Contact Information

Apr 142009
 

Time for part 5 of 35 covering my usability and design analysis, Contact Information.

When doing my analysis, I always check to see if the site has easy to find contact information. I’d say about 90% of the sites that I have checked have one, and typically it’s easy to find. That is good, or at least it’s a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, many of the sites I review only fill their contact page with an email or an email form. Many sites don’t even have the name of their company on it! If you are running a personal blog or hobby site where contact information is not that important, I’d say don’t sweat all of this. What amazes me though, is how many ecommerce sites fail to fulfill a visitors/would be customer expectations.

Contact Information is Your Reflection

If you are trying to sell a product or service online, you should realize that visitors often look for trust factors. These trust factors come in various forms, but one real sure fire way to prove you are a real business it to simply reveal your contact information. How hard is that? Apparently, very hard. Many small businesses are run from home, and who wants to give out those kind of details? You need to give something though, and just an email will not cut it.

What does just an email form reflect? To me, it’s a sign saying:

“Get a hold of me if you have to. I am not expecting you to reach me, and don’t really care if I don’t get the message at all. Just buy my stuff.”

If someone wants to buy something from you, they need to know there is a guarantee way to contact you. Email’s often fail. Having a phone number helps, but it doesn’t mean the owner will pick up. Having an address makes you accountable, and if you have all three there is then a clear reflection of your business. You are visible, you are accountable, and are not hiding from your would be customers. Stop hiding!

Things to Include on Your Contact Page

Every business contact page will be a little different. An address should always be required, but adding something like a map may not be if visitors are never expected to go there. Here is a basic list of things to consider when creating your contact page. The more you can add, the more your visitors trust increase, and the more useful your site becomes. Yes, contact pages are one of the most important pages to a ecommerce site. Transactions require communications.

Things to Include Items in bold should be found on every contact page, regardless of what your site is about.

  • Your name or name of company
  • Phone numbers
  • Fax numbers
  • Main mailing address, plus additional if you have any
  • Map
  • Business hours
  • Email – this can be a simple form to initiate the process
  • Live chat support information
  • Alternate language support information if expected
  • Social profiles such as your Twitter or Facebook page

And any other information that could help your visitor in regards to improving communications with you. Call it a slogan, but transactions require communications is 100% true. Whether it be to support a transaction that has gone bad, or to simply answer a prospective customers questions.

Support needs to be there for your visitor. The alternative is the visitor going somewhere else to find the answer, or to bad mouth your company for poor customer service.

On a side note: Here is a poll I started in March 2009.

New Poll – Contact Information

Mar 112009
 

If you are selling a product online you should know that visitors often look for trust factors. Having a phone number to contact you is one of those methods. This poll asks voters if they would think twice about making a purchase online if you phone number is not there. The way I see the results for this poll are like this. The percentage of “No” votes equals the percentage of sales you could be loosing if you don’t have a simple phone number on your site.

Here is the poll: Would you purchase something from a website if they didn’t have a phone number listed?

Archive of Previous Polls

Contact Information is Golden

Jun 182008
 

Now here is an issue that absolutely amazes me. No contact information. Site after site I look at, the typical contact information is typically a email form at best.

If you are not selling something, then really it’s not a big deal. Personal blog? I don’t think you really need business hours, or phone number listed. If you are trying to sell something though, you better have the works. Clearly displaying your contact information is key for improving your sites trust factor.

health 300x155

Taking a look at this Individual Health Insurance site I was not first impressed by site design. It was a little narrow for me, and if you keep up with my posts, I do not like to use justify as a method to format my main content. What it lacked in design qualities though, was made up with an extremely clear method to contact them. Right in the header, and in red, was two different phone numbers to contact them. Below that, near the footer, was a complete list of contact information, and it was found on nearly every page. You should have no problem contacting someone at this company. Trust and design factor, now higher. I’m not about to do business with a company or website that hides their contact information.

They included address, phone numbers, fax numbers, and email. Another key item they included, the name of the company as the mail to part of the address. Forgetting to put the mail to line, line one of an address, is amazingly skipped often. Other methods to compliment this is to include business hours, and additional department numbers if necessary. The more information the higher the trust factor.

If you consider this type of site, a health insurance site, you should also consider the audience. Possibly older, not as computer savvy visitors? I am betting most of their visitors are in an age bracket that prefer to use the telephone. I’m also betting that having their phone number clearly displayed in the header was a planned idea, instead of just a slapped on “here is our phone number line”. They know their visitors like to use the phone, and they are making it more than available.

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