1. Your customers have a Smartphone!
Here’s the thing, over 81% of Australian’s have a smart phone, yes they don’t all have a data plan but you try and find a smartphone supplier who doesn’t offer this as a standard service. To loosely quote Dr. Seuss’s classic Green Eggs & Ham, where ‘Sam I am’ does not like them on a plane, on a train, in a car on a bus etc., well that is quite the opposite with the Smartphone. It’s stating the obvious but your customers are on their device everywhere they go, they do like them. What does your website look like on a Smartphone? It’s pretty easy to check; you have a smartphone don’t you?
2. Your customers just expect it…
There has always been a lag time that customers gave businesses to catch up on technical changes but the window has closed on this and they, your customers, just expect your website to be mobile responsive, or they’ll find one of your competitors who are.
3. Your mobile search traffic is up and your conversions are down.
A simple review of your Google analytics will show that you are getting traffic from mobile devices searching for the items you sell but they are bouncing off very quickly due to a poor, hard to navigate user experience. The data doesn’t lie; it’ll be there for you to see.
4. Your business revolves around telephone enquiries.
Being responsive allows customers to see your phone number very clearly but more importantly it allows your customers the option to ‘click to call’ making the first point of contact with you near on effortless. Remembering customers are more than ever looking for the most expedient way to solve their problems and enquiries. These ‘clicks to call’ also get measured by Google, once again heightening the overall activity of your marketing efforts.
5. Screens are everywhere, especially on the couch at 8!
Google has some well-documented data on which times and what devices customers search most with. This is either a desktop (diminishing) a smartphone (increasing) a tablet (stable) and a laptop (also stable) whilst ‘me-time’ on the couch from 8pm is rampant with mobile device activity…without being responsive your site is likely to have a negative impact on your business and brand.
6. Portability & Convenience
More than ever before customers want to feel like they’re constantly connected and when the whim takes them they can find anything they want to find. Don’t be a business that hinders this free flowing connectivity that has become an everyday requirement, it’s just part of life now.
7. You have a website and it’s 2015!
Finishing this with a statement from Captain Obvious but the reality is that no future website will be designed that isn’t responsive, so if you’re holding out just a little bit longer before you bite the bullet, all you are doing is putting your business at risk of being left behind. After all if the cost of a responsive designed website is your biggest consideration you’re measuring the wrong thing, it’s really about the cost of not having a responsive design on your business that you should be measuring.