How important is contact address?

Do you publish contact address with phone and fax in your website? How important is your contact address w/ phone for your business?

Does it really help the business or the site owner in terms of trust?

I am real hesitant in publishing my contact address for various reasons like privacy. I cant publish my phone details because i am not US or UK and dont have proper speaking accent.

what should i do considering my situation in order to establish trust on my website?

Any feedback or advice much appreciated!

 

I don't know what country you are in, so it is difficult to make recommendations as far as publishing your location.

Depending on your country and what you sell, you may want to look at website verification/certification through a reputable third party....not one of these "pay and get the seal" companies, but a real reputable organization.

Here in the US we have an organization called The Better Business Bureau. They not only have guidelines that must be met to be accepted, but are well-trusted by online consumers. Having the BBB seal on my site (2nd site in my sig) tells customers that my online operations are monitored by a reputable consumer protection agency. Also, if visitors click on the BBB Seal on my site, they can see my "track record" and if any complaints have been lodged against me in the past two years, and what the outcome of these complaints were.

Is there any organization like this in your country?

Jim

 

I keep my address up on my website, but I pulled my phone number a few months ago. I haven't found any increase or decrease from adding them and then later removing the phone number. I'm a service provider though. I'd imagine it would have a bigger impact when selling physical goods. It's good to have them just for the basic trust factor (shows you're not hiding anything), but frankly having my number published was causing too many distractions. A lot of what I do revolves around writing, so being interrupted in the middle of client projects by the phone kills my train of thought. So now I only take calls if they're scheduled ahead of time.

 

It always makes your customers feel more comfortable knowing that you are somebody that can contact of needed. Also it greatly depends of the type of your site. If you are taking any kind of order from your website, then its a must in my opinion. If its a blog, you can go away without it.

 

As a private tuition teacher I have to have a contact number on my business card and flyers, but I often have to let the answering machine take calls, I just can't risk interrupting a student learning session with a ringing phone.

That aside, I get most of my students from word of mouth, and an email address or mobile phone number is as good as a regular phone, in fact I actively encourage students to SMS me rather then telephone.

In your instance, I'd advise you to really consider why a phone number would help you, it may be that your site visitors/clients are not interested in speaking to you, in which case a phone number is just needless expense.

Other options on websites include providing an instant messaging address, skype account, or 'livehelp' widget.

 

The thing about having a phone no on a website, as far as I can see is this - the internet is a global village. We all welcome visitors and customers from around the world. However, if they phone me at what is 11 o'clock in the morning to them, but 4 o'clock in the morning to me, they're just gonna get a machine. And when I listen to it I won't understand what they're saying in Spanish/Hindi/with a heavy Scottish accent.
Better send an email.

 

read the second point on my blog

http://joseph.07-designs.com/seo/visitors-into-sales

 

You can solve this problem by quoting the working hours and quoting the time zone.

 

Most people a) wouldn't read it b) wouldn't be able to work it out c) wouldn't think it applied to them d) wouldn't realise that the time isn't the same everywhere.

 

Putting a personal number is not a good idea at all.

 

I have a situation for myself:

I live in country A (Asia), selling items from country B(europe) and my target clients are from country C(North America).

I couldnt setup company or couldnt get any contact address in country B and i am desperate to make my site (finance related) a trusted site .

I have no problem in putting my contact address (where i live), but it wouldnt make sense to my site visitors? would it?

Anybody have a solution?