Most of us realize that people live in a fast paced world and expectations are high for quick access to everything. The information we’re looking for is always available at our fingertips and we expect it to be.
At home we have a smartphone in hand and a laptop within a few steps. Out and about the smartphone is always within arms reach.
What do you do when you want to find something or somewhere?
Pick up your smartphone!
That’s why expectations for an always on brand presence are high. If someone in your target audience is in the market for what you do, you want to be there to help.
Currently expectations are high, how high?
Current Expectations
Expectations are so high now that if someone doesn’t find what they need right away, they’re gone. If there’s no way to get an instant or near instant answer, you’ve lost them.
That is the reason I recommend instant chat as being a good to have feature on your website. Instant chat is sure to help create an available brand presence.
Current expectations are that you will respond to emails within 24 hours and text messages within a matter of minutes or at most an hour.
How responsive are you to customers?
Your response time weighs heavily into how your customers see your business. Not only that but everyone’s expectations are different.
I expect to receive a response to a text message within 30 minutes. My dad has no expectations and often it won’t phase him to go days without a response.
Everyone has their own expectations for response time. Aim to satisfy even the most demanding. Share on XDifferent generations have different expectations but it’s your job to make sure you exceed expectations.
Most questions should be answered on your website. In the cases where a question is difficult to answer ahead of time, a quick way for people to get an answer is needed. Customers expect to have an easy and quick place to get answer to their questions.
It’s impossible to predict where people are which is why being where your customer is helps you succeed.
Where They Are
Yes, it’s almost impossible to know where a customer will find you. Will they find you on Yelp? Will they find one of your blog posts? Maybe they’ll run across one of your Tweets?
Being accessible to your customer is the best way to begin your relationship. That means they should decide when and where the conversation begins and you should be responsive.
If you have any online presence, customers will find it. You’ll want to be available to answer them as quickly as possible, though. That means don’t create it and forget it.
There are hundreds of places where customers can find you. Here are a few:
- Google Business (Maps)
- Google Search
- Yelp
- Angie’s List
- Bing
- Bing Maps
- Google+
- Foursquare
- Snapchat
And of course the list goes on. Knowing where customers are is only the first part of having an always on brand presence.
Knowing where customers are is helpful but you also need to be available wherever and whenever customers are.
Become Available
You know people have high expectations for companies. Luckily there are plenty of places to increase your presence to customers.
Making your business instantly accessible in an instant gratification world is essential. Share on XYou can start by creating a Yelp business page, Twitter profile, Facebook page, Instagram profile, and Google Business Profile. Those are just the start of where your customer will be in many cases, though.
No matter where a customer finds your business, it often leads back to your website. That’s why the contact page is a highly visited page on your website.
Not everyone will hunt down a contact page, though. Being accessible to talk to is essential for your business. An instant chat service on your website is an opportunity to make yourself available to customers instantly.
There are many instant chat services available for free so there’s no reason not to have it available.
Not only that but you’ll want a simple contact form. Notice at the top of this page (if you’re on the website) I include my phone number too.
Having all your contact information available may cause some unwanted calls and emails from solicitors. That’s not a good reason not to make it available, though.
Sometimes you have to decide whether you’re going to make it easy on your customer or on yourself. Customers should come first when you’re trying to build trust.
Sometimes it’s hard to step back and look at your brand from the customer’s standpoint. That makes it necessary to have an outsiders view.
Test Your Presence
It’s impossible to look at your brand online from the outside looking in. You know your business too well and it’s hard (maybe impossible) to put yourself in others shoes.
That makes it helpful to see your online brand from an external viewpoint. I will put together a free custom Online Presence Report for you that will help give you that window from the outside into your business.
You’ll get to see how your brand measure up online for being accessible to customers. The report will be helpful for your business because it gives you direction to make the necessary updates to your brand online.
You’ll have the tips available to you that will make your online brand as awesome as your business is.