7 ideas to improve your client’s experience on your website

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May 1, 2019 / Updated: May 7, 2019 / Lena Shore
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Back in the day, I used the yellow pages to find the type of business I needed. There were usually a lot of choices. I tended to pick the best looking ad that seemed the friendliest. Today, I use Google or ask my online friends for recommendations and I usually end up with a pretty good list. You can bet that I am going to visit all of the websites on that list before I pick up the phone. If they don’t have a website, they probably lost before they started — but that’s another article. And, if I’m not in a hurry, I might send them an email to avoid a phone call.

I imagine lots of people are doing the same thing. We are all trying to find what we want on a website we’ve probably never visited before. If you are like me, you have very little patience to spend a long time on a website searching for specific information. If your website isn’t clear, we are headed to the next one on our list.

Here are some things I, as a potential customer, look for:

A Frequently Asked Questions Page

I love a good FAQ page so I can learn about your company. It’s one of the first pages a visitor will read.

  • A good FAQ allows you to answer the most common questions you are asked about your company.
  • You also get to answer the questions you wish people would ask you about your company.

Straightforward Navigation

Your navigation should be clear and simple to — well, navigate. Think about what items your typical visitor is going to want access to first. Some possibilities are phone number, payment buttons, contact form, and price lists.

Don’t hide popular links. For example, you may think burying the price list is a good idea so the visitor doesn’t get sticker shock — but in reality, you are only wasting your time and theirs. (Think about the AT&T website. Can you imagine anyone leaving there happy?)

A Payment Button

Payment buttons are beneficial to both you and your client. You make it easy for them to pay and they have a way to quickly take care of it and go on to more fun tasks.

A Search Box

If you have a lot of content on your website and don’t already have a search box, consider adding one. Helping visitors find what they are looking will give them a better experience on your website. This can be combined with a site map page to give them direction. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a list of links returned to you along with a link to common questions and answers?

Informative Videos

If you have a business where you find yourself explaining how a product works or explaining a process over and over — an informative video can save everyone time. Your visitors can find that video on your website — but if asked, you can easily send a link to the video, which will save you time, too.  As a bonus, it sets you up as a valuable source of information they can come back to and recommend to others.

Prominent Telephone Number

Make sure your telephone number is easy to find on every page of your web site. Aside from giving customers immediate access to customer service, it will give them confidence that you will be there to help them whether they make the call at that time or not.

Online Chat

Would your customers benefit from the immediate gratification of using chat on your website? Today there are lots of inexpensive options to set up an online chat on your website. You don’t have to be at your computer either. You can create settings that will notify you via SMS, text, or email so you aren’t tied to the computer.

Do you want help implementing any of these ideas?

Or maybe you have thought of some other ideas not on this list that would be helpful for your business. Give me a call at 904-438-8389 or shoot me an email to discuss.

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