Thanks for joining me again for this series! One more note about your
website before we move on. To enable faster loading, make sure you designate
the size of your graphics in your code and create alternate text (the alt
tag) for those who don’t feel like waiting for your page to load. Now we
move on to just plain good customer service:
4. Quick response when people request information, report trouble: This one
pretty much speaks for itself, but it is worth mentioning a couple of things
about this. Try, if you can, to check your email at least 3 times a day.
Many people are shut-ins or retired or homeworkers, and they expect a quick
response to their questions or complaints. If your Internet Provider can
give you access to Auto-Responders, these are fairly successful in giving
your website visitors a quick response that says you've received their email
and will respond as soon as possible, but sometimes these auto-responders
annoy people more than they put them at ease. Human beings always prefer
to talk to human beings. This is especially evident in the fact that people
still consider voice mail and answering machines a necessary evil. Some
may see your auto-responder as just that. Auto-responders are more
effectively used when someone wants some detailed information and wants it
immediately. If at all possible, ask for their phone number so you can
call them and give them answers live. I cannot count how many times I have
answered our corporate line, only to hear a big sigh of relief on the other
end, followed by the person saying, "Wow, I got a live voice!" Many people
prefer not to be called on the phone, so give them a choice when they write
to you. Some are paranoid that you're going to try to sell them something.
If they email and expect email in return, make it polite, prompt, and
helpful. If you are not sure what they're asking, don't try to create an
answer from incomplete facts from them. Ask them to clarify by return email
so that you may answer their question more effectively. Customer service,
customer service, and more customer service will make you stand heads above
your competition. Try a little experiment with some of your competitors.
See how long or in what way they respond to a question about their site. As
far as reporting trouble on your web page operations, this was mentioned in
Element 3 above. If they are reporting trouble about a product or service
you sold them, offer them choices of restitution. Most people will not want
to return something if it can be resolved over the phone. Give them a
liberal guarantee, like 90 days or something. They'll appreciate this more
than you'll know.
5. Is useful: There is nothing worse than going to a website that you
expected to find "content" in, only to discover it is just a bunch of
garbage sales talk or just plain trash. This is usually the case when a
company does not understand how to sell on the web or is just plain too lazy
to plan their content carefully. A website should be useful to the target
market of buyers you are aiming at. If you are selling widgets, have a
section of FREE information just on everything you can find out about the
history of widgets and all aspects of using them. If you provide a service,
have some information that is useful background for the buyers of that
service. Sit down with a pad of paper before you ever design your website,
and make a hand-written plan of how you want it to look. Include the
elements described in this article. Giving something free on your site, like
free information that is really worth something, will make them feel more at
ease about purchasing whatever it is you are selling. If a website only
sells something but gives nothing in return, it's just plain garbage. Many
MLM websites are like this. (no offense to MLMs!) In contrast, one couple
decided they really loved peacocks, so they created a website based only on
information about peacocks, such as how to raise them. The website started
out as just a hobby type of site, but the end result now is that they sell
more peacocks than they can breed. They are sold out as soon as babies are
born. The other end result is that the CEO of the company wrote a
full-length book just on peacocks and sells that on his website now, too.
Another example was a man who decided he was a pretty knowledgeable
government contractor. He wrote articles on his site about how to have the
upper hand when it comes to being awarded government contracts. His site is
now selling a lot of information, as well as providing it free. His company
was recently purchased by another company and sells books, CD-ROMs, and all
sorts of other information about this subject. These websites, in contrast
to those websites you see that just look like sales letters, are useful.
They serve a purpose that keeps people coming back. No one wants to see a
whole website dedicated to "I love my company and this is what we do". They
only care what you do if you dedicate one page to "About Us", and the rest
of the website keeps their attention with useful information. Plan your
website around your expertise on a given subject. Eat, breathe and sleep
that subject. Learn everything you possibly can about the subject, and write
about it. Gone are the days that you can have a website that just sells
information. You've got to "give away" some of your expertise, too, or your
website hits are going to be pitiful at best. You'll be lucky to get 10
people a day to come and look. Enough said on this little pet peeve of mine!
About the Author
Lynne Schlumpf is the CEO of Route 66 Cyber Cafe, Inc.,
http://www.r66cci.com, a Web hosting and design company
specializing in promoting websites for new owners, building
affordable e-commerce sites, and providing reliable web hosting
solutions as an affiliate of Virtualis Incorporated.