5 Customer Expectations Your Website Must Address
By Marc LeVine, Director of Social Media, RiaEnjolie, Inc.
?The Internet has made the whole world a local market. Businesses
and companies, which do not have a website or have a poorly executed one can
lose out on having a huge customer base. They are also likely to face failure
in future,? (www.RiaEnjolie.com)
Without a website how can
your funeral home business expect to be found by new customers?
Without a professional looking
website, will discerning consumers choose your funeral home business over your
competition?
These are important
questions for businesses of any size to consider. Stop whatever else you are
doing and give these questions some serious thought.
According to a recent
survey by Webvisible and Nielsen, 63% of all consumers turn to the internet
first for information about local companies. 82% of them use search engines to
do so. With all of those potential customers looking for a place to spend their
money only 44% of small businesses have a website. The survey also found that
more than half of these local companies spend less than 10% of their marketing
budget online.
Would it be fair to
assume that, at present, you do not already have a website? Or, perhaps,
you have a website, which does not represent your business in the best possible
light or bring to it sufficient value from an online marketing perspective?
Whatever your current
situation it can easily be remedied once you understand and accept the following
critical points:
Your Website is as
Important as the Sign Outside of Your Business
1. Websites will not be
going away anytime soon.
2. A professional looking website makes
the best first impression.
Most people searching for
your funeral home business do so over the Internet. Your competitors are
already there. Are you?
A professional looking
website design let?s your future customers know that your business is
professional and competent. How important is this to you?
The business world has changed.
Consumers have gotten tired of the kind of in-your-face ?push? marketing that
for decades has interrupted their favorite TV and radio programs with annoying
commercials; filled their mailboxes with piles of junk mail and bombarded them
with obnoxious telemarketing calls, which have pulled them away from the dinner
table much too often.
In the 2010?s consumers
have a much different set of expectations for the businesses they choose to
deal with:
Customer Expectations
Have Changed
1. Authenticity, transparency
and trust are mass critical.
2. People demand much
more from businesses and brands in today?s world.
3. Businesspeople must
understand that they start the conversation and that people take it
over.
4. If you don?t give your
customers the information they require, your competitors
will.
5. Businesses of all
sizes will function in online world or get left behind in the dust.
Invite People to Your Conversation
To be truly authentic,
transparent and trustworthy, today?s successful businessperson needs to invite
people to a ?conversation? with an open dialogue ? communicated in a human
voice. Your website is part of the online conversation known as social
media. As a matter of fact, all online conversations start or unfortunately,
end at your website.
The online ?conversation?
must be interesting, chock full of helpful information and it must also be
somewhat light-hearted. All of this makes the conversation most
beneficial and relaxed. Funeral homes need to exude warmth and comfort.
Being truthful and
admitting your mistakes to others ? even on a website ? is a sign of integrity
that others respect. If your business failed the first time around and
returned with a flourish, mention it on your website. We?re all human and
people will be impressed by this admission and also by the fact that you
learned from a bad experience and came back stronger than before. Isn?t
it true that what doesn?t kill us makes us stronger? I don?t know about
you, but I want to do business with someone who has put their learning curve
and failures behind them.
Furthermore, by including
links to your competitors on your website you send a strong message of pride
and confidence about who you are and the value you offer to your customers.
When your customers and
prospects see that you are treating them and others with caring and concern
they will reward you with loyalty and good word of mouth that will bring new
customers to your doorstep. Your website is an important tool used to
help communicate your good business ethics to others and helps them form a good
impression of you and your business. Get on board with online marketing
before the train leaves without you.
Content is King
A well designed and
content rich website goes a long way in addressing most of today?s consumer
expectations. In fact, your business website is much more in charge of
explaining to people who you are and what you do. Your website will have
to present you and your business in the best possible light, if you are ever to
have a chance of speaking to your potential customers and interesting them in
whatever you are offering.
It is a modern day
reality that a website is more important to your funeral home business
prospects than it is to you. Just consider the following perceptions it
creates for those coming upon your business for the very first time:
Why You Need an Effective
Website