Web Sites and Customer Contact
June 14, 2004 | 
11 Comments
If there is one thing many, many Web sites could do better it’s enabling a connection between the site’s owners and their customers, readers and users.
A Web site is an always-on representative for your company, organization or yourself. When a visitor hits your site they are in essence getting a representation of you or your company.
The Web is about people and should also be about establishing connections and building relationships. Now I don’t hold an MBA — but aren’t these things pretty central to any good business plan? I mean, no customers equals no business.
Well, looking at many Web sites out there, and how hard they make it for their customers to contact them, how boilerplate their content is, and how vanilla their designs are, you’d think building relationships with customers is a non-issue.
Biggest Problem: The Hidden Contact Page
One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to my own user experiences on the Web is the lack of easy to find contact information. Many sites do this and to this day it just baffles the hell out of me.
I’m sure there is a reason behind it, but frankly I think it’s a huge mistake to hide your contact information. Any motivated user is going to find it eventually and what you’re going to get is a pissed off customer trying to contact you as opposed to a normal customer who found the information they needed right away.
It’s less important for personal sites (I don’t publish my phone number here, but it’s really easy to contact me by e-mail) but if you have a call center you might think about making that phone number easy to find.
Sure, you may want to cut down on calls, and you can do that by also making your digital contacts; fax number, e-mail, chat or what-have-you easy to find as well. Hiding this stuff is just asking for complaints. I know I’ve issued quite a few.
Connect With Your Users
It’s not just lack of easy to find contact information that is a problem. Many sites are designed and written in such a way as to repulse a user rather than draw them in.
I’m realizing, more and more, that a Web site becomes a public face for the owner. Its design, the style and tone of its content and its ease of use all combine to create a picture in the users mind of who is “behind the curtain.”
These elements should be calculated and targeted towards your audience.
Making The Connection and Building Relationships
There are many ways you can start to connect with your audience and build a relationship with them. By doing these things you can help ensure the success of your site. Most Web sites are nothing without their users, and if you have users (who doesn’t?) then it’s in your best interest to make a connection with them.
Here are a few ways to help you get started:
- Test your site with real users. If you can do this you are well on your way to making a great connection with your audience.
- Tailor you content to your readers. Develop a style and tone that your readers understand. In my experience this is something that you really need to work at. It can be trying, but it’s well worth it.
- Cut the marketing speak. Speak to your readers with normal language. Don’t get too clever. I’ve seen it to many times to discount it — people see right through sales or marketing fluff on the Web and they don’t appreciate it.
- Practice user-centered design. It’s becoming more and more evident that good Web design is central to user-experience and establishing credibility. Take the time to design.
- Allow comments. Not every site can, or should, do this. It can be risky, however, if you’ve determined it’s worth it, this can be an excellent way to give your users a voice and a feedback mechanism. For example, Asterisk* would be nothing without the comments.
- Provide easy to find feedback and contact information. This, to me anyway, is a no-brainer. This kind of information should be the easiest thing to find on your site. A simple “contact” link in the main navigation will take care of it. I actually put my e-mail address right there on the homepage. Sure I get lots of spam, but I also get lots of great mail from my audience.
- Respond to feedback. This can be hard if you get a lot of feedback, but I’ve found that people really appreciate a response, even if it’s not immediate. On business sites you should probably develop guidelines for response time. A quick response can do wonders.
- Listen to your audience. This can be hard as well, but it pays off. As your site matures so will your audience. If you’ve started to build up a relationship you will begin to get some very sophisticated feedback that can really help you hone your message and tighten up your users experience.
- Respect your audience. Not all the feedback you get will be positive. In fact it’s the negative feedback that is sometimes the most helpful. If someone offers negative feedback in a respectful way, do them a favor and respond in kind. Of course, there will also be people who are just plain rude. How you deal with them is up to you.
There are many other ways to connect with your users. Each site has it’s own unique needs and it’s own unique audiences. Putting the user first is a great first step that I promise you will help make any Web site a success.
Filed under: IA and Usability
Comments
1. Justin said:
I currently work for a manufacturing company. One of the best things I did for our site redesign, was putting a comment form on every page of the site. Initially we thought people could ‘rate’ the content. It wasn’t long before we realized that our visitors only wanted to use it to submit questions or feedback.
The feedback is honest and anonymous. Of course, if you want a response (and only then) you can provide contact info. When it’s that easy and anonymous, people don’t hold back when they’ve got something to say. We’ve received some good feedback and, as a result, we act on those comments that same day when possible - no matter how trivial. Even if I can’t respond to say, “hey look, we acted on your suggestion,” at least they’ll see it next time, or someone else will benefit.
Even though it may seem that we (or you) are in an industry that doesn’t lend itself to having a website that interacts with vistors, it’s not true. These are some great suggestions, and even a barber shop website would be immensely more useful if these suggestions were taken to heart.
Posted on June 14, 2004 12:22 PM | #
2. Rob Mientjes said:
You are quite right. I’ve always seen it as essential to at least put a link to the contact page in your navigation. At least on corporate sites. I know by experience that contact is the second thing you think about when visiting a corporate site. The first one is: ‘Does it look good and will I find what I’m looking for?’
Posted on June 14, 2004 12:48 PM | #
3. Geoffrey said:
I think what corporate America is missing out on with the internet is *real* conversations with markets. CEOs and the like are afraid to allow their workforce to speak frankly and directly with the market they serve. It’s a shame because that’s what makes the internet such an amazing place, the ability to have a conversation with a customer one on one.
Instead, we get what the marketing department decides the market should hear, because it’s safe. No dialog.
I think a popular airline a while back had a “blog” of sorts in which customers could speak directly with staff. The people running the “blog” spoke frankly and answered questions honestly. The answers weren’t always what people wanted to hear, but the fact that people were not getting happy marketspeak and, instead, getting real information, earned the company a certain level of respect. (And return customers I would think.)
Naturally, the CEOs got wind of this and put a quick stop to it. “You can’t speak directly to the market! They might know the truth!” They just don’t get it.
Posted on June 14, 2004 12:51 PM | #
4. Milan Negovan said:
Keith,
As to “cloacked” contact pages—I think some companies are simply not interested in talking to people over the web. I’ve seen this a number of times when I tried to resolve an issue with a business online. I would end up calling them, waiting on the phone and listening to some funeral music (which I think they play on purpose to get you off the phone. I kid not). Earthlink used to do it to me all the time.
I agree that there should be a constant link with readers/users/visitors. I baked an invitation to take a survey right into my page template. I love the fact that someone can bitch or commend me at any time. I’ve already done some site adjustments because several people brought issues to my attention. Of course, I wouldn’t deviate into covering sports instead of web developement if somebody asked me to, but still… Feedback rules!
Posted on June 14, 2004 02:43 PM | #
5. s t e f said:
Keith,
Amen to all you said.
I won’t give any name, but boy how my ISP would need your advice. Of course their policy is based on obfuscation, because the less complaints you’ve got, the less customer support staff you need.
Posted on June 15, 2004 02:18 AM | #
6. design7 said:
I have never considered adding a comment or response form to each page of the websites I design. I may consider that for sites where responses are critical.
Posted on June 15, 2004 02:26 AM | #
7. ssp said:
I fully agree on the topic.
In addition I like to stress the importance of e-mail. For some people (incidentally including myself) a web form doesn’t cut it. Its main deficit being that I won’t have a copy of the message I sent, thus not being able to file it with my own e-mail in case I want to know what I inquired when.
Thus having a real e-mail contact or at least a web form that’ll mail a copy of your message to you (and clearly states that) is important.
The next mistake after hiding e-mail addresses is that company like to give pre-defined subjects on their feedback pages. I frequently find myself having an inquiry that doesn’t fit properly. Having to choose ‘other’ always feels like your inquiry will be treated less quickly.
Posted on June 15, 2004 06:53 AM | #
8. Kim Siever said:
I just want to add that if a “Contact” link is placed in a site’s menu, it should point to a contact page, not an email address. There is nothing more frustrating than looking for a phone number or mailing address, clicking on a “Contact” link and being forced to contact someone only via email.
Posted on June 15, 2004 10:15 AM | #
9. nerd elite said:
PREACH IT, BROTHER! This struck a chord with me following an unsavory customer service experience at Pearl Paint in downtown Manhattan. After a debacle at the store where I was screwed out of my student discount, I decided to seek out a solution via the company’s website. An hour later, after trudging through dead links, misinformation and making several calls across the country, I stumbled on what I imagine is the address I wanted. In the meantime, I went from being slightly peeved and seeking a resolution to going nuclear and thirsting for blood.
Keeping the customer happy is such a crucial tenet of business practice and hiding your contact information is a lot like whacking a bee’s nest.
Posted on June 15, 2004 11:34 AM | #
10. Dave said:
I work as a Web Coding Technician at a State Government Agency and I am currently working on a contact page, so your article is quite timely!
I have tried to include several things on the page that I hope the user will find relevent in trying to contact our agency such as some basic hints on navigating our phone/voice mail menus when they call, and links to our phone directories, as well as an online comment form. However, I fear that as soon as I show the page to my supervisor, she’s going to nix about 80% of it for some reason “it’s too complicated/confusing”. But my gut feeling is that she really would rather not have to hassle with dealing with the possible feedback and what we’ll end up with is a link that sends an email.
I guess as a government agency, customer feedback just gets in the way of running the bureaucracy smoothly. *sigh*
Oh well, I’ll keep trying.
Posted on June 15, 2004 12:46 PM | #
11. Rick said:
MTD manufactures yard equipment, I went to the site and ended up doing a whois to contact someone about parts, it’s nuts, are these companies embarrassed about their who, what and where? I can’t tell you how important I find the contact information, I have decided that I won’t do business with a company that has their contact info hidden. I think it says alot about a company in hiding, the customer service must be in hiding as well.
Posted on June 15, 2004 04:22 PM | #
Comments are now closed