Ways to Improve Customer Communication on Your Website

When a company or business decides to create an online website it is with one goal in mind - to increase leads and turn traffic into sales.  You may be achieving this by already with a bullet proof SEO campaign, a beautiful and easy to navigate web site and a low bounce rate. However, if you don't have an air tight contact strategy in place then you can say goodbye to conversions from those page views.

Don't dismiss online conversations only being suitable for ecommerce websites. In fact, most business websites often use their website to engage in one-on-one conversation with visitors. It makes sense to personally engage with a contact to your website as it is more than likely you will turn that contact engagement into a potential customer or customer.  This is not as easy as it sounds, so just what is the trick to convert contacts into customers?

The most important thing to remember and understand is that anyone that contacts you on your website are very reluctant to give out their personal contact details to another website as they don't want to be spammed by yet another website.  You might be surprised to learn that it is not only people who value privacy that stay away from these types of contact forms, but most websites only achieve a 2-3% conversion rate. Another important point to note is that your customers don't want to waste more time filling in their details and then waiting for you to come back with a response, they are looking for a response in the least time possible.

Here are some great tips to help you make your website design and customer service more user friendly and approachable resulting in you gaining the trust of your customers.

#Go with the flow

When building your website always follow tried design strategies. This will ensure the visitors to your website will have a good experience and more importantly will be able to move through your website navigation with as little effort as possible. Note to self - the less effort the better.

Always use the words 'Contact Us' on your website. As dull and boring as this sounds this phrase actually does work. When people are looking through your website they are not reading the site, over time their eyes have become trained to recognise immediately these two important words.

Always make sure you place all your contact information at the top right side of the website as this is where people expect to see these details. When including your telephone number this should be as HTML not as an image, this is so a visitor can instantly click the number to call straight away.

#Make it easy

When it comes to sharing personal contact information many users are battling with themselves - should they or shouldn't they? What you want to do is remove all obstacles so the user feels comfortable providing this information. Contact forms should be simple. You don't want to intimidate a user with question after question. Keep it simple and only ask the bare minimum - name of person and email address. Add optional fields such as telephone number.

Create one column form fields for quick contact. Always try and place labels above the form fields. This helps a user because they are trained to look vertically not laterally.

Large input boxes shouldn't be avoided. Using a large box gives the user the chance to add as much or as little information as they want. the beauty of large input boxes is that you can limit the number of characters.

Ensure your visitors have a clear action button. Human nature dictates that the human eye leads from left to right and top to bottom, so this action button should be at the lower right of the form. Make sure the button is prominent and stands out.

#Be reassuring

When it comes to online clients the most important thing is trust and this does go a long way. One thing online users fear is that once they enter their contact details, they will be added to a database which is accessible by many marketers. However, if you make your contact form fun and unique your user will realise that a human being exists at the other end and may be more inclined to share their information.

Try and add some humour to your contact form and give the form some personality. Doing this will give your customers a laugh and show them it has been created by a human. Adding a fun, witty introduction and funny picture adds to the appeal.

Make a promise to your users from the outset. Reassure them that any information they provide to you is 100% safe and that it will not be shared with any other third parties.  This safe guarantee should be as close to the submit button as possible so the user can have peace of mind when they are entering their details.

#Instant Chat

Instant chat has been around for a long time but has only ever been used by the customer service departments of large internet companies. However, times have now changed and all companies including small companies are implementing a 'live chat' feature on their website. This enables direct contact with your visitors.

Technology is always changing and going forward instant chat on websites is the way forward. Why is it so popular? Simple, the user does not have to provide any personal information and they receive an instant response.