Back when I was a kid, when you wanted to purchase something, you had to go to a store and walk around to shop. Sometimes I would even have to ask a clerk about what it was I was looking for and why I needed that product. I was born long enough before Google (not too long, as I used Google in High School) to remember when customer service was a person to person interaction. Before search engines like Google or Bing, we had to interact with a person either on the phone or face to face to finish transactions. All activities, from buying clothes or food, banking, entertainment and more. The goal of a business card or a website back in the day was to give your contact information so people could call you or come to your office to close the deal. Today, search engines take the place of the phones, they answer all questions about a product or a service, so you and I almost never have to talk to a person. A website today is a person, it closes the deal for us. Many transactions today can be completed without ever speaking to a person. Take shopping, for an example. For many people, a shopping trip today means sitting at home in your pj’s flipping through pictures. No human interaction needed, just hours of swiping to the next page. We can even tell Alexa to ship us a week’s supply of food without ever having to leave the couch.

I am a business owner, so this change is important to me for many reasons. Let me explain why it might be important to you as well. First, imagine you come in to my store Cut Throat Cookies. You need to order a couple dozen cookies for a birthday party, but you have a few guests with food allergies and you are short on cash. You ask my Cut Throat Cashier if we have any cookies that are peanut free and if there are any catering deals? My Cut Throat Cashier responds with “ Welcome to Cut Throat Cookies. We are located at 123 Main Street in Irmo, SC 29063. Please call us at 803-555-5555” Huh? That doesn’t answer any of your questions, does it? You may be laughing, but if you take the view point that everyone is shopping online, then this is statistically what your website is doing to your possible customers right now.

This means if you are a business owner, for your business to reach the masses, you must be online. Making your business website your hardest working, full-time employee. It greets the customer, shows them to their desired product, answers the most common questions, takes the payment and sets up shipment.  If designed correctly, your website will also cross sale, up-sale and promote brand loyalty at the same time! Your digital employee will need to meet company dress code, using the same branding as you would show inside a store, but it needs to look just as good on mobile devices as well as desktops and laptops. It needs to be written properly to show up on Google searches and prevent any confusion within this entire process, so your customer can quickly complete the transaction.

Next time you are wondering why your sales are low, remember we don’t go to stores anymore. We Google what we need. Then look at your website. Does it speak to you?

Be Competitive, Be Cut Throat.