When people need to find information about products or services (i.e. a new wardrobe, a smart phone app, a DVD, restaurant, a car), often they will resort to the internet before actually leaving their home and venturing to their local high street.
Cater to the expectations of the modern Day Customer
The generation of today is lazier than ever before. Unwilling to wait and expecting to have everything now, not soon, or later, or tomorrow. Why? Technology does most of the work for us. We don’t need to be physically at a shop to buy something: we can purchase many of our day-to-day items at home on our laptops, on our smart phones or tablets and get them delivered to our doors without having to speak to anyone or make any physical human contact.
The importance of your Customers’ website experience
The reason we choose to buy products or services from one business over another can often be related to our digital experiences: how easy we found it to use the company’s website, the payment process, whether the information we needed was available and accessible at the time, and the help that was offered if things went wrong (i.e. a customer’s internet connection failed during a payment).
Represent your Brand
Every aspect of your website needs to conform with your brand, not contradict it. For example, imagine the embarrassment of a web design agency whose own website is riddled with ‘broken links’ and pages with the dreaded ‘404’ error notices.
Market yourself to the Right Customers
If you’re targeting a young, fashion-conscious market, your website design needs to look quirky, trendy and relevant to your target market. Likewise, if most of your clients are middle aged corporate professionals, your design will also need to reflect this group.
Make sure People can find you Online
A well-designed website that has been optimised to rank highly on search engines (through SEO) will obviously be much easier for customers to find than a website that never appears in the first 20 pages of any common search request.
Let your Customers enjoy your Website
In 2014, a website must do more than just inform people; it must also entertain your customers, engage them and get them enthusiastic about your product offering. For example, if you were a holiday agency specialising in providing all-inclusive breaks to the Algarve, you’d want some nice pictures of families enjoying the hot sunny beaches of Albufeira and Portimao at the peak of summer to give people some motivation and inspiration.
Remember – integration is key
Many people often like to research holiday destinations in detail, such as how far a hotel is from an airport, beach or nightclubs. If your customers don’t have instant access to Google Maps on your website, however, they’re probably more likely to resort to another website than to research all this information from other sources.
Don’t make your Customers leave your Website to find basic Information
Instead of a customer having to go back to Google to research average July sunshine hours in the Algarve, sea temperatures, nightlife venues and restaurants, why not provide all of this information on your website? Here, the emphasis is on integration: giving people more resources from one platform to save time and make their website experience more convenient and enjoyable.
Jake Tilley is the Creative Director for Saffron Walden based web design agency Drench Design. Drench have a small but talented team who all have a passion for creating unique and innovative designs.
