Craft Marketer Newsletter

Craft Business Ideas

Issue Number 7, September 11, 2000 
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IN THIS ISSUE 
============================================================ Make it Easy for Your Customers to Reach You 
by James Dillehay 
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I spend a lot of time online looking at web sites. Mostly I 
use search engines to find products and information I need. 

So many times I run across web pages which are supposed
to be selling something, but I can't figure out how to 
reach someone there to help me. 

Needless to say, I don't spend a lot of time trying to 
figure out the site owner's logic, I just go elsewhere and
do business with sites that think their customers are worth
a little care.

Do your web pages provide your contact information on every
page? If not, consider that even though many visitors to your
web site may never call, fax or email you, if there is no
way to reach you, you are guaranteed none will ever find you.
Your prospective customers will buy from your competitors.

At the bottom of each of your site's pages, include your
phone number (toll free ordering if you provide such), an 
alternative phone number, fax number, email, and postal mail
address (use a street address because it conveys stability).

If you don't offer an 800, 888, or 877 toll free number for
customers to call on, remember that many people are still
skiddish about ordering online. For one of my products, 
where I could not use a shopping cart, I included my toll 
free order number on the web page. People called and I 
made sales.

I already knew toll free numbers increase profits because
when I began providing the option of a toll free number for
my customers in 1994, my sales almost doubled as a result. 

Shop around before settling with a toll free number provider.
The cheapest rate I found was 5.9 cents per minute and the 
800, 888, or 877 number can be set-up to ring to any other phone
line you choose. This means you don't have to pay for a second
phone line.

There are other good reasons to have your own toll free number.
If you travel to craft fairs, you can call crafts without using
expensive calling cards. Also, you never have to worry about 
having the right change for calling crafts from a pay phone.

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