From clicks to clients: making it easy for customers to book your animal training/ behaviour services
As a self-employed dog trainer or animal behaviourist, your website is often the first point of contact with potential customers. From here, they decide whether or not you’re a good fit for them and, if they like what they see, they take the next step.
Depending on how you run your business, the next step could be: to schedule a call, complete a contact form, send you an email, call your phone number or simply book and pay online.
Of course, it’s totally up to you what you want the next step in the process to be and it may vary depending on the service that the potential client is interested in. For example, you might be fine with allowing group class bookings directly from your website but want to more information before booking in a behaviour client.
However, regardless of what the next step is, the important thing is that you actively help people to take it!
After all, you’ve worked hard to get people to land on your website (whether through SEO, word of mouth, social media, flyers or whatever), so the last thing you want is to lose them at the final hurdle. Unfortunately, if you make it even remotely difficult or confusing for them to take the next step, many prospective clients will give up and look elsewhere.
If you’ve never really thought about this, you probably don’t even know how many potential clients you’re losing before they’ve even got in touch.
So, here are three tips to help maximise ‘conversion rates’ (ie. the proportion of website visitors who actually become paying clients) simply by optimising the process of taking the next step, in a way that makes it as smooth and friction-free as possible.
Tip #01:
Make it clear what the next step is and exactly how to take it
Don’t be afraid to state the obvious here!
Tell your website visitor what the next part of the process looks like and how to get started. For example: ‘1. Click on the button below, 2. Complete the booking form, 3. Choose a time on the calendar to suit you’. You can even add visuals (eg. icons) to denote each stage of the process.
Use a bold call-to-action (CTA) button with clear language that actually tells them what it’s for eg. ‘Book Now’ or ‘Schedule a Call’.
Link the button to your booking page/ contact form/ whatever your next step is (remember, this may be service-specific)
Place this button in prominent places on the relevant service pages. If your next step is universal (ie. applies to all of your services), you can also add it to your website header.
Tip #02:
Simplify and streamline your contact form
Your initial contact form is important but many people don’t think too hard about what questions to ask and simply use whatever was provided in their generic website template. But, if they form part of your booking/ enquiry process, contact forms can really impact on the proportion of people who take that all-important next step.
In reality, contact forms are a bit of a balancing act.
On the one hand, you don’t want to miss the opportunity to gather important information which will save you wasting anyone’s time, including your own. For example, you probably need to know where the person is located, if you’re offering local in-person services.
On the other hand, studies have shown that reducing the number of form fields (questions) can lead to an increase in ‘conversions’ of up to 50% - 66%. I mean, nobody likes filling in forms! In addition, remember that requiring too much personal information can make visitors feel uneasy and may lead them to abandon the form altogether.
Therefore, to optimise your website contact form, consider the following best practices:
Keep the form as short as possible, ideally with no more than five form fields
Only require the most important pieces of information which are necessary at this stage
Use clear and concise language on the form and on the ‘submit’/ call to action button
Provide additional instructions (eg. placeholder text) to support the process
Tell them what to expect next (eg. you’ll reply by email) and to check their spam folder!
Test the form to make sure it works properly and there are no technical issues
Tip #03:
Use online payment and scheduling systems
Whilst you might not want to allow your clients to schedule their own sessions straight from your website (eg. in cases where you want to ‘vet’ their suitability for a particular service first), it’s a good idea to use online payment and scheduling where you can, within the client booking process.
This is because online payment and scheduling can significantly increase conversion rates, by providing a more convenient and streamlined way for customers to book appointments and make their payments. In fact, enabling online payment and scheduling has been found to increase bookings by an average of 39%.
Oh, and there’s the time-saving aspect too… a study by Doodle found that businesses which allow online scheduling of appointments and meetings save an average of 6.8 hours per week. Of course, 6.8 hours a week might be a stretch for your small business (!) but even if it was one hour, that’s a win!
Not only can setting up online scheduling and payment systems benefit you but they can also have a positive impact on your clients: a study by Deloitte found that 59% of consumers say that online scheduling improves their overall customer experience and a survey by YouGov found that 76% of people prefer to book appointments online, rather than over the phone. Who doesn’t want happy customers?
Finally, offering multiple payment options, such as credit/debit cards, PayPal and digital wallets (eg. Apple Pay) helps to cater to different customer preferences and increases the likelihood of a successful payments. In fact, a study by PayPal found that offering multiple payment options led to a 30% increase in overall transactions.
Summing up….
Making it easy for customers to book your services is essential for increasing conversion rates and growing your business.
By making it obvious how to book your services, simplifying your contact form, using online payment and scheduling, and making the whole process as smooth and friction-free as possible, you can provide a better customer experience and increase your bookings.
Keep in mind that even small changes can make a big difference, so even if you can’t implement all of these things straight away, it’s worth tweaking and testing the bits you can do, to increase your conversion rates over time.
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