Clean Up Your Contact Us Page! - More Ways to Reach You
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Okay, so your visitors can reach you via postal mail, email, visiting you in person, and filling out a form that is routed to the right department. Are there any ways of contact that we're forgetting? Yes, as a matter of fact.
There's live chat. That may or may not be appropriate for your business, but some companies have used it to good effect. I've used live chat from time to time when I'm working on a story about particular firms. It seems to have caught on more with web hosters than with other kinds of businesses. But if your company uses live chat, visitors should be able to access this capability from your Contact Us page at a minimum (the firms I've seen that use it display that fact prominently on their home page, and let visitors access it from there).
There's also your blog and/or your social networking site page. While this might not be the easiest way to contact you, it's always wisest to include as many options as possible. You never know which ones will click. Use this with caution, however. You might want to include a link to your LinkedIn profile – but not your OKCupid profile. Or, to give a less explicit example, if your business sells flowers, but your blog is about personal investments, you might not want to include the blog link; that would probably confuse potential customers.
Does your company exhibit at conferences and events? Then you might want to include information on which events you'll be showing at next. This is a double-edged sword however. Since this is dynamic information, if you include it you're going to have to allot the resources to keep it updated. You might be better off including that information on another section of your site that you expect to update regularly.
Here's one last tip to help you hone your Contact Us page and make your life (and the lives of your customers) a little easier: be sure to include some simple text that tells customers why and how they should contact you. “For placing an order, dial this toll-free number or click on the link for our order form...” “Visit our office for a free consultation...” “Use our Live Chat line if you have questions about your software...”
Polish your Contact Us page, and your customers will appreciate it. Good luck!
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