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I was listening to @JimBlasingame being interviewed on MSNBC My Business and he made some good points with respect to finding and retaining clients. One comment he made was your company website and/or storefront is not your destination, it should be thought of more as distribution center. I thought about this concept throughout the day.
I belive Jim is correct. Too many times, we look at traffic as a number of clicks, page views, number of visitors, (returning/new). All of these metrics are nice figures, but ultimately we need to know how we can keep in contact with our clients and ultimately get them to come back. The internet gives people so many choices and information when making decisions. You may have a client today, but who is to say they will come back tomorrow.
If we look at our website as a distribution channel, then we want to make sure people are coming to it and we are giving them directions on where to look next. Here are some ideas of how we could do that:
- Have online offers/promotions posted on the website
- Give people pricing information
- Give people address and phone information to contact our company directly
- Allow people to ask questions online
- Give people some pictures of our employees, so they can put a name with a face
- Give people some current information to show that the site is updated on a regular basis
Company location
- Have a welcome sign with the person’s name on it.
- Have a welcome person/desk to greet people as they walk in the door
- Have people available to talk.
- Let people see your company when they first walk-in. Do youl like walking into a typical doctor’s office or dental office?
- Have company materials available for people to take with them
Create your ideal destination that you would like your clients to see and don’t forget how important it is to create a culture of connecting so people remember who you are and what you stand for. If you would like to see the interview referenced above, check it out. It is less than 5 minutes and it has some good information.
