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Are Consumers Truly Contacting You?

Heather Legg

May 19, 2014

You are a small business using a website to gather business.

What happens when your customers to be try to contact you and your site can't get them to the contact information? Or worse, you don't even have an identifiable contact us section.

Here's what usually happens - they go somewhere else. You don't want that, so read on….

Contact Page is Key Focal Point

From an expert point of view, the contact page is key in maintaining a strong customer base and gaining new customers.

"From a product standpoint, I'd estimate that 90 percent of website contact forms lack design, features, analytic and integration with other software," said Howard Yeh, founder, investor and president of ContactUs.com, Inc. "For small businesses, which are our target market, the percentage skews very quickly higher. We provide better front-end designs and placements for contact forms and signup forms."

What Makes a Good Contact Page?

1. Ease of getting there - Your contact page should be accessible from most every other page on your site, especially your home page. No customer wants to search high and low to find a hidden contact site. By that point, they'll give up and find someone else.

2. Multiple contacts -The contact page should have multiple ways for a customer to contact you. A phone number is a biggie as many customers still want to talk to someone. A mailing address is important as well, as often correspondence (even payments) needs to be physically mailed. You also need a place for a customer to leave his or her information so you can reach them. Often there is a spot for a customer to leave the reason he is contacting you, whether in question or comment form. This makes it easier for you to respond and get the customer the information he is seeking sooner rather than later.

3. Visually pleasing and includes FAQ - The contact page of your website should be a continual reflection of your company. Make sure it is visually pleasing and easy to navigate. Keep it clean and simple so your customers can get in and out. Often a FAQ part is valuable as customers can find some answers here and not even have to contact you until the next step. This saves everyone time.

Some examples of effective contact us pages….

Believe it or not, contact us pages can win accolades and awards.

For inspiration, take a look at creativealive.com's list of effective contact pages, which include the small businesses of Whoa Nelly Catering and Café Evoke.

Also, look around and see what other successful small bizzes are doing.

See what works for you and what doesn't. Put yourself in the role of customer for a few minutes, trying to navigate a site's contact us page.

You'll know pretty quick what you like and what you don't, and that probably goes the same for your customers.

Remember, if it's too hard to find and use your contact us page, well, your customers probably won't.

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