The McCannics e-survey, July 1997

"How useful are your web pages?"

"Do you think that the time and money which your business has spent on its web pages has been worth it?" WORTH IT? Number % Yes 310 85.6% No 46 12.7% Don't have webpages 2 0.6% No response 4 1.1% Sample 362

An overwhelming majority (85 per cent) of respondents think that the time and money which they have spent on their web-pages has been worth it. There will doubtless be many firms who have experimented with web-pages and abandoned them or did not get as far as being included in a web-page directory and are therefore not included in this survey. Nevertheless, the fact that so many firms have had positive experiences with their pages is striking.

Comments by respondents who have found their pages useful included:

"Outstanding success, we use the pages as an online brochure and information service"

and

"We think this is an ideal global sales medium for the smaller company"

Others noted that their web-sites hadn't directly generated actual sales but had raised the profile of the company or had saved money by replacing printed brochures, price-list and so on. More comments...

The 13 per cent of respondents who do not think that the time and money which they have spent on their web-pages is worthwhile is, however, a substantial minority.

Examples of comments by these dissatisfied businesses include:

"We have had a web-page for over 10 months and modified it regularly, we have had a few e-mails from it but it has NOT generated any new customers and all our existing customers bar one small client do not use e-mail as a form of communication therefore we are starting to regard the internet as a waste of space!!!"

and

"We get useless enquiries from USA, not much from UK. Best part is having site on our business literature which impresses our computer customers."