Agile Business Navigator

A frightened customer is supposed to be an opportunity, possibly even a golden opportunity. But it also presents a problem for getting leads to contact you on a webpage, leaving their contact info.

Let's say you sell a product or service that puts a potential customer on edge. They know they need your service, yet they're not so sure about contacting an unknown entity on the web. How do you get them to feel at ease?

Since they won't buy from someone until they can trust you, and they don't know you, how can you introduce yourself?

1. Make sure your website text is at a 'readable' level. It should be at a comfortable level of education for most, say high school level. Aiming lower makes you sound like a second grade teacher, aiming higher makes you sound like a professor.

2. Your site should have a description of you, your staff and your company. If they're looking at your site, one of the first questions they'll be asking is 'Who the heck is this?'

3. You should have a phone number and an email address. I can hear the complaints already. 'But, I don't want them to call me at all hours of the night and day.' Then get a phone number they can call and leave a message.

4. This one goes back to #3 - if you have a phone number and an email address, make sure you respond in a timely manner. Timely manner means 24-72 hours, according to the level of emergency that your customer is at. The shorter the time frame the better. Put an autoresponder on the email address that tells them when they can expect to hear from you. Do the same for the voicemail system that answers the phone number. Then stick to it.

5. Get a picture on your site of you and your staff. It makes a huge difference if someone can see that you're a real person.

6. Your contact form should require only a name and email address. If you require a phone number, you'll find they enter bogus phone numbers. Let them decide how much info to give you.

7. Give them something for giving you an email address. A white paper, an ebook, a tip sheet, a checklist, a pdf copy of your catalog. Don't let it be something they can get elsewhere on the site, this is not a freebie - its a valuable piece of you and your company that they are exchanging their email address for.

8. Follow up every contact. Every phone call or email that comes in should go into a customer relationship management system. There are systems available for every budget and level of complexity. You can start with a simple spreadsheet and advance to using Salesforce or SugarCRM. But every contact you make should receive several follow ups. Notify them on the form that they'll be contacted.

9. Let them know you care about the problem they're experiencing and you want to help. Throughout your site you should have information available about the problems your customer experiences. Don't give away the store. Give enough info for the 'looky loos' and curiosity hounds, but don't give away your trade secrets and methods. Leave a bit to the imagination.

10. Be friendly, courteous and attentive. On a website? If your website isn't readable, the links don't work, it has missing images, the page is broken, your payment page isn't secure or any other ways you can discourage them from continuing - they may not continue, and they won't be coming back.

11. Take a look at your website analytics. If your bounce rate is high for your homepage, you're losing customers. How long do they stick on the site - a couple of seconds or do they continue on the site and browse the pages? Which pages are more popular? What's working and what isn't? Is your contact page getting missed altogether?

We're all guilty of procrastinating at one time or another. If you're a 'scary' business, evaluate how your website is working to encourage a frightened or procrastinating client.

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