Communication is at the root of accessibility and it is the thought that counts. Serving people is at the basis of good sales. Do you remember the last good conversation you had? Was it with a friendly bartender or shop keeper? Was it with someone who was there for you or for themselves?
Communication is key to maximising profit without waste, exploitation or making cuts. Why do big companies exclude so many potential customers? Navigating a website or app for the first time is just like map reading to a new unfamiliar place. Turn-by-turn, sat nav.
Accessibility and inclusivity
It does not cost much to signpost first time visitors to your app or website through from onboarding to procurement. In communication, like gift giving, it is the thought that counts. It seems today everyone wants to be important, have a lofty job title and be respected, even if that means being feared. No dictator has lasted long. The noblest thing is to serve others. It is no wonder that business administrative students ignore sales as that is the service end of business. They want to make decisions and boss other people around.
Communication, consideration and catering for human beings could be a new way to profit without compromising your ethics or exploiting people. Too often, the websites and apps of big companies have a Big Missing Signpost like the roundabout signpost hidden behind trees.
The Big Missing Signpost
Once we have successfully onboarded a new website or app for the first time, it is easy to look back with hindsight and see all the missing signposts where you had to feel your way in the dark. Surely this is losing companies money that they scrape back through cuts, wages or prices.
Why not make your website inclusive and accessible so that all customers can flow through smoothly without getting lost? Word of mouth marketing is the least costly and most profitable. Why wouldn’t you maximise your customers’ satisfaction into sales? You could reward their loyalty and recommendations to others. You would get genuine Trust Pilot reviews and be spoken about reverently on social media. What is not to like?
Sweet Sound PR will visit your website as a potential new customer and find the best, quickest and easiest way to ensure that all first time visitors find their way easily to their destinations.
Facts Create Choice
If new customers reach a junction on your website and do not know which way to go, they could walk straight to one of your competitors and you would never know they had ever considered buying from you. Every customer counts and I identify how to clinch their custom.
Ask yourself these questions about your website:
- Do people call your customer service helpline asking how to use your website?
- Do many people use your chat bot to ask how to reset the password they’ve forgotten?
- Do customers email in saying they can’t buy from your website?
- Do you see many orders placed by new customers without calls to customer service?
- Do you have a much higher percentage of existing customers over new customers?
If you answered yes to 1, 2 and 3 than I can provide the quickest, easiest solution to increase your first time customer traffic.
Accessible Inclusive Logins
The same can be said for returning customers. Is your login process accesssible? Do you have a password prompt? Many people have 20 years worth of passwords from just 6 characters to 12 characters including numbers, symbols and upper and lower case letters. To avoid writing these down, using a predictable or repeated password, you could narrow yours down by saying 8 letters, 1 number, 1 symbol and an upper case letter. Then include Show Password to reduce errors.
Have an easy-to-find reset password link and then flag up a verification email coming if you need to have one. Using a reset password link in email does in fact verify that email address. Don’t add unnecessary steps, but if they actually increase security, say so.
Communication is at the root of accessibility
This could range from:
For new websites – a quick start up guide that you can link from the landing page that signposts customers along the quickest route road map from start to finish.
For existing websites – either text to be added or removed, which will leave new customers with a clear map to their desired destination on your website.
The way to test your UX from start to finish would be to get an external person to act as a customer and go from your homepage to check-out.
This is done simply by having the right signposts where you would expect to find them along the way.
Route to your house
However, companies big and small face the same issue: they know their own website too well. This is exactly like giving someone directions to your house for the first time. You know the route by heart and they have never seen it before. Your perspectives will be polar opposite. Use visible landmarks, not road names or compass directions, which might not be identifiable. You may tell them to look out for a signpost that doesn’t work, not give them the easiest route or confuse them totally.
Sweet Sound PR can solve this by going to visiting your website and identifying the solution. This is all about communication, not IT.
For example:
A train company covering various routes between London and Margate allowed customers to buy their tickets and asked them which station they wished to collect their tickets from.
The solution to ensure happy customers buying their tickets and getting the right train was simple, when pinpointed:
By removing red text which said they only needed to pick a train if they wanted to reserve a seat meant they could check the departure station and time of their desired train and be able to pick their ticket up from that station. I suggested removing this misleading text, which they did.
A coffee company used words which misled customers. By changing the headings, customers knew what they were getting and placed the orders they wanted.
An online farm shop asked customers to select a time slot for delivery before they could add items to a shopping basket. Like a one way street or a diversion, if you want customers to take a particular route through your website, you need to provide sign posts and direct them each step of the way. For this customer I emailed them screen grabs and a quick start guide which they linked from a banner on their home page.
An established print company changed their name and website, which was a whole lot more sophisticated then their previous one. The problem was that customers reaching checkout without knowing that they had missed options. Imagine wanting to reach France and only being directed to the longest ferry port, when planes and trains would get you there much quicker?
The company’s express printing and delivery option was only available with no lamination. Therefore, after the words ‘Lamination Options’, I suggested adding the words ‘for express printing please select ‘None’ below.
Give me an email: sophiesweatman@sweetsoundpr.co.uk or a call 07863554763 If you:
- Get too small a percentage of orders from new customers compared to existing customers,
- Get lots of calls or emails from first time customers asking how to use your website.
- Think your immediate competitors are doing better.
- Get complaints from new customers saying they didn’t get what they expected.
- Get many hits to your website that don’t translate into sales.
- People leave things in their shopping baskets but don’t buy them.
Even if you get one call asking for help with your website, it is worth a look. Every retail business loses customers without knowing as most people leave silently. Never say ‘you’re the only one with this problem’ or ‘no one else has called about this. Instead, call me for a quick, easy and very cheap to implement a no-brainer cost solution and watch those customers role in.
Sophie Sweatman 
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