Those of you who have been following my recent posts know that I have been talking about how to build strong relationships with your customers.
Being a relationship-builder doesn’t mean you need to sink a whole bunch of time into social media venues like Facebook and Twitter, but it does mean that you want to make a genuine effort to connect with your customers and reach out at every opportunity.
And if you are in the Ecommerce biz, no place is more important than your own website and how you invite contact from your customers.
You want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to contact you. Being accessible to address questions can help make the sale. Even if a customer doesn’t have a question, the fact that you are available and welcome customer interaction can put their mind at ease about doing business with you.
Here are a few pointers:
- Make your phone number accessible at the top of every page.
- Either have a contact form link or your email address prominently displayed. (We are not big fans of putting your email address directly on your site – as it can get harvested by spammers.)
- Your contact form should be inviting. A few qualifying questions are good; a gauntlet of drop-downs and checkboxes will scare people away.
- Be ready to respond! If a customer writes and it takes 3 days for you to get back with them, they have likely already gone elsewhere. If you are a one-person show, it might not be realistic to be providing 24×7 support, but you do want to be in the habit of answering inquiries promptly. Consider routing website inquiries into your smartphone, so you know when customers are looking for you.
- Whatever you do, make it very clear on your contact form if you are giving an opt-in opportunity for your newsletter. Do not start emailing people who have not asked you to do so. You will make enemies very quickly.
Take a moment to look at your site. If you aren’t clearly inviting interaction, now is the time to punch it up a few notches. Do you have any other good ideas to invite customers to contact you? Please do share.
