One of the key instruments for creating trust in your customers is the “Contact Us” page. Often, this is the only direct contact your patrons will try to initiate with you. Therefore, it’s important to make it as easy as possible for them to locate the page, use it and feel confident someone will respond to it.These ecommerce contact form best practices will ensure a positive experience for your patrons.
Make It Easy to Find
Links in the main navigation bar, as well as the footer of your site, make locating the contact page simple. Most people tend to look for it among the menu items in the footer, but including it in your primary navigation menu says you have nothing to hide. It’s a subtle distinction, but it tells your customers you want to hear from them. By the way, this should be true for your mobile site as well. Even as you condense menu items for the mobile version, the contact us link should always remain prominent.
Provide Adequate Information
While many companies shy away from providing direct contact information, this can be perceived as hiding behind the technology in ecommerce. People prefer talking to someone when they have a concern.
A phone number says you’re willing to engage directly with your customers when the situation warrants. Listing your hours of operation on the page right next to the phone number will head off the frustration of dialing the number only to learn the office is closed.
As for emails, a lot of people don’t trust forms, so include an email address as well. Send a confirmation message to the address they provide to acknowledge receipt of their message and inform them of your typical response time. To inspire the most trust of all, provide a physical address so people can actually come to you if the situation warrants.
If you have many different departments, make a special effort to organize the page, so your patrons can get directly to a person who can help with their specific product or issue. People want to believe real live human beings will attend to their concerns. Including photos of your customer service team on the contact us page humanizes the process and helps increase their confidence in your processes.
Be Certain It Works
One of the most frustrating experiences you can put a customer through is hearing nothing back from you. Every contact us page relies upon links to function. When your customer completes the fields on yours and clicks “send,” an embedded link will forward the information to whatever email address you set up to support it. If that link is broken, you’ll never get the messages. This will leave your customers in the dark and angry. Even if you’re using one of the best free ecommerce websites, take some time to test every link on the contact us page to be certain they function properly.
Train Your Customer Service Team Well
The finest contact us page in the world will be of little effect if the people behind it act like they don’t care. In practically every situation, your customer service reps will be dealing with people who are stressed and irritated. Responding to customers with this in mind makes solving their problems easier and less stressful for your representatives.
These ecommerce contact form best practices will help you mitigate most of the potential problems your shoppers may encounter. You’ll get adequate information to resolve their concerns while instilling trust in your company in the process. This goes a long way toward creating satisfied customers. Satisfied customers tend to become repeat customers, and every store needs as many of those as it can get.