Turn Your Website Into a Goldmine Holmrook

How many businesses do you know that have websites that capture enquirer details – or allow you to click to call or send an email to arrange contact?

Now think about how many you’ve used personally where you’ve fired off your question, enquiry, order or sales lead and received no response at all. All too many I suspect. The good news is that because most organisations don’t do this well it’s very easy to make a real impact in your market by getting the basics right.

There are a few golden rules to follow when using a website to generate and capture client enquiries or sales leads. Follow these rules and your website could become increasingly lucrative for you.

Reply Quickly
Make replying to web enquiries core to your business, not a chore. Consider rewarding staff for doing it well and converting enquiries into leads.

And you can win pretty easily by simply being one of the companies that responds to web enquiries at all!

A recent Siebel Systems/Microsoft/Romp Survey (June 2003) looked at the responsiveness of companies to sales enquiries coming from a variety of sources. Average response time was a staggering 4.6 days. And website and email enquiries were far less effectively dealt with.

Don’t Assume
a. That real customers / good quality leads will come in via the telephone. A client of ours receives the majority of new business enquiries by email and via their website.

b. People will call if they don’t receive a response from you. They’ll probably be shopping around on-line and if you don’t respond someone else will.

c. Your reputation won’t be damaged if you don’t reply – it certainly will.

Mystery Shop
As a visitor to your website what’s the experience like? Are you asked for relevant information? Can you find all the details you are looking for? How quickly is your enquiry responded to? Ask yourself – if I were a genuine customer would I be satisfied, would I want more information or better service. If the answer is yes – then put it right and do so quickly. 

Have Effective Systems
Use any systems you have (especially data management and enquiry logging systems) effectively. Make sure your staff are trained to record information correctly and understand the importance of having accurate enquiry data – and the rules connected with the Data Protection Act of course. If you are thinking of implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to help manage web enquiries do make sure that you specify very clearly what your requirements are on paper first, before you start talking to the techies about what they might be able to deliver. All too often CRM systems fail abysmally to meet the requirements or expectations of the client – due mainly to a lack of clarity in the specification by the client, insufficient operator training and I have to say it – all too often over promising by CRM pro...

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