What do your customers need from your website?
Working out what customers need from your website should be the first step in the design process. How can your website improve the experience of your customer or potential customer?
When you look at a website from this point of view, you’ll come up with a completely different implementation and the results will show in your sales. Too many business owners decide they need a website, decide what they want on the website, hire a web designer, write a little bit about their business, and then publish the website for all the world to see.
The problem is, no one looks at the website. And definitely, no one purchases or calls because of the website. So this moment is a decision point on how your business does in the future. You can either take a long hard look at your website, or you can ignore this post and continue to be a small business. It’s really up to you.
Convinced? Good. So put yourself in your customers shoes for a while and work out what they’d like from your website. What would compel them to read further? What questions would they like answered? What would get them to actually pick up the phone and call you or make a purchase?
Once you think you’ve improved, test it. If you can’t watch customers use your website (and you can with the right software), then watch your friends. See where they get confused, see where they get bored, and see if they can actually find their way to the objective. And remember, your potential customers have about 0.01% of your friends patience.
So work out what your customers need from your website…and give it to them!
