You have spent a lot of money on your web site and even more on a SEO expert to make sure it comes up in online search engines such as Google and Bing. However, do you ever assess the quality of the responses that your team is sending back? If you are the average company out there then this is what happens:
- An automated generic response goes to the customer acknowledging their enquiry and that you will respond to them soon.
- That is the last they hear from you for a day or two and sometimes they do not hear from you at all.
This area of sales is growing so rapidly that it astonishes me how poorly companies are dealing with web enquiries. There is a general complacency regarding these enquiries and a misconception that they are not good quality leads. This is backed up by an article that appeared in The Australian Financial Review in August 2008 titled: “Web inquiries routinely ignored” The article summarises some research conducted that showed that over 50% of businesses do not make timely responses to e-mail or internet inquiries.
Select Training understands the importance of web sales and how to make the most of them, especially for smaller businesses with fewer resources. To improve your success in this area you must have the following as a basic minimum:
- A web enquiry reply standard. (this includes the quality of the reply and the time it takes to reply)
- The ability to check and monitor exactly what is being sent to prospective customers and the reply timeframe.
- “The early bird gets the worm,” they say and this is so true for web enquiries. Your staff needs to be trained on how important these enquiries are and how critical it is to respond promptly and professionally.
For more information about improving web sales and conversions, contact Select Training. We can even do a free check on your company’s reply standard and give you our impressions in a free report.