One of my biggest peeves is the phrase, “Just go to our website.”
I see this all the time on Facebook. A potential prospect will go to the Facebook page and ask a question about the process for becoming a customer and the response from team is to say, “Just go to our website. All the information you need is there.” Often in the tone of, “Who are you to bother me?”
This is garbage.
It’s a sign that you don’t really care, and that you aren’t invested enough in social media to be able to offer real value.
If a person asks you a question on social media have the decency to response with an ACTUAL answer.
The reasons you shouldn’t just pass them off are two-fold.
First, most websites suck. Sure many look great, but many organizations just haven’t spent the time to properly think about making their sites easy to use or easy to find information on. Additionally they likely haven’t invested in proper content development to ensure that their pages convey the information accurately. Instead they treat their site as the dumping ground of miscellaneous crap. And dumping a potential customer into that crappy site isn’t helping anybody.
Second, instead of treating your marketing like an expense, treat it like one of your most valuable assets. And, instead of treating your customers like ‘annoyances that need to be guided to some shitty point of customer service’, consider answering their questions.
A question on Facebook is a potential sale. Make it happen right there.
Can you imagine a retail operation where the salesperson answers an in-person question with, ‘Just go to our website?’
Of course not…they do everything to convert the customer right there.
So why would you do this on social media?
P.S. If that isn’t possible, send them the direct URL to the information. At least that way they won’t get lost along the way. It’s still crappy…but less crappy than the alternative.