More and more business is done online these days and that means you need to ensure that you’re impressing your customers in the online world as much as the regular world!
When customers buy goods via your website, they don’t interact so much with your employees in the contemporary office, unless they call someone and speak to them over the phone. In that case, you need to ensure that your website is doing the impressing for you.
That doesn’t mean that you should allow standards to slip whilst employees are sat at their office desks, but it does mean you need to be mindful of your online presence and how it translates to your customers.
Your website needs to be totally in keeping with what your business is about and what you provide. The appearance of it needs to also reflect your values and what you’re selling. If you’re not sure how to set up a website or you need support maintaining it, you could imply a dedicated website designer or you could outsource to a freelancer. It’s worth exploring whatever works for your business and your budget.
Due to the increase in online sales your website needs to have the following points if you want to grab attention and make a great first impression on your customers, an impression that will last.
- Your website needs to be up to date - Your website needs to be updated regularly and maintained to ensure that the information on there is current. It’s no good putting up information about a current offer you have and then leaving it there without an expiry date. In that case, customers are going to call up or try and buy items within the offer and find out that it has closed. This isn’t the best impression to give to them!
- No broken links - All links to other parts of the website or to external sites should be working and correct. There is nothing more annoying than finding a website that you think is going to help you, only to click on a link and find that it takes you somewhere completely different, or it doesn’t take you anywhere at all. Regularly check for broken links and fix them accordingly.
- Easy on the eye - Your website needs to be attractive, but as we mentioned before, it needs to be in keeping with the business you’re doing. There are countless designs you could go for and again, a specialist will be able to help you implement these and design a high-quality website to knock the socks off your customers!
- Easy to use - A website which is complicated and difficult to navigate is going to lead you to a dead-end, quite literally. Customers will simply give up and look somewhere else, probably moving to one of your competitors instead. Design your website to make navigation clear and simple. You also need to make sure that contact details for your employees at their desks is clearly highlighted.
- Consider the use of a blog - Having a blog linked to your website, or even on your website is a great way to form a personal connection with your customers. This can keep them up to date with new offers and general news, whilst also simply connecting with them on a deeper level and sharing interesting pieces of information.
Does your current website reflect these points? Or, if you don’t have one, are you thinking of starting your online endeavour right now?
By expanding into the online realm, whether you make sales via your website or you simply give information, is vital. This means that your customers are able to find out information out of office hours, making their life far easier as a result, as well as keeping their impression of you high and positive, rather than low and very negative indeed.