money and peace of mind. At the same time, it reduces the overall ticket volume drastically.
Your support team now has more time to help customers who are facing serious issues on your product or services.
Let’s start with an ultimate guide to building a kickass knowledge base for your business to solve the customer issues and satisfy their support needs.
First and foremost, you should understand precisely what a knowledge base is and why it’s important that you add one to your customer support arsenal.
A Knowledge Base is an online library with complete information or guides about a service, topic, product or department to solve customer’s general enquiries.
It serves as a source of self-service to customers. It answers questions which customers can probably search for or help them find the right category to quickly solve their problems.
Normally, the data that will be included inside your knowledge base comes from a few contributors such as technical or customer support teams, which answer commonly asked customer enquiries or inform about what your customer must know.
In the knowledge base, you can include some articles related to your legal statements, terms and conditions and how your products, services, hardware, or software operates.
These can also include troubleshooting guides, FAQs, and any important updates or announcements that customers might need to be aware of.
Given below in picture 1 is Exabytes Knowledge Base where you can find out how our products are used and the different updates you can have to increase the features of them.
Picture 1: Exabytes.my (Malaysia) Support portal with a knowledge base.
Why It is Important to Build a Knowledge Base?
I believe that now you have a clear idea of what a knowledge base is and how it works. But you may be wondering why it’s so important to build a knowledge base for your business website.
According to the studies of Freshdesk, 44% of customers already think that it takes them more effort than the brands they’re getting help from to solve support problems.
In other words, customers do not mind putting in a little effort using your knowledge base to search for the solution to their problems.
Customers also mentioned that the two most satisfying aspects of a customer service experience are:
Not having to repeat themselves or be directed to another agent (39%)
Having their problem solved on first contact (24%)
When there is a knowledge base management system, customers will not have to keep repeating their issues or be passed around between agents.
They prefer to get their problems solved the first time they access your customer service.
50% of the customers believe that it’s essential to resolve customer service issues on their own. Gartner believes that “in 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human.”
That’s why it is essential to build a knowledge base as a tool for customers to solve their problems by themselves.
How to Create a Knowledge Base
Before you learn how to create a knowledge base, make sure you have a helpdesk software. You can try our 21-day free trial on Exabytes Helpdesk software Today!
Here’s a guide to setting up your knowledge base in Exabytes Helpdesk software.
Go to Solutions and Click “New Category”.
Enter the category name and a short description for the category that you plan to create. Then, click “Save”.
Once the category is created, you can edit it by clicking on the category that you have created & selecting the “Edit” button.
To create a folder, Go to “Solutions” and click “New Folder” under the category that you want to create a folder in.
Enter a name and short description for the folder that you would like to create.
Set the visibility for each folder (You can choose to make folders visible to everyone or you can make it only visible to users or agents who are logged in)
Once you’ve selected the desired settings, hit ‘Save’.
***You can create knowledge base articles in each folder. For example, you can create a folder which explains everything about Bulk SMS Marketing Solutions.
I believe now you know how to create a simple knowledge base and the next question will be “How should I choose knowledge base topics?”
Tips to Choose Knowledge Base Topics
It is far easier to select the topic for your knowledge base than it sounds. Here are several tips for you to choose the best and suitable knowledge base topics:
Search for the trends in the questions you or your team usually receive.
I believe that your team will always receive the same questions such as how to make the payment after purchase, how to point my domain name etc. Hence, include all these questions to create a knowledge base to guide your customers about their problems.
Search through all the old tickets and record the number of queries related to particular problems.
You can find out that a large percentage of queries are related to recurring issues such as how to reset the passwords, how a specific product’s features works etc. Record down and prepare the contents to provide the solutions or suggestions on solving these issues.
Gain insights into Google Analytics Once you have selected the topics and created some articles, make sure you gain insights about them in Google Analytics to ensure that the topics are related to what customers are looking for or searching for.
How to Analyze Site Search Data in Google Analytics?
Go to your Google Analytics.
Select “Behavior” and click “Site Search”.
Click “Overview” to look at the common search terms that people are searching for.
You can compare the specific time periods and sort out the results by “Absolute Change” to check out the trends that have risen over time.
Restructure your knowledge base in a way that it is easy for readers to digest the information.
Break it apart into smaller pieces. Try writing one article today. That’s it. Before you know it, you’ll build momentum.
by Chris Gallo, a Highrise CRM support team member
Structuring the Knowledge Base
It is important to structure your knowledge documentation so that your customers are able to find what they need quickly. Most of the knowledge bases are structured with a basic homepage for all their support-based articles.
This example from Evernote’s knowledge base landing page demonstrates that clearly:
In their knowledge base, their customers are able to search for specific issues. They can search by top articles or navigate all the company’s support content by categories.
Discoverability is the main key for a good knowledge base. Sift all the most popular articles on your knowledge base and make them prominent on your homepage so that customers can find it, like Evernote.
You can also offer a community program which allows users to share tips, tricks, and information about the products or services.
Sort all the articles and group similar topics together. You can group the articles with “Getting Started” (related to the guideline on your products), “Troubleshooting”, etc.
This makes it simple for customers to narrow down the topic or solutions that they are searching for. Improve your search functions on your site so that customers can find their problems more easily and faster.
Knowledge Base Templates and Examples
Most of the knowledge base software out there is pretty user-friendly and easy for you to create the knowledge base quickly. One of the essential elements that should be in the knowledge base is a visible search box.
With a search box, your users will easily find what they need in seconds instead of scrolling a lot to search the topic they are looking for. Add a search bar at the top of your knowledge base like our Exabytes Knowledge Base.
This search bar will act as a “search engine” for your knowledge base to find out what customers are looking for.
Instead of having to sift through different categories and select the topic that they are looking for, make it simple by allowing your customers to type in a few keywords and search what they are looking for.
Never forget to integrate your knowledge base with any live chat options you might offer. It is easy for customers to connect with your customer support agents on the same screen when they can’t find what they need in the knowledge base.
The easiest way will be using cross-link articles that are related to making your knowledge base more effective to enhance overall user experience.
It is a pretty straightforward process and there is no need for any complex skills to do internal linking within the articles you have written.
Here is one of the examples of How Adobe does it within their knowledge base articles:
This is the way to boost your SEO when you incorporate keywords and tags in the knowledge base articles.
It is because you help your visitors to find out what they need and increase the user experience on your website.
Select the Right Knowledge Base Tools and Software
Choosing a helpdesk and knowledge base management software will be a tricky process if you don’t know exactly what kind of tools you need.
4 Features That Should be There on Knowledge Base Tools and Software
Search box
It is important to have a search box for your user to search the topic or contents in your knowledge base. Users only need to type a few keywords to search for the relevant topic or contents they desire.
User-friendly
Select the tools which you are able to optimize and are responsive on any devices such as a computer, mobile or tablet. Your user may search for the solution through their mobile devices instead of using a computer.
Easily to Manage
Sometimes, it will be a tiring task for your team when the software requires certain technical skills. Find software like Freshdesk which is easier to create contents, categorize the contents, etc. It is also able to control content visibility, making it simple to keep knowledge bases for agents and customers separate.
Free vs Paid
You can find out many FREE knowledge bases outside but there is a limitation on the features available. Try to do a comparison, within the knowledge base software, of the features and select the most suitable for your needs and affordability.
Looking for tools that are able to build the knowledge base and at the same time act as your helpdesk software? Try this helpdesk software with 21-day free trial Today!
Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Knowledge Base
Everyone makes mistakes. There are 4 mistakes you should avoid making when creating the knowledge base.
Not Making Recycled Content
I believe that it is a tiring task to repeatedly explain the same thing over and over because your contents or topic are too specific. Ask your support agent to write a content that’s easy to recycle and link it when your agent responds to the tickets.
Explain the feature of your products in detail in your knowledge base articles and link those specific articles every time when the topic comes up.
If the feature ever changes, you will only need to update on one article instead of creating new articles in your knowledge base. It will be a more convenient way for your customers to find the topic they desire.
You also need to make your content able to scroll easily. A simple way to do this will be to write in Markdown.
As Jess Byrne of Zapier said that they write in Markdown at Zapier, using asterisks for italics and brackets for links. Markdown makes it easy to write in plain terms and turns it into a rich text or HTML when needed.
You can write in HTML, but I believe that your customer will find difficulties to read through and rich text is unreliable. Thus, don’t be afraid to use visual aids to generate your content for easier understanding your knowledge base.
Failing to Use Visual Aids and Multimedia
The studies show that 65% of the population are visual learners. And visual aids help to improve learning by a staggering 400%. This is the reason why you should not present your contents only in text form in all your knowledge base articles or blog.
Include video tutorials, GIFs, pictures and diagrams that are easily understood by your customers.
You can put some screenshot in the articles that guide user steps by steps to install WordPress through Plesk control panel. Try some apps such as Skitch or Preview to add additional instructions to your images or draw attention to specific elements.
Let’s try to use visual aids and multimedia today in your knowledge base!
Never Updating the Knowledge Base
You may assume that once you’ve created the knowledge base articles about your product or service, it would not be necessary to keep updating them for a long time.
While the fact is that your knowledge base should always be reviewed and updated as your company, product, and features will change, update or improve.
When your customer finds the information which is outdated, they won’t be very pleased to read the articles, especially the ones related to step by step guides to use or configure your products.
That’s why your support team should always update the information with every new product release, process change, or new features that you want to introduce.
Don’t forget to keep updating your knowledge base! Always use your knowledge base when you are responding to your customer tickets in Helpdesk.
Always Forgetting to Use It for Customer Onboarding
The last mistake that I want to point out is to never forget using your knowledge base for customer onboarding. Remember, your knowledge base is not only useful for your existing customers but also it is helpful to guide new customers as well.
You should include it in the welcome email when they join you. At least they have a get started guide on the products or services that they just purchased.
Give users a short explainer video or useful links to relevant articles so that you can keep your ticket volume low. For example, SEMrush also includes links and information about all of their features in their welcome email.
Takeaways
A knowledge base is essential for your business if you want to take your customer support to the next level. It is a central hub for the information that allows your customer to find answers by themselves.
Remember to structure your knowledge base, select the right knowledge base tools and avoid certain mistakes when building your knowledge base.
I believe that now you have an idea about how to build an awesome knowledge base.
Get started today to save your team from the growing pile of support tickets they deal with every day and improve the quality of customer services by implementing self-service support.
Nothing is better than reading some romantic stories from around the world. Instead of Romeo and Juliet, we would like to share some beautiful love stories / love journeys that are published and shared on WordPress blogs.
These lovebirds keep all their romantic and sweetest moments virtually so they can have a throwback anytime, anywhere.
Keep reading and be reminded that love is real no matter where you are.
Khairul & Amira
“In 2015, I got married to Amira and ever since she got married with me, she got bitten by travel bug too. We never looked back since then. From only Malaysia, she has been to 12 countries altogether as at 2019! Now, we are looking forward to more travel adventures with our daughter who was born in 2018.”
Daniel & Gina
“Traveling is really one of the most amazing things that we’ve ever done together. The memories created will last a lifetime and these are moments that you will treasure forever. “
“We Charvi and Jaymine are Digital nomads, travel lover and an entrepreneur. We love to share our experiences to our readers through our this travel blog to make their trip more memorable and to inspire them to travel more and more.”
Jamie & Ivana
“Fast forward two years to the 10th of June 2019 in Paris, and surrounded by close friends, we got engaged in front of the Eiffel Tower. Wander In Two was born out of our mutual love for travel.”
“We later found out that we both share the same passion of traveling and that’s when we started planning for travels in the southern parts of England. From one led to another, we got into a serious relationship and finally in Summer 2017 on one of our trips exploring small towns in Cornwall, I pulled out a ring and proposed to her at a park overlooking the sandy beaches and …she said yes!”
“I’m sharing our ridiculous romance story today as running is now wrapped around every part of our life – it’s our deepest passion, the thing we do for fun, our professional aspirations, world travelling explorations, our greatest challenge, our family adventures together, deepest conversations over run dates and it’s our friends, family & community. Beginning in Amherst, Wisconsin, to Saint Cloud, Minnesota, to Ashland, Oregon, to Boulder, Colorado, and now all over the world, we have both shared 100-mile races, the ups and downs together but also with the wonderful runners that we have met along the way and we are so grateful to be living this life alongside such a beautiful community.”
With tears in my eyes and a smile on my face I could only remember to say this: “Emily, from the time I met you I dreamed of marrying you, but never actually thought God would let my dreams become a reality. I have saved these three words for you & you alone because I wanted its meaning to be saved for my future wife. Emily, I love you. Will you marry me?”
“If “soulmates” mean 2 souls having an unexplainable affinity for each other be it mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually, then that’s what Ken and I are to each other — soulmates, on all levels.”
“We talked deeply about everything in our lives. We took time to seek out what the Lord was doing in our lives, we shared our failures and our successes. We shared what was making us who we are. Through it all her and I grew stronger and became each other’s support. When she was down I became her strength, when I was down she became my strength, together we became a perfect team.”
“When you are compatible, love each other, and commit yourselves fully emotionally and spiritually, the bad times are few. Alex is my partner for life and I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else. He showed up when I least expected it, and gave me the exact spark I needed to ignite my belief in love again. For that, I’ll be forever grateful.”
”The idea went from “I think I could marry him,” to “I think I will marry him,” to “I can only imagine marrying him,” to “I know he is God’s choice for me.” That day, you got down on one knee. One knee on the unusually warm late-December ground, and you told me you’d love me forever and you asked me to be yours. I grabbed your face and whispered yes, a thousand times yes. Because I had waited for you forever.”
“The thing that got me “all melty” was after he was done, he asked me, “So, does it fit?” I looked at my hand, sized up the ring, and said yes. Then he said, “No, I mean, the last name…” Can it get any sweeter than that?!”
“One evening in December, we were walking up to the house he shared with “the guys” for a game night with friends, and he paused, said “Han, c’mere,” and grabbed me and kissed me. It was out of character for us to be so spontaneous, but it was darn romantic AND just plain felt right – like a scene out of a movie!”
“Although we are not perfect, we now look for ways to serve the other and to give of ourselves daily. We were forgiven and our hearts were healed. We have been blessed with a wonderful story – one full of redemption from sin and his undeserved grace.”
“When something great happens, you are the first person I want to tell so that we can celebrate together. Or when something not so great happens, you are still the first person I want to tell because I know you will be there to encourage me through it. I love doing things with you, even if it’s just hanging out in the house all day. We always have fun together and that’s such a great gift to have in a husband.”
Wish to keep a journal of the sweetest moments in your life?
10 years ago, how people search for a new home was through newspaper or through mouth by mouth recommended by family members. Today, generation has changed, what you need to do is just grab a smartphone and go as everything that you wish to look for, you can get a search from the Internet.
When connecting domain names with real estate agents, you must have a lot of questions mark appear in your brain. How come domain and real estate can be combined together, how can they cooperate with each other?
Why do real estate agents need to go for a domain name?
Having your own domain name gives you an advantage when it comes to targeting specific geographic areas. Local SEO will be the trend in future. 92% of consumers will pick a business on the first page of local. Google will track the location of visitors when they are searching and figure out the suitable local website for users. For example, if you are now in Malaysia and search ‘real estate agent’ on Google, it will come out those .my or .com.my domain extension for you such as www.propertyguru.com.my.
When a potential client begins to look at real estate in your target area, there is a greater chance that they will discover you. What’s even better is that your site will have information specifically about that area, so you will look like the “go to” agent. Domain names give a strong identity to the real estate agent and increase credibility of the business.
Brand yourself
You must be asking why real estate agents need branding. Branding is the way that clients can connect and identify with your company. There are so many real estate agents out there vying for a piece of the real estate market , there is so much chance for your potential customers to overlook your company. How to overcome this? Grab a domain name to set yourself apart from competition. By having your own domain you are creating your online brand, as your website is a direct reflection of your authority, goals and services.
But how to choose a good domain name is a headache for users. You might end up using naming strategies that will lead online visitors away. These mistakes are easy to make, but avoiding them is just as simple.
How to choose a good domain name for real estate agents?
A short domain name is needed
Try to imagine back the most familiar website in the world Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Youtube, you will find out these websites are just with few characters. The goal of an effective domain name is to make a professional impression. Alexa data found that the most common domain name at the top 250 has 7 average characters. Long does not mean good. Keep your domain name short and on point to increase visitors memory
Make it easy to pronounce and spell
You must have a question mark why domain needs to be easy to pronounce, people will just type on Google and search. Not really. Keep in mind. Mouth by mouth referral still is an effective marketing method in 2020. The easier your domain name to pronounce, the more accurate when visitors searching your website online. Many users will end up visiting the site with the properly spelled-out domain, which might be one of your competitors.
Select a brandable name
Keep it short and keep it easy does not mean your domain name needs to be simple like normal. Your domain name needs to be unique and attractive so that it stands out in your visitors’ mind. For example, propertyguru.com.my. Property means real estate and “guru” in Malay stands for teacher. This is a very common word for Malaysian and makes it easy to remember it. Another good example to prove, iproperty.com.my. It’s just easy to memorise like my property.
Because your domain name will represent you, and your real estate business on the internet, it is crucial to choose a proper domain name. Get your business online with Exabytes Domain.
Due to the recent COVID-19 concerns in the region, the CEO of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg has announced to cancel WordCamp Asia 2020, as part of the precautionary action of the recent Coronavirus outbreak.
We’re sad as we won’t be able to meet you guys in Bangkok this time. Anyway, we believe it’s the right thing to do.
Stay Safe, and see you guys again soon and looking forward for the next WordCamp.
I believe no one would buy from the business that he does not trust. It is important to build a good customer relationship, customer trust and customer loyalty to achieve a successful business.
While it does take quite an effort, the steps to get there are easy if you are willing to be open, honest, and efficient in communicating with your customers.
According to Freshdesk, 83% of the customers will trust a business that’s recommended by their friends and family. It means that your existing customers are key people who help your business grow.
In other words, your customers can help you generate more leads at Zero cost.
It is clear that building customer loyalty and trust is essential to any business goal. Today, we will explain 10 strategies that are useful and effective to build a long-lasting, trusting relationship with your customers.
The level of customer service that your business provides is the main factor that will impact customer loyalty and customer retention.
In other words, your support team, especially customer support and technical support will be the key person who delivers the high standards on speed and quality.
Once you’ve hired and trained your support agents, you need to make it easy for your agents to keep in touch.
Probably, you will need a channel like Exabytes Helpdesk Software that can offer you the help on managing your customer issues across all the channels such as Email, Live Chat, Facebook Chat, etc.
Next, ensure that your support agents reach out to the customer with questions and issues consistently. A set of guidelines for your agents is important to outline appropriate answers for more common enquiries and ensure they have the tools to find the solutions easily.
Train your agents to deliver the information that is specific to the customer instead of using general information and solutions. They might feel like they’re being treated like numbers.
That’s why your business goal also should offer an efficient, consistent service with a personal touch. When your team practise on a personal touch with every customer, it may help them provide better customer service and increase customer satisfaction.
A little effort for the customer would make a customer’s day. Remember customers don’t always look at the price of the products or services but also how the business delivers the services after-sales.
It should be a long-term business strategy to establish your customer loyalty towards your brand. That’s why this is a secret receipt for all big brands such as Nike, Apple to make their customers stay and love their products.
2. Publish Customer Reviews & Testimonials
The strongest and most effective marketing strategy is the Word of Mouth from the customer’s end. No matter how trustworthy your brand is, customers will always trust other customers’ feedback more than the company.
That’s because customers think that no matter how hard you try to be unbiased, you definitely promote and position your brand in a positive light.
Display and Respond To Customer Reviews – The Good and the Bad
Customers are smart and know something fishy is going on if the business only posts good reviews. The best way to gain customer trust is to openly publish all the reviews about your business no matter good or bad.
Respond to all the good and bad with the assistance of your customer about their dissatisfaction.
Customer support teams should reach out to the reviewers not only to show they care about what the customers think but also to accept their suggestions and critique.
It is the best way to improve customer satisfaction and take inspiration for the research team to provide the products and services that meet customer needs.
Display Customer Testimonials
You can always publish the testimonials on your site such as the interview video on how customers think about your business.
It encourages the customer to understand well about your product or service provided because we like to listen to other’s reviews about the product or service. Testimonials will actually increase your customer trust level on your brand.
In short, customer reviews and testimonials should be displayed on your website. Moreover, business listing platforms such as Google My Business would really help on your SEO rankings.
To gain your customer trust in your brand, you need to be deserving of their trust. Be honest and transparent about what they can expect from your company. There should be no hiding anything from your customer.
Don’t overpromise your customers
Start from the first interaction with your brand. Try to avoid providing misleading sales copy and gimmicky marketing campaigns. Don’t attempt to grab your audience’s attention with exaggerated claims about your products or services.
A clear message about what you have to offer is the best practice to establish accurate customer expectations from the start.
Be straightforward to your customers
In order to achieve this goal, it is essential to get your sales team involved. They should be straightforward in letting the customers know about the pricing information, fees and any policies without hiding any surcharge or terms and conditions.
It would impact the prospective buyers in the future, like return and cancellation procedures.
Every customer has the right to know exactly what to expect before signing a contract or placing an order with you. Sometimes sharing certain pieces of information may result in losing your leads and to convert but that’s okay.
When it comes down to it, ensuring that all your customers are satisfied with their purchasing experience is more important than generating as many as possible customers. Building a long-term good relationship with your customer is more important than that.
In short, if a customer has all the information they need before making the decision, they will stay loyal to your brand. This is because they know well about your brand, your products or services.
Otherwise, it will be highly unlikely for them to stick around with the company that is not transparent or lies to their customers.
4. Offer Live Chat
Live Chat is the support system preferred by most customers. It eliminates the long waiting time that often comes with email ticketing or phone services.
They are more likely to get instant responses from support agents to solve their enquiries or issues as soon as possible.
If your business website has the live chat option such as Exabytes Live Chat on your website, customers are more likely to believe you are able to solve their problem quickly.
Sometimes, you also need a quick answer from us when you want to know how good our hosting plans are. Thus, your business may need a software which is really able to solve not only ticketing but also live chat support solutions.
Find out from us the most powerful helpdesk software and live chat system.
5. Engage with Customers via Social Media
Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. is the best way to connect with your customers, especially if you are running an E-commerce business with no face-to-face interaction.
For example, your customers would go to your Facebook Business Page to ask you certain simple questions. Assigning an agent to handle all the enquiries is essential for you to interact and communicate with your customers.
We all know how powerful it can be when customers spread the word or talk about our brands on social media. If you fail to handle the issues faced by your customers, you may lose more customers when they post negative reviews about your brands.
Of course, it would incur a high cost when you hire two persons to handle ticketing and also social media chat support.
That’s why you need Exabytes Helpdesk Software where you can manage all the enquiries across all channels such as Email, Phone, Live Chat, Facebook, etc. via a single platform.
6. Ask for Feedback
Always collect your customer feedback after the purchase. You need to know whether your product or service would actually meet the customer’s needs or not.
Preparing a feedback form on your website or automated email is essential when it comes to collecting your customer feedback regularly.
If you want to enhance or innovate your products or services, send them a survey on a regular basis and ask them to share their opinions.
It is a useful and effective way for marketing teams to understand their customer needs and help in research & development to develop or enhance the products.
After receiving all your customer responses, look for the opportunity to make improvements.
When you apply their feedback on your products, you not only show your customers that you value their input but it also increases customer loyalty, and this can have a positive impact on your entire customer base.
5 Questions to include in the Survey Form
Did our products/services meet your expectations?
Did our support team solve the problems you faced?
Are you satisfied with the overall experience with us?
Would you recommend us to your friends, family, etc.?
Any suggestions/feedback you have for us?
7. Create a Loyalty Program – Reward Your Customers
In fact, 76% of North American customers say they’re more likely to choose retailers that offer loyalty programs. Moreover, 50% of existing customers are more likely to try new products than new customers.
Creating a loyalty program is an effective way to earn customer loyalty.
Customers are more likely to make the second purchase with you when they join your loyalty program, which can bring many exclusive deals such as coupons, discounts, membership day specials, etc.
Rewarding your customers will encourage repeat orders and give your customers a clear incentive to stick with your brand.
In other words, your customers will not switch to your competitors easily. This is a business strategy that can be adjusted for any industry and business model.
E-commerce retailers can often offer free bonus items to frequent shoppers, along with early access to certain sales and promotions.
B2B companies can offer perks like exclusive content and invitations to webinars and in-person events.
With Exabytes Sales Management Software, you can set up an automated email for your customers when they meet certain conditions that you have set. For example, it will send a promo code to your most loyal customer groups, etc.
8. Admit To Mistakes & Solve Them
If there is something going wrong (even sometimes when it was a customer’s error), the best solution for your customer service team is to admit the mistake.
3 Key Steps to Solve Customer Issues
Address the customer issues clearly
Apologize for the inconvenience
Offer a solution to the problems
Customers will appreciate the honesty and trust when your team takes the issues seriously and place them as number 1 priority to solve and prevent the issues from happening again in the future.
When the next issue arises, your customers will place their trust on your team based on the previous positive experience they had with you.
9. Always Put Your Customers First
As a business owner, I believe you will always put your customers first. At the same time, you also need to provide powerful tools for your team to enhance their workflow.
It is a win-win situation where your employee satisfaction would actually reflect your customer satisfaction.
Get powerful helpdesk tools and train your employees to focus on customer needs and also customer service. Always encourage your team to work together and motivate them when they face problems.
When your team is convinced that their decisions and attitude make a big impact on your customers, they would be more likely to make the kind of decisions your customers want.
If your helpdesk system has a strong knowledge base to guide your team, it’s a great and efficient system to assist every customer.
Takeaways
Building customer trust and loyalty increases your customer base. As a business owner, you should practise it on your business to earn long-term success.
Earning customer trust doesn’t require any sort of complex strategy. You just need to start from offering excellent customer service and make sure your support team works on the goal together.
Always practise transparency and honesty with your customers in every stage of the buying process, and collect their feedback on a regular basis.
Start building customer loyalty today with us! Talk to us so that we can guide you along every step.
The technical personnel of a large corporation will probably have heard of server colocation, and would at some point of time think of using this service. Let us explain the basics of server colocation and why you need it.
What is server colocation?
A server colocation hosting refers to the services provided by a data center that rents out space for its customers to store their servers and other computing hardware. In other words, the provider rents out space in its data center for its customers to put their hardware (servers) in.
The services that are usually provided by a server colocation hosting provider are:
Physical security
High-speed internet connection for performance
Reliable power supply
Heat radiation and cooling system
Some providers include additional services such as 24×7 network monitoring and DDoS mitigation, offering peace of mind to server owners.
Is there a difference between server colocation hosting and dedicated server hosting? Yes, there are, although they have rather similar functions.
Server Colocation
Dedicated Server Hosting
What are they?
A data center rents out open space for its customers to store their servers and other computing hardware. However, other resources like hardware are not included.
Resources are 100% reserved to the client; the client does not share Internet connectivity, hardware, disk, etc with anyone.
Similarities
For business or large corporation use
Stand-alone data storage unit with dedicated hardware resources
Differences
Users rent space from others
Users enjoy a state-of-the-art security system and 24×7 downtime monitoring
Users enjoy uninterrupted power supply
Own space
Self maintenance of hardware
Self maintenance of security system
Self monitoring
Power supply not guaranteed
Why do you need it?
The question ‘why do I need…’ is often being asked for the benefits of having a certain thing. So what are the benefits of having a server colocation service?
1. Space-saving
One of the main reasons why users opt for server colocation is space. Colocation can free up your valuable office space by storing your hardware server in the hosting data center of the colocation service provider. The extra space you earn can be used for other purposes such as seating and production.
2. Save costs
Colocation service is a cost-effective option as you do not need to invest in purchasing racks, HVAC units, a backup generator, not to mention the additional cost for operating and maintaining these equipment. A server colocation service helps you operate those facilities and cut down costs.
3. Reliable power
A reliable power can be one of the benefits of choosing a colocation service. Power generators, internet access and everything that is important for your business will be provided with a backup system in order to prevent power outages and downtime.
4. 24x7x365 Support
There is a team of engineers who work 24×7 to monitor the colocation site and provide immediate support when something goes wrong. Moreover, these professionals are there to ensure great server management and efficiency.
5. Security and protection of data
A state-of-the-art security system is in place to secure your data, server and also other computing hardware. Getting in and out of the data center is not easy as the place is guarded with security personnel 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Fire suppression, smoke detection, CCTV surveillance systems are all provided in the facility. Moreover, the temperature control feature is there to keep your servers running at peak performance.
What are the things you should be looking out for when it comes to choosing a colocation service?
We listed down 4 main important points for you to make a better decision. Understand them before you start to move your server hardware over to the data center of your provider.
1. Pick location wisely
You should be ready to go to the data center when a problem arises as you are responsible for the maintenance and installation of your server. Pick a location that is suitable for your server — a location that is near to your office and provides the best network connectivity.
2. Transparency
It is important for you to choose a company that practices transparency and provides you with self-monitoring and management of your server without any hidden charges. Understand the provider’s terms and conditions before picking them.
3. Flexibility
Power, space, cooling system and internet connectivity are very important for the growth of your business. It’s important for the provider to have contiguous space to shorten network run between cabinets, as well as a good cooling system to cool down your infrastructure. Good internet connectivity is also a must for providing a high-speed when operating your server.
4. Physical security
In an event of a natural disaster, downtime and data loss due to mismanagement. A good data center will protect you from these issues by providing a backup system. The latest security technology should also be installed by the data center in order to make sure that your data resources are in a safe place.
With all the great tips above, the next question you should be asking is: when should you go for server colocation.
If your business requires both your employees and customers to access the data resources all the time, colocation will be a better choice for you as it provides a redundant backup power that can ensure uptime.
Hosting your own computing resources on your own premises without the required facilities such as a cooling system, high power, and internet connectivity will also put your business at risk. In this case, with colocation, you will be able to avoid these problems and save costs at the same time. This is because these equipment and hardware would incur high expenses and management costs.
If you are still not sure about server colocation, contact our experts who will be able to provide you with a free consultation and the best solution that is both cost-effective and reliable.
Choosing the best WordPress theme for your website can be a hassle, especially if you’re a beginner. Without any guidance, you might waste a lot of time on changing from theme to theme. In this blog post, we present to you the 5 Best WordPress themes for beginners.
Check them out:
OceanWP
Hestia
Phlox
eCommerce Gem
Astra
#1 OceanWP
OceanWP is the perfect WordPress theme on building all sorts of websites, from personal blog to e-commerce websites. The settings for OceanWP is direct and easy for those that are new to WordPress.
OceanWP provides you with custom header layouts, unlimited color options, featured product section, custom widgets, image slider, and much more.
If you want to skip all the hassle and get your website published in 10 minutes, you can design your website using some of the free templates provided by OceanWP.
Here are some of the key benefits of OceanWP:-
Responsive website – your website will look great even when it is viewed on a mobile device
Fastest page loading time
Works great with WooCommerce and Elementor
SEO Friendly
Complete guide – If you do not know how to change the style of your WordPress website, you can find a solution on their guide.
#2 Hestia
Hestia is the perfect freemium WordPress theme if you are planning to create a website for e-commerce, blogging, or news. Hestia integrates seamlessly with WordPress and WooCommerce so you can design your website easily.
Here are some of the key benefits of Hestia:-
You can customise the design of your website while looking at the changes in real time.
User-friendly menu bar for you to manage your submenu content.
Work great with WooCommerce and Elementor
SEO Base Built-In
Video Tutorials – If you need guidance on building your website step-by-step, Hestia has video tutorials to guide you.
#3 Phlox
If you are expecting more from your website, Phlox is the best choice for you. With the integration of Elementor, you can design your website exactly the way you want it to be.
Have a look at some of the professionally designed templates for Phlox.
Here are some of the key benefits of Phlox:-
More than 40 professionally designed templates for you to use for free, with option to import to your WordPress account in just one click.
You don’t have to worry that your website is not mobile friendly
Clean and Easy to Read Typography
SEO Friendly website to help you to rank higher on Google
More than 30 exclusive elements for you to include in your website
Are you ready to grow your business online? Start by getting a reliable WordPress hosting provider.
#4 eCommerce Gem
eCommerce Gem is perfectly designed for those that want to create an e-commerce website. With eCommerce Gem, you can design your website to look like large e-commerce websites such as Lazada or Shopee.
Have a look at how your future online store will look like with eCommerce Gem.
Here are some of the key benefits of eCommerce Gem:-
You can change almost everything to how you want it to be.
Compatible with Yoast SEO
Your online store looks great on mobile devices
Full integration with WooCommerce
You can import eCommerce Gem’s beautifully designed template and start customising.
#5 Astra
Astra is a good choice if you are planning to build a website to increase online presence and provide information about your company. With Astra, you can design a professional website from a collection of professionally Pre-Built templates.
Are you ready to create your website with these 5 recommended WordPress themes for beginners? Take your first step by getting a reliable WordPress hosting provider.
Most of the hosting plans provided on the market do not have pre-install WordPress (except WordPress Hosting plan). If you signed up for WordPress Hosting plan, good news! You can skip this step!
For those who signed up for a normal hosting plan, you can login to your cPanel (control panel provided by hosting company) to install WordPress. Take Exabytes cPanel for an example.
Login to cPanel
Point your mouse to “Softaculous Apps Installer” section
Choose WordPress
Fill in your website details and hit the “Install” button
Alright! You are good to go!
Step 2: Understanding WordPress dashboard and its functions
Now you’ve installed WordPress to your hosting, you will see a black dashboard that looks like this:
You might wonder what are the functions of the tabs. No worry, let’s go through them one by one.
Dashboard
Provides an overview of your website condition and performance
Post
A tab that enables you to write and post your blog post
Media
You can find all your media files here, including images and videos
Pages
Enables you to publish pages for your website
Appearance
Enables to you to edit your website appearance
Plugins
Enables you to install plugins for your website
Users
Enables you to manage your website users and subscribers
Tools
Enables you to manage your website data – Import and Export
Settings
General website settings such as Writing, Reading, Permalinks, etc
Step 3: Installing and editing a theme
Now you are going to begin building your website. First, your website must have a theme in order to display your information on the Internet. Navigate to Appearance tab and choose “Themes”.
After clicking on the “themes” tab, WordPress will lead you to a theme marketplace. Search your desired theme here and install the theme by clicking on the “Install” button. Themes provided in WordPress Marketplace are Free.
*Note: You can also purchase a premium theme (usually looks nicer with more functions) from Envato Marketplace and upload the theme using the theme upload feature.
Here are some great themes that we recommend for your websites:
Next, you are able to customize your theme’s content by clicking on the “customize” tab on left hand side of the dashboard. For some themes that come with its own website builder, you can edit it directly on each page.
Step 4: Installing a plugin
Plugins are external software that are able to bring certain features or functions to your website. You are able to install plugins in “Plugins” tab. Just like themes, WordPress provides a marketplace for you to search for your desired plugins. Plugins in WordPress marketplace are Free as well.
You can also install your own plugin by uploading it to your website. Plugins that require uploading are usually Premium plugins that users buy from third party, such as Envato Market.
Here are some MUST haves plugins for your new website:
Contact Form 7 – Helps create a contact form for your website
Yoast SEO – Helps you configure SEO
W3 Total Cache – Helps to improve website performance through caching
WP Smush – Optimizes website images
Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights – Helps connect Google Analytics
Backup Buddy – Backup your website data
OptinMonster – Website popups that help increase conversion
Jetpack – Takes care of your site security, performance, traffic, images and a lot more
Akismet – An anti-spam plugin that helps you block spam
Woocommerce – Build an ecommerce website
*Note: these plugins are FREE.
Step 5: Designing your website
Now you’re done installing the theme you love, it is time to design your desired website. With WordPress, you can easily design your website using either Gutenberg or Website Builder plugin which comes along with your theme (usually included).
Gutenberg
A brand new website editor provided by WordPress itself (launched in 2018). It enables users to edit pages and posts with drag and drop method (thank god, I hate coding… ). Basically the feature enables you to use “Blocks” to build and design your website. Here are some of the basic animation walkthrough:
Third Party Website Builder
Usually come along with your theme or installed as an individual plugin. One widely used Third party website builder is Visual Composer and Elementor.
Visual Composer (also known as WP Bakery) is the most commonly used website builder plugin. It usually comes along with themes that you purchased. It has 2 different phases of editing website – Classic view and Frontend Editor
Elementor – a newly launched website builder that enables users to build their website using drag and drop method. It comes with Pro version, enabling you to build almost a complete website without a theme. It is free to install.
Conclusion
I hope you learned something useful in this blog post. Now, it is your turn to build your very own professional website. Still confused? Got questions? Leave us a comment below!
First of all, when it comes to choosing a web hosting control panel, the one thing you might want to consider first is which of the web hosting control panels will be suitable for you.
Because Plesk and cPanel have dominate the market of server management tool.
Likewise it comes to the question of which is a better one? Read on to find out!
What is Web Hosting Control Panel?
While Web Hosting control panels provide a web-based interface to manage your hosting. Therefore, common things you should do with hosting control panels are:
In short, a web hosting control panel gives you a web-based interface to manage your hosting setup.
About Plesk and cPanel
Interface
Because in user point of view, Plesk provides a cleaner graphic user interface (GUI) which makes it simpler to understand and easy to use.
Thus, the interface is more streamlined with all the tools grouped on the left of the screen. So, you will find more options hidden under each tool.
In contrast, cPanel do not group the features and tools and make it look cluttered. Because it allows the user to customize the home screen, giving them the convenience to find things easily.
Security
Next, security is the main concern when it comes to your company website. Thus, their security features are different, both make the server bulletproof.
But, Plesk and cPanel both come with numerous security tools. Hence, below will be the contrast in security of these two control panels.
Plesk
Plesk Firewall – Plesk’s custom firewall that you can configure.
AutoSSL – automatically installs and renews Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates.
ImunifyAV – intelligent antivirus and monitoring tools: one-click malware cleanup, domain reputation monitoring, blacklist status checking.
Fail2ban – a tool to scan log files and ban IP addresses that appear to be doing malicious things.
Spam defence for emails
cPanel
AutoSSL – automatically installs and renews Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates.
cPHulk brute force protection.
Supports CSF (ConfigServer Security & Firewall).
Email spam filters
Each user get to use SSH access, IP blocker, hotlink protection, leech protection, ModSecurity, two-factor authentication.
Distros
Besides, Plesk can be on Linux or Windows operating system, whereas cPanel is only on Linux operating system.
In contrast, Plesk work with 14 Linux distros which include Debian, CentOS, and Ubuntu. Hence, it is compatible with Windows servers.
While, cPanel only supports CentOS, CloudLinux and RedHat Enterprise Linux.
Which is Better?
A quick summary of both web hosting control panels:
Feature
Plesk
cPanel
Works on
Support both Linux and Windows operating systems.
Windows family: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012)
Linux family: Debian, CentOS, Ubuntu, Cloudlinux 6-7, Virtuozzo, Red Hat Enterprise 6-7
cPanel is Linux control panel.
Supported distributives: CentOS, Cloud Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Web Server
Apache, NGINX with caching
Apache with Nginx caching
Administration
Unified authorization procedure for users and administrators.
Consists of cPanel and WHM.
cPanel gives access control only over the website while WHM is accessible only for server-related administrational tasks
Security
A lot of security features are provided in the box (Plesk Firewall, Revisium Antivirus, Fail2ban)
AutoSSL, cPHulk, built-in support of CSF/LFD and some other useful features
WordPress Support
WordPress Toolkit provides a full list of automation & management features vital for the scalable WordPress infrastructure support.
cPanel’s WordPress Manager is far away from perfection.
Extensions/Add-ons
Plesk comes with the ecosystem of various extensions, covering all possible needs of any server administrator. Among these extensions are Security Advisor, WordPress Toolkit, Joomla! Toolkit, Let’s Encrypt SSL support, SEO Toolkit etc.
Extra apps are available via auto-installers.
DBMS
MySQL / MariaDB / MSSQL Server databases can be managed via a web browser.
MySQL/MariaDB databases management via web interface
SSL
Let’s Encrypt + Symantec
AutoSSL with Let’s Encrypt
Mobile Accessibility
✓
X
Backups
Ready to use solutions based on Dropbox, Acronis, Google Drive
Compatibility issues can be spotted between various cPanel backup versions.
Technologies
Support of Docker, Git, Node.js, WordPress Toolkit
Docker, Node.Js & Git can be still supported by cPanel (Workaround more sophisticated)
Finally, Which is Better?
We’re afraid there are no straightforward answers. Similarly, both of these web hosting control panels come with the features that are essential for you.
Overall, both of the control panels make it possible to take full advantage of your web server.
But as a human who has to use an interface every day, you want to choose the one that makes your life easier.
Commercial category – Site of the Year Award – bikebear.com.my by Bike Bear
Personal category – Site of the Year Award – ceravasarawak.com by CERAVA
E-Commerce category – Site of the Year Award – twogastronome.com by Multimedia Art Workshop Sdn Bhd 
