We’ve all heard this saying. Hell, some of us have probably even used it.
Anyone that’s ever worked in retail knows that this saying is the bane of the retail worker’s existence. An excuse for a customer to proclaim that they’re entitled to something they probably aren’t.
But where did this saying come from? It likely won’t surprise you to learn that this saying wasn’t meant to be used the way it commonly is today. It’s original intent was actually ‘produce or provide what the customer wants’, meaning if your company sells metal bolts and plastic bolts and customers are only buying metal bolts, then the customer is right (about what they want to buy) and that you should probably stop selling plastic bolts.
So how does this translate to your web site?
When choosing the layout of your site it’s important to consider the information and products that your customers are looking for. Put your popular products on the front page. Don’t put your company’s about section on a separate page. If people are visiting your page, they want to know about your company so that information should be prominent. If you don’t list the prices for your services and the number one reason people call you is to ask for a price, you should probably put the prices on the web site. The customer is always right about the products, services, and information that they want.
When one writes content for products or services that they know intricately, it can be hard to step back and try to see what the customer wants to know. The people that make products can sometimes ‘geek out’ over things the customer really doesn’t care about. It’s important to get a second (or third, fourth, etc.) opinion from someone removed from the products.
‘The easiest way to figure this stuff out is just to ask. Poll your customers or clients. Ask past clients why they bought specific products. What features did they like, what they didn’t. What brought them to you in the first place.
Finally, have someone else read and re-read your content. Get them to point out things they don’t understand or things they feel are unnecessary. Be descriptive but not too wordy. Get them to look over your site and ask them to find the things your clients commonly search for. If it takes them more than a minute and more than two clicks, you need to re-evaluate your page structure.
The bottom line is that if the customer can’t quickly get the information they want, they’ll move on to someone else. Tallack Media can help you write the information your clients want with our content creation services.
