Is Your Website Making it Easy for Customers to Communicate with You?

One of the main reasons to have a business website is so that customers can communicate with you. That said, simply having a presence on the web doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s making it any easier to reach you. Chances are if someone has to search your site endlessly to find contact info they’ll just get frustrated and leave. Here are a few simple ways you can optimize your website so that when someone needs to reach you, they can do so quickly and efficiently.

• Clearly display your contact information at the top right corner of your site, where it has come to be expected. If visitors have to search high and low to locate your information, forget it. There are plenty of other ways to be unique and different – don’t try it with this important detail.
• Keep it simple. If you’re using a contact form, don’t make it so long and drawn out that it takes 20 minutes to complete, or you might as well kiss your leads goodbye. Ask for only the necessary information, like name, email address and phone number.
• Consider every angle, including mobile users. To make it easier for visitors using their mobile devices, list your phone number as HTML rather than an image so they can instantly launch their call to you by clicking on it.
• Reassure visitors with a promise to keep their contact information in the strictest of confidence. In the age of spam and phishing, people are much more careful about sharing their personal info, so it’s important to assure them that you’ll handle all communication with them with integrity.
• Offer chat options. Nowadays, many customers prefer to have the option to speak with someone instantly over live chat, rather than having to spend time on the phone. This feature provides state-of-the-art technology for your customers, which also lends to a more professional image (and increased client satisfaction to boot).

You don’t have to be an ecommerce company to use the web for business. In fact, online communication is one of the most efficient ways to gather leads, especially if you’ve optimized your site with SEO and are participating in social media. But once you get someone to come to your site, you have to make sure you’re making it as easy as possible for them to get ahold of you when they need to. These five simple things can mean the difference between a page view and a new paying customer.

Labels: communication, small business tips, web management