It’s been hard to find customers for a long time, but with the addition of how many busniess owners are available to customers it’s even harder to win over customers and keep them coming back again and again.

So what do customers look for from businesses anyway?

In order to better position yourself as the business owner of choice for customers online, you first need to know what customers look for when shopping.

The 14-Point Customer Checklist

1. A simple website - your website should be extensive enough to feature all of your services or product, yet easy enough to understand for first time users.

2. Memorable compay name - if you hope to be the place where customers continue to return for their needs, you’re going to need a company / website name that strikes customers with force. With so many companies available, it’s crucial that you make an impression and start branding your company as the ultimate resource. While this proabbly isn’t always necessary, it’s something customers want to remember, so you might as well make it easy on them.

3. The about page - the all important about page is one of the most visited pages customers frequent next to the front page of your site, so be sure you have one available that goes into detail regarding what the company is about, who’s behind it, and why you’re in business. In addition, be sure you lead your customers to the next step once they’ve read your about page. For example, we provide a few links throughout out about page - this helps the visitor move to the next step so they don’t become static and navigate away from the page. Funnel your visitor toward your goals, whether they include a newsletter, product or service collection, contact page, etc.

4. Clear contact information - One of the most common areas of interest the bsiness owner overlooks is the contact page / information. It’s crucial for customers to be able to discover how to contact the company - even if they aren’t quite ready to make a purchase. You should also include such information as service hours, phone numbers, email addresses, and personel available.

5. Service / product catelogue - This is the most important area of your website as a busienss owner because this is where you win your customers over and prove to them that you offer great services or products. This portion of your site, again, should be simple yet extensive.

6. Availability - It should be clear what the availability of your service or product is. Letting your customer know what’s acvailable as they browse is crucial to their shopping experience - you don’t want to have to contact a customer and let them know that you can’t provide what you offered on your site due to unavailable products or time.

7. Pro Copy - Customers are shopping on all sorts of sites, including department stores, auction sites (such as Amazon and EBay), and small business sites, so it’s imperative that small business owners are able to keep up with the big fish in the pond. Your product or service descriptions should be crisp, clear, and effecitvie in providing the customer with the information they need. If you present your catalogue along with cheesey or unprofessional copy, you’re not likely to impress any customers.

8. Gorgeous Images - Images are an integral part when selling anything online. Spend the time or money, if necessary, when it comes to your images. Nothing screams “leave this site now” like amatruer images. That said, nothing screams “cheesey” more than overly professional stock-photos - you know, a picture of two people shaking hands, that infamous conference room, etc. Either take your own photos with a high quality camera or purchase your photos from an interesting stock photo company.

9. Standing behind your catalogue - Another important things customers look for when shopping is that good old 100% satisfaction guaranteed sticker. Standing behind your product or service is crucial - if you don’t offer it, chances are your potential customers will look elsewhere. Customers want to feel comfortable when shopping.

10. Easy check out - keep it simple to understand for your customer. Consider a one-click check out if possible.

11. Step-by-Step - tell your customers where they are in the overall checkout process if there’s more than one click needed. Your customers want to know where they are - help them out with a simple overview of the process.

12. Confirmation number - provide you customers with a number they can use should they feel their order is taking too long. While this is primarily to aid the customers, it’s also a great way for business owners to track their products and make sure everything arrives on time.

13. Fast & Affordable shipping - Provide your customer with the shipping of their dreams. Consider throwing in premium shipping for your customers — especially when jsut starting out. Fast and cheap shipping is one of the major make or break decision factors involved with shopping online, so be sure you offer nothing short of the best.

14. Follow up - If you really want to impress your customers, consider following up with a thank you note or general letter to let them know you appreciate their business and you hope they’re doing well. This will leave your customer with an excellent view of you as a professional and your business as a provider.

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