5 Customer Expectations Your Website Must Address

Funeral Industry News August 10, 2010
CDFuneralNews

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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,? according to Andy Gaur, CEO of RiaEnjolie, Inc.

(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