Does your website save you and your clients valuable time?
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It’s no secret that a website is an important marketing tool. Even small businesses who only serve local customers are increasingly finding a home on the Internet. But did you know your website can also be a time management tool? Let’s look at a few ways that your website can help you and your clients save valuable time.
Unlike a printed flyer or brochure, there is no limit to the amount of information you can include on your website. As long as it is well-written and easy-to-navigate, your website can answer the questions asked by your typical client, facilitating more efficient communication. By educating prospective clients about your services before they call you or send you an email, by the time they contact you, they are already on their way to doing business with you. As a result, you’ll spend less time repeating the same information day after day, and you’ll be able to move the sales process along more quickly.
FAQ
A popular method of displaying this type of information is to set up a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section or page. Website visitors appreciate this format because it allows them to go straight to the questions they have in mind and find the answers quickly and easily. You can even refer clients and prospects to specific FAQ’s on your website.
Learn more: Tie your website together with an FAQ page
Contact Form
You can also streamline your sales process with the use of a contact form on your website that includes questions such as “Where did you hear about us?” as well as any information you will require before you can provide a quote.
Learn more: How to Create an Effective Contact Page.
Online Appointment Calendar
Depending on your clients’ comfort level with technology, and on the nature of your business, you may benefit from the use of an online appointment scheduler. I’ve been using Acuity Scheduling for several years and my only regret is that I didn’t do it much sooner!
Learn more: Can an appointment scheduler make you a better service provider?
Downloadable Materials
You may wish to have your flyers, brochures, or other materials available as downloads in PDF format. This will not only be a benefit to your website visitors, but will allow you to print out any items you may occasionally need when you are away from your office.
Other Time-Saving Ideas
The less time you spend on routine communication, the more you can focus on service delivery and developing business relationships.
How else might your website save time for you or your clients?
Photo by AndreyPopov / DepositPhotos
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These are such great tips and ideas to consider incorporating. About a year ago, I started using a scheduling platform (Calendly.) I don’t use it for everything, but am using it more and more. It really does streamline and cut down on those back and forth emails. The FAQs page is something to consider. Prior to offering virtual organizing exclusively, I had a printed FAQ sheet that I mailed (snail-mailed) to my organizing clients before their first visit. I’ve rewritten it to for VO clients and now send it out as an email. However, I hadn’t considered putting that information on my website, which could be useful. I’m going to consider that.
Not only will it save you both time, some people are reluctant to reach out if there are too many unknowns. The better they understand what you offer and how you work, the more comfortable they’ll be contacting you.
Great point, Janet. I definitely need to consider this and appreciate the nudge.
I think having information on my website helps to filter out people with whom I may not be a good fit. I don’t use an appointment scheduler because I like doing that in person. The calendar is “fluid” for me, and also for my clients. I will often accommodate people in person in a way I would not like to publicly advertise. But I can see how that work work so well for many situations.
It’s just nice to be able to refer people to the website when they call or ask. They can review at their leisure, and then contact me if they have an interest!
I understand why an appointment scheduler might not work for you and your clients. I love mine, but it does impose a certain rigidity that I don’t love. I started to say “I wish…” but by the time I’d articulated what I was thinking, I realized it’s something I can implement so I’ve added it to my task list. Thank you for the inspiration!
Great information. I’m so glad you are guiding me through my website redesign. Technology (and the way it’s used) changes so quickly. You really need an expert helping you.
I am so excited to be working on your project and you are a pleasure to work with.
You make everything so clear! I really should create an FAQ out of the things I send in a first-response email and then link to it on my contact page. Sort of a “Hey, before you send me that email, read this FAQ!” But then I’d have nothing to show off my brilliance (ha!) when I reply to the first inquiry. This gives me a lot to think about, including adding to my contact form so that it’s more than name, email, and message.
I appreciate the ease of using a calendaring system, but I guard my time so closely that I feel like letting someone request an appointment on the calendar would limit me too much; I generally offer prospects two options (usually one early afternoon on one day, then a later afternoon on a different day) or they can let me know if they need something different. This guarantees that I take take an unexpected client session and not risk losing a full day of paid work because one client consultation was scheduled.
Still, I like the way you lay out the use cases for this calendaring option, as well as all of these other time-saving options.
Lots to think about indeed!
Thanks for sharing another reason why online scheduling apps don’t work for everyone.
Thanks Janet. I have acuity scheduling on my blog site as well but it’s not very active. I am considering taking it off and working on an application form instead. What are your thoughts and do you have a post on that?
It’s hard to say. If people aren’t scheduling with you because the link wasn’t prominent enough, it’s not going to matter what you’re linking to. If it’s because they’re not ready to talk to you, they might be more comfortable filling out a form, or even that might be a bigger step than they want to take right now. Maybe the design of the page or the written content isn’t compelling enough. Lots of things to consider!
Great advice! Saving time and increasing quality is my main goal for my clients’ website and my websites. One thing I would add is a search bar to make it easy to find archived posts for me and my clients/prospects to share.
Great suggestion! Here’s a confession… I came across this article which I originally wrote in 2007 (when not that many people were blogging) and was so amazed that it was all still relevant that I made very few changes and no additions at all.
I need to review (and I do, occasionally) all of the above, because things change over time. Under the “Other” category, I frequently link to pages on my website in answer to email questions, or send specific blog post links to clients (or potential clients) who are dealing with specific issues. I LOVE my Acuity scheduler, especially (these semi-retired days) for corralling Free 20 Min calls (which range from Potential Clients, Former Clients, Product Questions, Media, Associates, and Colleagues) into my chosen “office hours”, if you will. Mine is set to not allow same-day (or next-day, even) scheduling so there are no surprises. This allows me to accommodate whatever unique requests come along that interest me.
That’s an excellent example, and having all your information in one place means you don’t have to update it in multiple places (e.g. web page, email templates/drafts, etc.)
My schedule is similar as I don’t like surprises either. 🙂
Janet, I never thought about a website being a time-saving tool but that is a great client-focused view. I don’t have any downloadables or a FAQ page so I will have to ponder on those. Thanks for the useful info.
You’re welcome, Jill! I’m glad you found it helpful.