“If your business is not on the Internet, then your business will be out of business. – Bill Gates”
27+ million searches happen every hour on the Internet. One of those searches could be for you, and for your business. Your organisation’s website is where your customers, employees, business partners, competitors and even investors can find you.
Once you’ve set up your web presence, it needs to be constantly revisited – to keep it in sync with the changing times as well as to cater to your customer’s ever changing needs.
Here are some thoughts to consider for your website:
- Customer is the king/queen and should be well informed – Most consumers head straight to a brand’s website for information; they look for a one-stop shop for all the valuable information they need. Your website is the online brochure of your business, products and services, promotions, upcoming events. Making sure relevant information is available, can help influence people’s perception of you and your business. Applying the Design Thinking methodology, the online medium can be refreshed from time to time. Empathising with your customers, for instance, can help make sure you provide value to your loyal customers
- 24/7 accessibility to cater to a wider market – To be available during off-working hours, with customers having the convenience of browsing through your services at their convenience, is a great selling point. To increase your reach and be more customer centric, you can have a live chat window to answer queries from global clients spontaneously, throughout the day. Along with social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, these two-way communication channels help you gain insights into your market that other channels just cannot provide. Grievances vented out through these media are a goldmine of opportunities to enhance your brand value, and retain your customers.
- Testimonials from existing customers – Reviews and testimonials on the site play a big role in boosting sales, as it influences a customer’s purchase decision. Actively seeking out your star customers can help you test and iterate new ideas.
- Customer support – All too often the FAQs of brands answer fictitious questions that businesses imagine their customers to have. Using the communication channels mentioned above, the actual FAQs can be developed. This will not only help customers save their time, but more importantly, will prevent frustrating experiences. A win-win for your brand recall and your customer.
A well designed, customer centric website is the most cost-effective and impactful tool to attract and service customers. All that is needed is keeping in mind their perspectives.
So, when was the last time you revisited your website? Does it still create a strong business impact? How about incorporating Design Thinking to rethink your web presence?
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