Why How-To Guides Are the Latest Must-Have for Digital Businesses
Over the last few years, eCommerce has exploded onto the scene in dramatic fashion. With internet access and adoption rapidly increasing around the world, the number of online shoppers has soared – and this trend shows no sign of abating in 2022.
In 2020 alone, more than two billion people purchased goods or services online. For businesses, there is a natural consequence of people buying on the internet: to secure their custom, brands must also have a presence on the world wide web.
This comes with many challenges, which must be combatted head-on to secure online success. What it might surprise you to learn is that how-to guides could be a simple solution to several of these. Here, we look at why they’re the latest trend to go viral in the competitive world of eCommerce.
They Reduce Customer Interactions
Almost every successful online business now has how-to guides on its website. It’s a successful means of interacting with the customer across an extremely broad variety of sectors. There’s a clear and detailed guide to real money casinos on this directory site, for example. Explaining in simple terms how to choose the best option for real-money play, it answers nearly every query that might need resolving when shopping around online. The effectiveness of the how-to guide is why it’s so broadly adopted, from how to buy cryptocurrency, buying a used car, or technical assistance.
The natural consequence is that how-to guides reduce customer interactions, as many of these are made redundant. For businesses, this means less time spent answering the same repetitive questions and a service team that can focus on more complex and time-intensive queries instead. This has the knock-on effect of allowing staff to provide faster replies to customers whose queries aren’t answered in their existing published guides.
They Improve the Customer Experience
Being able to find instant answers to questions has the added boon of improving the customer experience. How-to guides are a form of self-service, allowing consumers to independently resolve many of the issues they’ll encounter without having to contact a human representative.
According to statistics, 40 per cent of customers prefer this form of self-help over traditional interactions with businesses. That’s because it allows them to find immediate answers to any questions they have. In fact, they’re able to resolve many of these before they even purchase the product or service, which also reduces the chances of them wanting to return it after trying it and discovering it doesn’t meet their needs.
They Build Trust
How-to guides also imply that companies are committed to helping customers out. Going to the effort of publishing content to improve the user experience suggests a brand takes a customer-centric approach, which makes them appear more trustworthy. The ability to research a product pre-purchase and find extensive information on how to use it means many consumers feel more confident purchasing goods and services they’re not already familiar with too.
When it comes to how-to guides, these can be a wonderful resource for companies and customers alike. Making the entire experience smoother and more streamlined at both ends, they should be viewed as an essential addition to all eCommerce websites.
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