The other day I walked into the hardware store looking for electrical tape. The helpful woman in the front of the store took me right to tape. The problem was we were in the plumbing isle.

When I pointed this out, she apologized and took me right over to the electrical tape, just one isle over.

What was right?

She is obviously well trained and she is friendly and very willing to help. She just confused the different types of tape. I got the impression that she had memorized the store layout but that she had probably not done much plumbing or electrical work.

What was missing?

While I really appreciate her attitude, I always feel better dealing with someone who knows more about my projects than I do. Even though I didn’t need any help, I would have felt better talking to someone who had done some landscape lighting.

What does this have to do with landing page conversion?

The more technical your product, (or service) the more you need to make technical support available to prospects and customers. Technical products are intimidating at least to some prospects. Make it easy for them to get over their fears and frustrations and you will increase conversions and loyalty.

Examples:

A client who sells highly engineered components to engineers changed their “Contact Us” form to “Ask an Engineer” and saw a 24% increase in submissions. Why? Because having spent several years working as an engineer I know the customer—engineers want to know they can talk with someone who will understand and answer their question.

Apple's genius bar is another example. One of the reasons I like having an iPhone is that I know I can get help if I need it. Usually the people in the front of the store are able to help me but on a few occasions I have had to talk with a “genius”. I like that.

The point

  • Technical support is a marketing function: It helps you get and keep customers.
  • All customer facing people need to be knowledgeable but when your prospects want to talk with an expert make it easy for them.