Last Updated on May 25, 2017 by Luiza Libardi
Earning the customers trust is the core of any e-commerce business. One of the most important web pages that builds customer trust and also one of the first pages online shoppers look for is the Contact Us page. This is how they know they will be able to communicate with the seller in case anything happens. Having a complete and well designed Contact Us page can give your store more credibility and translate into more sales. Below are some guidelines to use when building out your Contact Us Page.
Communication is Key
How many times have you visited a website, wanting to get in touch, complain about a product or service or ask a question? And how often have you struggled with a contact form? A good contact page can benefit any type of business. It can improve customer satisfaction by helping users with their problems. It can also help improve products and services by providing an avenue for valuable feedback.
Other channels can be limited when it comes to user feedback. Television, radio, magazines and newspapers are all forms of one-way communication. Online communication should be a two-way street — a dialog — between a business and visitor. Both parties can benefit from a reciprocal relationship, which is exactly why a strong Contact Us page is essential.
Right Place, Right Time
Having the best Contact Us page in the world is no good if visitors can’t find it. Designs for ecommerce sites often forget the functionality aspect, but keeping some design conventions in mind can help your visitors out. Generally speaking, contact information can be found in two places:
Primary Navigation and the site’s Footer are are ideal locations for a contact page link. Visitors usually look for contact information on the top right side of a page because it is seen as an element of secondary importance. For this reason you’ll commonly see the contact page link as one of the last elements within site navigation.
You might also see a smaller sub-navigation in the top-right corner of the screen. This is also a valuable position for the contact page. You may want to avoid placing a link to the contact page in a drop-down menu, as the link could easily be overlooked.
What Content Should We Have?
The fastest way for the customer to contact you would be a contact form. In the form make sure you include the following fields:
- Name: a first name is generally enough
- Email address: important for use in responding to the customer and for them to respond to you later
- Address: helps you locate what part of the world they live in, but make this an optional field as many people are not comfortable sharing that information
- Phone number: if they desire a return call instead of a digital response, but don’t have it as mandatory field for the same reason above.
Extras: Consider including other information important to your business, such as hours of operation and how long the customer should expect to wait before receiving a response. Keep your social profile links visible as many customers are beginning to link up to companies via their social media sites.
The (In)dispensable Button
What is a contact form without a “submit” button? This button should be at the bottom of the form. Even more friendly is the phrase “send message” instead of “submit”, which simply reminds customers what they are doing. Also, a common standard since the beginning has been to include a “reset” or “clear form” button. However, there’s no need for this. No matter how smart your user, someone will eventually click it accidentally. There’s nothing worse than losing a frustrated customer who has typed a long message and then accidentally clicked the “reset” button. On the flip side, if any attention is good attention, you may appreciate all of the hate mail you receive about your poorly designed Contact Us page.
The Feedback
Finally, one of the most important aspects of the Contact Us page is reassuring the user that their message has been sent… and received. You will want to reassure them by utilizing a skillfully written and designed HTML confirmation email. The same advice applies for errors. Displaying an error when the message failed to send is a must, as it can prevent a lot of future discussions. The error message should be user friendly, so avoid displaying startling error codes.
Don’t Forget the Search Engines
As a visitor, you’ll instantly recognize an address on a contact page. Search engines, however, need a bit more help recognizing the various elements. Numinix attempts to solve this by using structured data, which is a form of HTML markup that gives search engines more information about the underlying meaning of your content.
With years of experience designing and maintaining e-commerce websites Numinix has what it takes to design an appropriate Contact Us page for your business and even craft those nice branded confirmation emails.