Hello Everyone! By now you know that today is marketing Wednesday which always follows the MakeMinePink.com member's Tuesday marketing chat! I had big plans to lasso my committee volunteers last night and move on to marketing chat.. and it just didn't happen! FORTUNATELY for me, due to the enthusiasm I received from my members to volunteer for the 2008 committees, we staffed all the committees! However, we never made it to the chat topic "How Visible Should My Business Be?" well today I say.. visible enough! Well how visible is visible enough? If your customer has to spend more then a minute or two looking for your contact information, it's too long. Five minutes.. and they're really getting annoyed. Trust is already shaky and you're on the verge of losing a potential customer.
Some of my members have expressed a concern about having their address and phone number out in the public eye. If it’s your home address and phone number, you absolutely should be cautious… BUT.. And this is a BIG BUT.. Part of Branding your business and creating a professional presence is building customer trust. If your customers can’t reach you or feel you’re hiding contact information, you’ll cast a shadow of suspicion or at least doubt on your business. As a reputable business, you should...without a doubt... have a business address (a P.O. Box is fine), and email address and a business phone number.
Have you ever been in the position of trying to find a way to contact a company and no matter how hard you try, you just can't get through all the road blocks they've put up. How did that make you feel? I know that it infuriates me. How can I possibly feel that I'm important to a company that isn't interested in talking to me?
There are many ways to make yourself more accessible to your customers and I think the more avenues of contact that you provide, the better.
Some ways that you can provide accessibility is through:
Email - Of course we all have that. But how visible is it? Can your customers easily find it?
Live Chat on your web site - There are many programs now that offer this feature. If you're on-line a lot, I think it's a great feature. Example: http://www.liveperson.com
A Business Phone - this can be a cell phone, or a Voice over IP Internet phone (VOIP)or even an answering service or virtual receptionist. Many of these services provide you with a number to use for your customers and then transfer the call to you seamlessly. Your home phone number is not appropriate for business.
Here is a really good resource for comparing VOIP companies and plans. http://www.voipreview.org/
Say NO to missed calls and missed sales and take the steps necessary to build trust with your customers.
As you know we've been working hard on branding our business over the past few weeks. Being accessible is as vital to the success of your business as branding. What good will gorgeous presentation do for your business if your customers can't reach you. If you were to step back and look at your business objectively.. Do you think you look reputable? Do you look like someone you’d be comfortable doing business with? It is our responsibility as a business owner to make ourselves readily available to our customers and to build the trust that they deserve. It's part of the entire customer service package.
If you already have good avenues of contact, be sure they are clearly visible on your web-site.
Open up communication.. Let your customers reach you easily. You may not close a sale immediately, but you will start the process of building trust and eventually that will mean a sale!
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I'm sure this has been covered somewhere, but do you have any suggestions for someone who doesn't have an active website? I have reserved my domain name (www.brownbeestudio.com) and created the temporary holder page. It includes a welcome, my blog address, my eBay address, and an invite to contact me through the site's email (customerservice@brownbeestudio.com)
I have also included my phone # and physical address. Is there anything else I should do until I can raise enough to fund a 'real' site?
Posted by: Andie | February 27, 2008 at 03:13 PM