All small business owners have one thing in common. We want our customers to have absolutely excellent experiences. That hinges on everything going perfectly – merchandise that doesn’t disappoint, superior customer service, packaging and shipping that’s nothing less than stellar.

Unfortunately, things don’t always go perfectly. Sometimes customers get disappointed. Something goes wrong, and they want the situation fixed. It could be something as simple as making an exchange or refund, or it could be a more complicated situation.

It’s a smart business practice to make resolving customer service issues as simple as possible for your customers. That’s a website design issue. Every business website needs a well-designed, easy to navigate Contact Us page.

On your contact page, you need the following information:

	The customer service phone number and hours of operation. It’s okay if you don’t answer your phone 24/7, but you need to let your customers know when they can expect to talk to a live person.
	The customer service contact email address. Make sure you have an autoresponder set up to acknowledge your customer’s email, thanking them for their contact, and letting them know how quickly they can expect a response.
	Appropriate physical address. For businesses that have a brick and mortar location, list your business address and hours of operation. If you have a separate mailing address, be sure to specify this on your contact page.
	Links to your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. Be aware that increasing numbers of customers view social media as a customer service channel. This means that Twitter or Facebook could be the way they reach out to you with questions or complaints. Your social media strategy needs to include guidelines for acknowledging and addressing those concerns.

Think about the reasons your customers would be reaching out to you. What are the most common questions or problems that arise in your business? You may want to discuss these issues on your Contact Us page. Linking to your Shipping Page, Returns Policy, and FAQ page can answer your customers’ questions – before they have to ask!

Make sure that there are links to your Contact Us page on every single page of your website. You never know how customers are going to reach your website: they might land on a product page, for example, rather than your home page. Easy to find links to your Contact Us page streamlines the customer service process – and remember, the customer who has their problems resolved quickly is a happy customer!