Guest blog post from Claire Broadley from experience day site Wish.co.uk
The best time for any customer to visit your website is when they’re ready to spend. But not all buying decisions are based purely on price. It’s important to make sure you’re competitive, of course, but if you put all your energies into selling on price, you’re missing something vital that could affect the type of clients you attract.
Of course, some people only have small budgets. To them, cost is the biggest factor in their purchase. Other clients will be looking to spend a little bit more to develop a relationship with someone they can trust. They want someone who is easy to contact, easy to work with and happy to solve their problems without a fuss. These clients will be keen to build up a long-term relationship with you, and as such, they represent the most valuable conversions.
If you’re not seeing a good conversion rate from more selective customers, it may be that you’re pushing hard on price and not showcasing your customer service skills. You may not be giving clients a chance to find out how friendly you are, or how you like to take care of people. Don’t let your website become a barrier between yourself and these valuable clients.
Humanise your contact options
Every website has a contact form. Contact forms are dull – we all know this. They also require that the person using the form has a well-rounded idea which they can put into words quickly. Not everyone does. A short contact form means your client won’t give you much information, but a long contact form will be intimidating to clients who don’t write well.
Olark’s live chat box is obviously one way you can humanise your contact page. Live chat is less rigid than a contact form: your client can start a conversation without really knowing what they want to ask. The Greeter is ideal if you want to give your visitors an extra nudge towards sending that vital first message: set it to display only on your contact page if you’re concerned about troubling people before they’re ready.
Analyse your content
A client who is looking for a good relationship with a supplier will make decisions about the supplier based on their marketing material and website. That concept applies equally to customers who visit an ecommerce store. What do you show those clients? Are you giving them the impression that you’re happy to help?
Look critically at all the written material you send to clients – particularly material you might send them before they’ve made a buying decision. Loosen up the tone of your website and re-write your terms and conditions so that the client isn’t scared away before they’ve picked up the phone.
It’s also a good idea to make your routes to order pages and contact pages as clear as possible to maximise conversions, and put email addresses and phone numbers on every document you send.
Show signs of life
An active blog isn’t just good for SEO. It can show that your company is healthy, busy and engaged with its customers. Blog posts don’t really need to be about your company: you can blog about all kinds of relevant topics, as long as you bear in mind the kind of clients you are looking to attract. (There’s no point in blogging about soup if you sell trainers.)
If you pitch your blog posts at the right level, you can also use your blog as a sounding board to impart friendly advice or invite users to contact you by name. Users really like having a named person to deal with, rather than an email address for a generic department.
Make sure blog comments are always open, and don’t make clients log in to comment. Barriers make people nervous and less likely to trust you. If your customer makes a complaint or seems angry in your comments, swallow your pride and put their pride ahead of your own. Treat an unreasonable person well and you’ll make a great impression on everyone else who comes across that post.
About the Author: Claire Broadley writes for experience day site Wish.co.uk and is passionate about using content and customer service to bridge the gap between website and consumer.