The “Contact Us” Page - A Credibility and Relationship Builder

Every web site should reach out to potential customers, clients, and contacts. To be truly successful, your customers, clients and contacts should be able to “reach back” to you. Make sure they can do it easily.

Many small businesses don’t want or don’t feel they can handle lots of calls and emails, so they may not list contact information, or might bury it somewhere. That might work for you, but it’s not what a web customer wants. They want to know that this is a real company, their credit card information is safe, and that they will actually receive their order. It looks shady if you don’t have contact information. In any “real world” business you always have an opportunity to speak with someone. It’s the same on the web. The more prominently you display your contact information - the more you look like you have nothing to hide; that you’re for real and here to stay.

The Purpose

A “Contact Us” page is an invitation for customers to “reach back,” so the contact page must be clearly marked and must contain directions for customers to get in touch with the store operators by phone, email, fax, etc.

Sometimes site owners are wary to provide visitors with phone numbers. An alternative is using a web service that converts phone messages to email attachments. E-fax is one of many such services.

Benefits

A contact page is a good way to demonstrate credibility and generate responses from potential customers. You want the phone to ring. It gives you direct contact with your customers. You can up-sell related products. You can also take credit cards over the phone, which some customers prefer due to perceived online credit card risks. Others just want to talk to a real person to feel comfortable with the transaction. Last but not least, you can get to know your customers personally.

If you are engaged in e-commerce, you need to have contact information available for customers to contact you with questions.

Providing detailed contact information may vary slightly based on your product offering. For example, if you’re selling computer related products, your customer base will probably skew younger and be more accustomed to electronic ordering. If you’re selling geriatric vitamins, your potential customers will probably be older and may be more comfortable with more traditional forms of communication, so a phone line becomes more important.

The bottom line is communication. Make sure that as you reach out to your customers you give them ample opportunities to “reach back.”