We all know that generating leads is one of the most important parts of running a business. You could have the a fantastic idea and a fantastic product, but if your customers cannot get in contact to be able to enquire about your product or service, then you haven’t got much. This simple interaction is the way people have been conducting business since day dot. Customer service and customer interaction is key to success in any business.

The very idea of business centres around customers because without them, it doesn’t exist. You can be certain that any business owner is aware of this very basic premise. However, you’d be surprised how many business owners are inadvertently counter-productive to this idea online. It sounds so simple, but how often do we, as consumers, feel let down by our experiences when it comes to customer service.

It is important to consider that in the grand scheme of things, we are all somebody’s customer. Keeping this in mind, when dealing with your own customers the golden rule should always apply -- treat others as you wish to be treated. This is no different in the online realm.

How often do you walk away from a retail store feeling let down by a bad experience thinking to yourself ‘I could have spent so much money in there, if someone had just taken the time to serve me.’

Let me tell you a story:

Our hero walks into a clothing store; he’s in there for a while and has found something that he likes the look of. As he looks up to see if anyone can help him grab a size and answer his questions, he sees two chatty young shop assistants standing behind the counter chewing gum, and talking loudly over the top of each other about the weekend’s shenanigans; all the time oblivious to the needs of the customers in their shop. At this point, our protagonist becomes frustrated at the situation. It all becomes too much effort, so he walks away and walks into the next shop without buying anything.

With that in mind, consider this: What experience does your website give to your customer?

Think of your website as your shop and your content is your product. If someone is on your website and finds something interesting, something that makes them want to find out more before committing to purchase, how easily can they get in touch? How easily can they find out more? Will they look around for your contact page, or will they find it too hard and ‘walk away’ to look in the next shop?

A lot of websites I see are set up in the same way. I enter their URL and find a home page, a few pages of content and a separate contact us page.

Why complicate the matter with a separate contact page being the only recourse for a customer to get in contact with you? Why should you expect your customers to leave the page that they are on, navigate away from the information that they find relevant to their needs in order to find a contact form and submit their enquiry? The more processes you ask your customers to perform before making an enquiry, the more likely it is that they will get distracted and navigate away form the relevant page, or even worse, not make it to the contact page at all.

This is a missed opportunity that can easily be fixed.

Lead Generation

When talking about lead generation, one of the easiest things a business can do is to put a contact form on each and every page of their web site. This allows any potential customer to reach out to you at the exact moment that they want to find out more. As a business, you must give your customers every opportunity to get in contact with you should they choose to.

In making it as convenient as possible for your customers, you will find that they have to think less about what they are actually doing and how to do it. This, in turn, creates an organic process that allows your contact form to be an extension of your information, allowing your customers to find out more and submit an enquiry from the page that prompted them to do so in the first place. They walk away feeling like their needs have been met and you walk away with a lead in the bag.

It’s win-win.