Printer Website Reviews (cont’d)

Make Contact

The most common issue, and the one that should be the most obvious is—to paraphrase the old real estate adage “location, location, location”—contact, contact, contact.

More than any other kind of information, how a client can contact you should be of paramount importance. Here are some tips on what to do—and some examples of what not to do!

The best sites put company name, city, state and phone numbers at the top of their home page. That is a good start, but putting that basic information on every page is a better idea—as long as it can be done tastefully. It should not be too large; the font should be easy to read; and any color used should enhance its readability and complement the entire site design. You can place the company information at the top or the bottom of each page, or both.

Another option is to place a “Contact Us” hyperlink on each page that takes the user back to your home or contact page. This method takes up less room and does less to spoil a clean page design. Don’t make users “hunt and scroll” for basic information. Making a website visitor search for what should be obvious information, leaves a bad impression and reflects very poorly on your company. If it is too difficult to find, they may just stop looking and go elsewhere. Your overall goals should be to provide a positive experience each time a user comes to your site and to minimize frustration.

Frustration was the experience I had on one site that put the company name on a splash page but nowhere else. The splash page loaded and then automatically jumped to their home page, a page where the company name only appeared within in the body of the page itself. You couldn’t go back to the initial page without reloading the site, and even if you did, there was still no basic information. Talk about irritating! Had they not contacted me, I would not have had a clue where this company was located. In fact, their phone number was buried several pages deep and with no address information.

On another site, the company put in the phone number but no address, city or state. I only found out what state they were in by using the area code.

Put your primary contact information on your home page along with your address. Include all of your phone and fax numbers, and your email address, too.

Contact Page

Don’t take my emphasis for displaying primary contact information for negating the need for a separate contact page, too. Think of the contact page as your internal yellow pages. It should include any staff members who deal with clients or the general public, along with their respective email addresses, and phone extensions, as well as titles or department (i.e., estimating, prepress, shipping, etc.).

One company I reviewed listed only the president and sales manager on the contact page. When I suggested the “yellow page” approach, they expressed concern that other companies might recruit their staff. I felt if that was really a concern, they had more problems than just a lackluster website.

The best contact pages I found included professional photos of each staff member. This not only made working with them a more personal experience, but it made the staff feel more valued, too. If you pride your company in offering personalized service, make this apparent on your website. The main goal of your site is to draw customers to you, not drive them away.

Which Way To Go?

Speaking of driving. A good contact page should also include a map and/or directions to the company. It would be really great if the map were printable and downloadable. Some use links to sites such as MapQuest.com to provide clients an interactive method of getting directions to their facilities. MapQuest provides both driving directions and a printable map. The goal here is to make it easy for customers to find and contact you.

Beware of Flashers

Another big and growing problem on sites today is the use of unneeded sound, animation, and other media. If active content does not contribute positively to the experience or usefulness of your site, it does not belong there. It is like a car alarm that blares incessantly in the night unheeded while your car is still stolen.

Gratuitous Flash is one of the biggest culprits and often a waste of time and effort. Flash should be used to present information in a better way, not just to look “cool.” And often, it defeats the very purpose of your website. For example, contact information done in Flash can’t be copied and pasted from the webpage. Instead, it must be retyped, or written out by hand on paper. The convenience of having information online is lost!

Another problem with using the latest multimedia tricks is that they usually require the latest browsers and proprietary players or software plug-ins that must be downloaded and installed. Such procedures cause inconveniences at best but disasters at worst. Without the players or plug-ins, your wonderful animation or premium content won’t play! It’s like a VCR that eats your promotional video during a customer demo.

What’s in a Name?

The web address, also known as a Universal Resource Locator (URL) or domain name, is how people find you on the Internet. Purchasing a domain name is inexpensive and relatively easy today. Millions of companies and individuals have already done it and many of the best names are already taken. That’s why choosing a name is so important. Start by choosing a name that is painfully obvious. Unfortunately, many companies do not.

For example, each company reviewed for this article provided me with their web address—and it was a good thing. As part of my assessment service, I did a search for their sites and, in most cases, I couldn’t find them—even when I used their company name.

Try it yourself. Search for your own company. Does it come up on the first page of the search? If not, beware! Unless someone is really committed to finding you, they won’t look any further than the first page or two of a search. Worse, they may find a competitor instead.

Google.com is one the most popular search engines. If you are not already registered with them, learn how to do it. Also, do the research needed to learn how to get your listing on the first page of the search. Some companies actually pay for it. These are called sponsored listings. Although they are usually charged at the rate of a few pennies per click-through, it can end up costing you hundreds of dollars per month if you have a popular listing.

If your URL is not obvious, think about what would make it more so—an obvious URL makes finding you easier.

Positive Experience

There are many more issues to deal with providing a positive web experience for your current or potential customer; these were just the most glaring examples. Check out my Fall 2002 column for NAPL* to get more ideas.

With any business, it is so hard to overcome a negative experience that it makes sense to start with a positive one. By following the above tips you are on your way. The best part about the issues mentioned here, is that they are easy and inexpensive to fix. They are also an excellent start to turning your site into a customer-focused and relationship-oriented one that drives your print sales higher!

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

To have Funk & Associates review your Web strategy,
send an email to clint@clintfunk.com
or call 847-328-4472.

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