Personal Accessibility
In our electronic age, business can seem a bit impersonal to people at times. We automate sales, provide instant electronic support pages, have virtual salesmen that sell virtual products through virtual stores. Sometimes people just need to know that there is a real person behind all the flicker and glow.
At the very least, a website should have a contact page, and an email link that is easily accessible from every page. Often people will be reassured, even though they don't use it. The mere presence of a means of contact is enough.
It is polite to offer as many different kinds of contact options as possible. When you allow the customer to communicate with you on their own terms, it is a mark of consideration. Small businesses often have fewer choices - I offer email and phone contact info on my sites, because I do not have time for chat or live help, nor do I have the resources to hire those services.
Replying to emails, and being friendly on the phone also helps a great deal. Sometimes people could have found the information they wanted on the site, but there are people who just prefer to make contact by voice before committing to doing business with someone. It makes them feel a bit more secure in your humanity and trustworthiness.
A site without any means of contacting the site owner is not a good choice for building a business. There are times, and situations, where release of names or personal information is risky, but for the most part, if you are in business, that is just part of the risk you take to STAY in business. It is a trade off - if you want to succeed, you have to let people know who you are, and that you are real. This is far more important when money will change hands, or with services where there is a high degree of trust involved.
Even when you are just presenting information though, people want to know who you are, and why you say what you do. They want to know if you have credentials that allow them to feel secure in trusting you to know what you are talking about! Information is available everywhere, and someone is willing to express an opinion or write instructions on virtually every topic.
If I tell you that all the experts say that Electro Static Discharge is a major issue in working with electronics, that you can blitz a computer component from static that you cannot even feel, but that all you have to do is keep your hand or arm on the metal framing of the case when you work inside a computer, are you going to believe me? Will you believe me if I also tell you that I have worked on hundreds of computers for clients, and that I have built computers, rebuild desktops and laptops both, and have never killed a computer part with static, in a dry area where not even Static Guard can keep my dresses off my legs in the winter? You see the difference just a claim of experience can make? If I back that up with the information that my clients include corporate clients, non-profits, our town government, and dozens of little gray haired ladies (and plenty of people of other ages too!), how much of a difference does THAT make?
Accessibility means making contact information readily available, and by making it clear that a real person is behind the site. The bit about being a real person is not so important for corporations where the reputation is on the company, but with an individual, it matters a lot.
It gets harder as a business grows, to be able to reply personally to emails and answer the phone yourself. When that point comes, you have to phase into delegating to someone else who can represent you with the friendliness and helpfulness that keeps your customers thinking that you are still there and that you still care.
People want to know that they are more than a number. Having contact info available, and answering requests gives them the feeling that someone cares about more than just making a sale. And that is good business.
Written by Laura Wheeler
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