Here are some implementation techniques the Encentiv Customer Success Team has found most useful while working with our customers. All of these techniques are intended to increase usage, improve the customer experience, and make rebate data more easily accessible to your customers.
1. Add messaging above the tools to explain how to use it and the benefits
This is an important one. Since this is a new tool on your website, if you don’t explain how to use it your site visitors won’t know what to do or why they should be using it and they could bounce off the page. Make sure to use plenty of white space between the instructions and benefits to give the elements room to breathe visually. Putting too much text together can be overwhelming to visitors so be sure to keep the copy concise and to the point.
2. Make sure it’s visible and easy to find on your homepage and other pagesPlace the Rebate Finder or the Payback Calculator on a page that is easy to navigate to from the homepage.
Call it out in your navigation menu. If you have a ‘resource center’ on your site, that’s the perfect place for a tool like this to be added. Add it as a separate option in the navigation menu under Resources or if the visitor clicks on Resources in the menu have the widget on that page. You can even add it as a standalone menu item.
3. Internal linkingGo through your entire website from the perspective of a visitor and ask yourself “Where would knowing utility program information and rebate estimates be helpful?” Use messaging like ‘find utility rebates in your area.’ The links could be in the form of buttons, text, or images. Another option would be to add a popup on certain pages on your site. But remember to keep it simple to boost conversions and avoid overwhelming them with too many options.
If you have product pages on your site you can use pre-populated links to direct them to the widget with all the fields populated, showing them the available rebates for the product they were just looking at. The share button is the easiest way to create a pre-populated link. This also gives you increased visibility into what products are being looked at in the widget when you look at the metrics in your portal reporting.
Learn more about the Share button here.
BONUS2 Alternative Implementation Techniques
1. Product mode is for website pages with a single model number or DLC® listing.
While this technique does require more work, it is beneficial for your site visitors because they can see available rebates right on the product page. To make it easiest to implement this, it’s helpful to have a database of product information that includes the model number as it’s listed on the DLC, the typical wattage of a fixture that the product would replace, and the operating hours. If you have a database available with this kind of information, you can dynamically create the widget for the product pages.
If you can’t generate website pages dynamically, this technique will take some time. However, once this is completed it is well worth it and doesn’t require much maintenance unless you add new products (at that time you will have to create new pages).
2. If you have pages on your site dedicated to limited groups of products (product categories, product families, or product lines), you can restrict the Rebate Finder view to only show those products and embed it directly onto those pages, making it much easier for users to find rebates for the products they care about.
This saves customers time by not making them navigate to your Widget, but instead showing the rebates right there. You know what products they’re looking at, so show them the rebates for those products! All they’ll need is a zip code since you’ve already determined which products are displaying. Having all this information on one page for customers to see allows them to get the whole picture at once rather than bouncing around your site.