It is impossible to put an exact figure on how many websites exist. The Netcraft site reports that in June 2005, there was a massive 64,808,485 sites. It is not surprising then, that with such a vast amount of websites live, it is difficult to know which ones to trust. Usability guru Jakob Nielson comments:

“Anyone can put up a site, and increasingly anybody does…..As a result users don’t quite know what to make of information retrieved from the web.”

A simple and often overlooked method of reassuring website visitors is the inclusion of company contact information. This provides users with a tangible aspect of the website and enables customers to verify that your business really exists.

In simplistic terms, not including contact details can be construed by users that whilst you want them to look at your site, you don’t want to help or be contacted by them. If you were in a shop, you would expect to be able to ask for assistance (and probably leave if there was no one to help); the same is true on the web.

Of equal importance for users is the communication channel for consumers to contact your company. Many sites fail to provide a ‘contact us’ method, and of the ones that do, they often don’t provide an indication of how long it will take for them to respond. In recent user testing conducted by UsabilityOne, one participant described their thoughts after using online assistance:

“It doesn’t give me any indication of when they will get back to me, so I would just phone instead.”

In this case, not including a response time results in an extra call to the call centre.

Response times can of course be used to your advantage. One example, which is especially appealing to the evermore time-poor consumer, is the ANZ bank’s recent promise that within just 60 seconds, a bank representative will get back to you with the outcome of your online credit card application.

Intrinsically, providing an indication of when to expect a response, users are more likely to be prepared to wait, ultimately reducing call centre volume.

Response times also help consumers differentiate your company from a competitor. For example, department store Myer aims to respond to customer enquiries within 24 hours (Monday to Friday business hours), while David Jones gives no indication of response time. Whilst David Jones may reply more quickly than Myer, as no indication is given you might expect more people to use Myer.

Ideally, once an enquiry has been made, website features should confirm the response time, either through email or the confirmation screen, or both.

Finally, it is important to adhere to these expected times or inform the user if it is likely to take longer - nothing is more frustrating than waiting for a response that never comes.

In summary, I would like to leave you with the thoughts of leading customer service specialist, Chris Daffy, stressing the importance of meeting customer needs on the Internet:

“…I am therefore convinced that the age old basics of customer relationships are as effective and powerful today as they ever were - even in the new fast moving e-business environment"