Help Your Visitors Help Themselves

by Bob McElwain

You hope to be able to create content and sales presentations so simple and complete your visitors will always have every speck of information needed. And thus be able and willing to act as you want them to. In reality, we all get hung up now and then, even on simple things.

In the best of content, we can fail to grasp the significance of a phrase. This is particularly so if we read hastily, which most tend to do. Often it's only a word overlooked or misunderstood. Still, for a host of reasons, we all stumble now and then. And there is no way to prevent this from happening.

Since you can't be there to catch a visitor who misses a step, you must do all possible to assure your site can do so. As a minimum, you need an email address and a link to a feedback form embedded in your navigation system, and in the text links at the bottom of each page.

Further you need a phone number, with somebody able to pick up during business hours who knows enough about your products and procedures to field questions effectively. If for whatever reason you can not be available, arrange for somebody to pick up for you. Forget the costs. It's got to happen. What legitimate company does not have a phone? Or does not pick up during business hours? 'Nuff said.

What's more, make that an 800 number. Again forget the cost. Write it off to public relations. For that's indeed what it is. You need to boost your credibility in all possible ways. And this is difficult to do on the Web, lacking the physical existence of a shop.

An 800 number adds enormously to your image and credibility. Can you think of a successful company in the mail order business that does not offer a toll free number? Most online businesses are in fact mail order businesses, one without a physical presence. The 800 number adds a lot. You are saying right out loud it costs you nothing to give me a call. That's support in spades. Again, 'nuff said.

As shoppers at your local hardware store, many visitors want to handle the whole of the shopping experience themselves. They want no interference from "meddling" clerks or sales people. Tend to their needs.

Add a site search engine, even if your site is small. There are lots of options.

To see it in action, visit my site. You'll find the form at the bottom right of nearly every page. If you check it out, take a look at the advanced options; they are outstanding.

Question & Answer pages are popular and work well. Care is needed, however, to be sure the majority of questions that arise are mentioned here. Also be sure to keep it fresh and up to date by adding new questions and responses now and again. A stale page of year-old questions hurts rather than helps.

A sitemap is useful to many. While time consuming to build from scratch, and to maintain, many visitors like them.

A few sites have gone to the trouble of building a site index. It's a task, that's sure. And it takes time to keep it current. But it's a great tool for visitors, one many will appreciate.

Read the following quickly.

"This is not the way to obtain maximum results in the easiest way."

Because the sentence has no significance here, you probably saw the word, "not." The surprise in this is that many people miss this word. Go back and read the sentence again, but skip over this word. An entirely different meaning emerges.

Now who's to blame if a visitor misses this word, and buys believing you highly recommend the product? Who's to blame if the product is returned? Or if the customer accuses you of misleading advertising?

Actually it's not a question of blame at all. Our hypothetical visitor only stumbled. Something everyone does more often than most care to admit. So what's the solution?

There is none, really. This can happen to anyone. But we can do all possible to be ready to help whenever there is a stumble. If we accept the fact that visitors will falter now and then, we can do a lot to help them recover quickly.