A service business sells something that cannot be touched or tested before purchase. This means the website’s role in supporting sales and building trust is vital. A website with a well-thought-out structure and modern design helps to:
- build trust in potential clients
- explain the value of the collaboration clearly and simply
- introduce the services offered by the company
- reduce client fears and doubts before an inquiry
- guide the visitor toward a specific action (inquiry, call, booking)
If a visitor has to think too long about what your company does or why they should choose you, they will soon be on a competitor’s site. A website that does not direct the visitor to take action is a failed sales channel from the start and potentially a waste of advertising budget.
People are naturally impatient and want a simple answer as soon as possible. A website must appear high-quality and modern visually, but its content must be understandable to every client.
To help with this, we have highlighted all the points that should be visible on every service business website.
Information the visitor wants to know
This information helps the client answer their initial questions and provides assurance that your company could be the right solution for them.
1. What kind of company is it?
Within the first few seconds, the client must be given an overview of the company’s activities, unique strengths, and the clients they work with. This way, the visitor understands within the first couple of seconds whether your company fits their expectations and if it is worth exploring further. Strengths may include, for example:
- 13 years of experience, such as Hable’s
- the latest and most powerful printing press
- digitized workflows
- awards from various competitions
It is advisable to highlight everything that makes your business stand out from the competition or at least puts you on equal footing.
2. What does the company do?
After the initial introduction, the website must provide a broader overview of the services the company offers. It does not matter if you have a dental clinic or a law firm—different companies in the same field often offer different services, and it is important that the client finds the solution to their problem. Some companies have a specialized and concentrated range of services, while others follow a strategy of offering everything broadly.
3. What do specific services entail?
It should be possible to read more about each service. Firstly, it is simply logical and essential to give the client a better overview. Secondly, it is possible to write much more about the service—a longer description, a process overview, a price list. There is also the opportunity to link the service with completed projects and articles to increase cross-traffic on the site, which is beneficial for SEO, user experience, and client education.
Remember that a lot of text is not a bad thing. However, you must choose which page to display that volume of text on. A large amount of text on the homepage can be overwhelming, but for a client who has already dedicated time to learning about your company, this additional information is a godsend. People are naturally curious, and instead of directing them to a Google search, establish yourself as an expert instead.
4. Is the service price suitable?
Services suitable for immediate consumption should always go hand in hand with a price list—for example, dentistry, car washes, or gyms. It is not worth playing hide-and-seek with information that is visible on your company’s reception desk. Based on this info, the client can make an immediate decision and, if suitable, proceed directly to booking. If the client has to wait, you have likely lost them, as very few clients take the trouble to return to the topic tomorrow. Buying happens impulsively and often not very rationally.
If the company’s services require more specific information for pricing, it is wise to give the client at least an approximate price range or show, for example through completed works, the type of client profile served. This also acts as an effective filter, eliminating inquiries that are not a fit for your company at all.
5. Who is involved in the company?
To build trust, it is very important that the company’s employees, or at least key personnel, are featured on the website. Firstly, photos of people give the website a more human image, making the visitor more receptive and trusting toward your company. Secondly, it is important for the client to find the necessary employee to contact immediately. Thirdly, Estonia is a small country, and in many companies, there is already a “familiar face” with whom it is very easy to initiate contact. Additionally, high-quality photos make the website design more versatile and add a positive emotion to the site.
Information you want the client to know
This information helps strengthen your company’s reputation in the client’s eyes and makes sales work much easier. It is naive to think that a website is a “magic wand” that does all the selling; rather, it is a very good sales support tool available to the client 24/7.
6. Open up your world and strengthen your expert image
Only you can talk about your business the way you want to, and stories born from experience are very exciting to read. I am currently writing about websites because I have been creating them as custom solutions for 13 years, and if there is anywhere I feel at home, it is with websites. One can write engagingly about everything from dentistry to financial markets, especially in today’s world where content is becoming lazier and more uniform due to AI.
Articles help build your image as an expert, because those who are not experts do not write articles. It is said that you have learned something once you have taught the subject to someone else. Share your knowledge with others and remember that articles are also excellent tools for bringing visitors to the site.
7. Present completed works
Completed works are the greatest asset a service company can have. Anyone is free to promise all sorts of things, but only the best can prove their words with real examples. Completed works are a great way to present your skills and show the solutions your company has achieved. There is no such thing as a boring thing to show. On YouTube, a user who cleans paving stones in videos has 4 million followers, and a skillful result is always enjoyable to watch.
In addition to building trust and showing skills on the website, completed works are also excellent advertising materials to bring potential clients to the site via ads. The more thorough the material of the completed work, the more exciting it is for the visitor to read. Therefore, we always recommend enriching completed works with descriptive text, a photo gallery, video, and client feedback.
8. Show your skills through awards
Awards indicate the level of the company. Awards from field-specific competitions are especially important because they are judged based on narrow and specific criteria. Such awards are important for subconsciously identifying the best among a few potential companies.
At Hable, we proudly display that we have won over 10 Gold, Silver, or Bronze Eggs in the website category at the Golden Egg awards. There are only a few agencies in Estonia specializing in websites with such a track record.
9. Show who you have collaborated with over the years
Since not all collaborations make it into the list of completed works with rich information, it is nevertheless sensible to list all major collaborations on the website. For this, a simple text-based list or a more visual logo cloud can be used. Client feedback comments also work very well, as they allow for opening up the more human side of the collaboration—from good communication to shared challenges overcome.
Actions you definitely want the client to take
All the effort you put into writing engaging copy for the website. Producing images and exciting content to enrich subpages. Collecting and organizing information so that articles and case studies are ready to read. We all understand that the consumption of this information by the client cannot be the finish line, but rather a journey toward something bigger. Every business needs money to function, and we know that money comes from the client. For your website to be truly useful, the client must be captured.
10. Direct the client to contact you
Have you assessed how easy or difficult it is to find the button to reach the contacts? Have you done this in the mobile view as well? A rocket without a launch button is just a piece of metal. A website without clear direction is useless.
Know that no client comes to your website without an ulterior motive. Sometimes they are brought to the site by an ad or an interesting article in a newsfeed, other times by a friend’s recommendation, but they always have a problem for which they are seeking a solution. People are naturally lazy and certainly do not come to someone’s website just to waste time. As soon as the client sees a suitable solution for themselves, your website must be ready to offer the opportunity to get in touch. This can be done in various ways:
Call-to-action buttons
Add a large and prominent button labeled “Contact Us” in the header of the page so that it is always there. Depending on the service, the button can lead to a contact page, a booking system, or open a module where the visitor can choose a suitable time from a calendar. Add similar buttons to service pages and next to the price list.
Contact forms and direct contact
Leave a place under articles and content pages for immediate contact via a contact form or the contact details of the appropriate person.
Calendar forms
There are very convenient forms integrated into the page where the user can choose a suitable time for themselves. For example, Calendly.
AI integrations
Implement various message-based solutions where initial scheduling can be handled with the help of artificial intelligence.
The more standardized and clearer the service you offer, the faster and more specific the way to immediately capture the visitor’s interest must be:
- For example, in the case of a car wash, it is very easy to let the person book their own time by choosing the appropriate service. This way, you don’t spend time matching schedules but can focus on the cars in peace.
- In the case of a dentist, it is sometimes necessary to consult with reception regarding the complexity of the treatment, but the client should be able to reach a call immediately. During off-hours, it is convenient to let the client leave their details so you can call back first thing in the morning. This way, you maintain the contact.
- For a service of a more unique nature, such as a law firm or a consultant, it is possible to let the client book an initial call in a calendar system at a time that suits them, let them write directly to the correct contact, or provide a form that reaches the right specialist’s desk upon completion. The most tedious thing is writing to an info@ address because we don’t know who is handling that email and how much knowledge or motivation they have to help.
11. Give the client the best input for visiting
If your service requires a physical location to function, provide clear instructions on the website for finding that location. Good instructions show the entrance and mention the floor and room location. This can also be shown well visually with a photo or video.
In addition to room directions, it is wise to provide immediate information regarding parking or transport. This makes the experience convenient for the client even before they meet you. You also reduce the risk of the client being late for their appointment because they didn’t know which stairwell was the right one. This problem is common with larger office buildings or quarters. You might know what “Atrium House” means, but no one else actually does.
Bonus! If there is an opportunity to get money into the account, definitely do it
Today, it is possible to pay for almost any type of service online. Many solutions have been developed, and there are more payment methods for integration than ever before. While forgetting a booking confirmed by a phone call causes embarrassment, when consuming services already paid for, the client feels the immediate impact themselves.
We recommend always thinking of ways to turn a client into a paying client already, because although something in your business has been done one way for years, innovative solutions are what change the world. Sometimes only your company’s world, but even that is of great benefit.
In conclusion
All these recommendations have been gathered from creating real websites for top Estonian companies in their fields. I know that by following even one recommendation, you cannot lose, because the success of a service business lies in staying visible, raising awareness, and building trust.
Our team has prepared over a hundred service business pages, and notably, all of them have been completed as custom solutions, with an average of over 150 working hours applied. A custom solution means that the structure and content of the site are based on the specific client’s needs and our recommendations. The website design uses the client’s brand book or a brand refresh created by us and includes exciting design techniques. The website is developed by our development team from scratch, without using burdensome additional modules. This means that websites made by Hable feature modern functionalities, contemporary design, and are fast and secure.
If you feel that your company moves to the same rhythm as the works featured in Hable’s portfolio, but your website has become weak today, then contact us below or by using the large green button in the header.
