Communication with customers on your website

Communication is an integral part of almost any industry or business you work in. Of course, the larger companies have a dedicated team for customer communications. However, for many SMEs and freelancers, this is often spread across all employees or assigned to one person. As a webmaster, you have a website that can serve as a showcase for your business, it can solve problems for customers in the form of articles, texts or products. Or it can provide further information to a customer. However, there may always be times when a customer who is still a visitor needs to be convinced about your service or product. Or that an existing customer needs further help. How can you do that when the central meeting point for both is your website? We'll go into more detail in this article. Read on quickly!

As more and more support requests come in, sometimes you have to compromise; sometimes it's just not possible to answer all the calls from customers. Long wait times and other annoyances on the phone can make the first impression anything but positive. MijnHostingPartner.nl has therefore opted for chat as an alternative since 2008. This way, one employee can handle several chats at the same time. In technical chats, much fewer mistakes are made and it is easy to refer to previously created helpdesk articles. In our technical profession, this is a godsend for both customers and employees. In this article you will find all the benefits of having a chat.

Support and customer contact is a profession, and not everyone is suited for it. So always try to put the right people in the right place. If you're running a one-man show, consider hiring a virtual assistant to handle initial customer contact and build relationships.

Indirectly via written content or images

Indirect contact with your customer is often an important part of customer outreach. Many questions and issues can be eliminated by clearly communicating specific steps or conditions.

For example, I recently looked into the possibility of a joint bank account and had landed on one party. However, after consulting with them, it turned out that this was not possible without closing a second unnecessary bank account. Had this been made clear in the FAQ or simply in the specifications, this would not have left a sour taste in my mouth for the party.

Of course, there is always the question of whether visitors and customers will read your carefully crafted content on your website. As the person responsible for the blog and knowledge base, I am naturally biased. But hope dies last.

A short introductory video about a particular product or service can make clear what you would otherwise have to spend half an hour on the phone to do. We've also had this experience personally, for example with our videos on setting up an email account and other frequently asked questions.

Chatbots

Chatbots are another form of indirect communication. With the advances in artificial intelligence and the increasing research in this area, it may well be that your customers can be perfectly assisted by a chatbot. However, there are still many reservations on the part of customers, and it is often perceived as negative to have to talk to a chatbot first. But this is also changing, as they are becoming smarter and more useful.

Direct with a chat or phone option

Contacting an employee directly is still the favorite of many customers. People want to be heard and speak their mind. Whether it's a question about a product, reassuring a complaint, or confirming a specific price, chat and phone calls are often the way to go. As mentioned earlier, a chat call is the best solution in most cases, especially if you are working with technical information or need to convey a lot of numbers or codes. It's also possible to have multiple chat conversations with a colleague, and the conversations are saved in a history so they can be recalled at a later time. And it's easy to work with online or offline times.

The phone or call option on your website always has a more personal connection, and for industries that prefer it, it's a godsend. This is often the case if you are selling a higher value product or service, such as insurance or other long-term contracts. A phone number can be easily placed on your website, and it can also be made interactive with HTML. So visitors to a mobile website just have to click.

Make email contact more personal

Email is an option that has long been used for online contact. It is often the way to confirm something in writing, and therefore can have a more business-like reputation. An email address is also easy to create at MijnHostingPartner.nl in our hosting packages . Make the email addresses more personal by not using generic info@ addresses, for example. But make it a bit more personal with the name. Even if it is just your first name. The customer is then more likely to feel that it is a person, even if it is not.

Also, it is advisable to always respond quickly if you use the email address prominently as a support resource. Mail is usually answered within 2 business days for most parties. If you need more time for this, you should specify the expected turnaround time in an autoresponder.

To make the contact even more personal, if the situation allows, you can also respond a bit more loosely depending on the industry you are in. And, for example, use "you" instead of "you" by default when addressing customers.

Other options or possibilities

Other options also include a contact form or a ticket system, but in the case of a contact form, this doesn't bring much. However, in the case of a contact form, this doesn't add much, such as requiring a customer number to submit a contact form. Or providing more information to help a customer better and faster.

Of course, nowadays it's also possible to contact your customers for your website through another website. We're talking here, of course, about social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and so on. However, this is often handled openly or via private messaging. And therefore often falls under the same rules as chatting. Keep it more informal and direct.

What's the best way to help your customers on your website? Let us know on social media!