People go online for self-service. They can browse and seek information at their own pace without having to listen to a salesperson’s spiel, find instantaneously solutions to their problems without paying for assistance, compare products without leaving the comfort of their home or office, etc… The web seems the ideal self-service.

But in reality people can waste countless hours with websites that are not customer-focused. Improve your own self-service using these seven marketing tips:

1. Define a single key message that you want to get across and have people taking away from your site. People are bombarded with information. Therefore, be concise and specific. Make your key message memorable so that people will recall your site.
    
2. Facilitate access to information using categories and groupings that you will determine according to your target audience’s knowledge, skills and experience.
    
3. Provide a customer-focused flow of information. Meet the needs of your visitors and then present your credentials, not vice versa. Too often, website owners are pre-occupied by ‘we’ and ‘about us’ and start by writing about themselves before offering useful information. People are only interested in you if you can meet their needs.
    
4. Avoid duplication that could slow down the intake of information. Use links to explanations already given. Don’t punish people who explore your website and have to read twice the same information.
    
5. Critical information should be readily available and not buried under misleading headings e.g. ‘Contact’ and ‘Prices’ are self-explanatory titles and should not be hidden in your ‘About us” or ‘FAQ’ sections.
    
6. Create meaningful menu labels that clearly reflect your business’ products or services and what your site contains. Please note that your choice and order of menu labels reveal a lot about your business.
    
7. Avoid distractions when people are in the buying funnel: they have done their research, narrowed down their options and are ready to purchase. Introducing new products at this stage or displaying Google Ads could confuse your potential customer or simply send people to your competitor's site. When in the buying funnel, close the sale by reinforcing the potential customer's purchasing decision with testimonials, guarantees, bonuses, etc.

Self-service is not a synonym for cost-cutting customer service. It is about offering customer service that gives people the autonomy to browse your website easily and take action intuitively.

© 2006 Henriette Martel
 

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