Attention to detail

After watching this week’s Masterchef final episodes, it brought home to me the importance of attention to detail.

Whether you are constructing a prawn cocktail in the form of a garden on a plate (a la Masterchef) or designing a website, little things can mean a lot.  Taking the time to think about how your customer will respond and delight at what they see as well as what they taste might win a restaurant a Michelin star but thinking about the little details could win you business.

Creating a shop window which excites the consumer is one part of the bargain, but making sure the functionality matches the look and feel is really just as important. How many websites have you visited where you get fed up and leave before doing what you intended to do?  How many websites have you gone to wanting to find a phone number and just call someone and its not there!

If you have an existing site, using Google analytics to see how your website is performing is a good place to start.  You can see how long people spent on  specfic pages, how many pages they viewed, where they left the site from, how they got there in the first place, the list goes on and on.  Why not talk to your existing customers, do an online survey using something like www.surveymonkey.com and ask them what they would like to see, and what they like about the existing site (before you change everything!).

If you need to build a site from scratch then think about your customer, who they are, what they need from the site and how they will interact with you.  Look at your competitor’s sites and see what they are doing or not doing, giving you a competitive advantage.

Overall detail is the key, having that little something extra could be the winning recipe for your business!