Clear navigation cuts 'where do I find' calls and emails

Key takeaways

Clear navigation reduces customer service contacts by letting customers find answers, forms and account details themselves. Many calls and emails are 'where do I find' questions: opening hours, how to pay, how to return, where to log in. Track which ones arrive most, then link each answer from the menu, footer or the page where the question arises.

• Tag a month of calls and emails to find 'where do I find' questions.
• Put the top five answers one click from every page.
• Link help where the question arises, not only on an FAQ page.
• Site search terms reveal what customers cannot find.

Why does navigation affect support volume?

Every customer who cannot find an answer on the site has two options: give up or get in touch. For existing customers, getting in touch is common. Questions about returns, invoices, opening hours and login are often answered somewhere on the site, but buried. Clear navigation turns those contacts into self-service.

• How clear website navigation improves user experience
• Self-service on your website: let customers help themselves

How do you find the contacts navigation could prevent?

Tag a month of calls, emails and chats by reason. Mark the ones where the answer already exists on the site, or could. Then compare with site search terms and the pages customers visit just before using the contact form. The overlap shows what customers look for and fail to find.

• Tag one month of contacts by reason.
• Mark answers that exist on the site already.
• Check site search terms for the same topics.
• Look at pages viewed just before the contact form.
• Rank by volume.

• Site search data: what visitors type tells you

Where should answers be linked?

Link answers where the question arises. Delivery and returns belong on product and checkout pages; payment options on invoices and quotes; opening hours in the header or footer; login in the utility area at the top right. Customers rarely visit an FAQ page first.

• Utility navigation: login, basket and search, out of the way
• Navigation for returning customers: logins and reorders

How much time can this save?

That depends on your volume. As an illustrative example, if a team handles 400 contacts a month and a quarter are 'where do I find' questions, that is 100 contacts. At five minutes each, preventing half of them saves about four hours a month, before counting the customer's time. Measure your own contact mix rather than assuming.

When should customers still be able to contact you?

Always. Navigation should make self-service easy, not make contact hard. Hiding the phone number to force self-service frustrates customers with real problems. Keep contact options visible and consistent; WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.2.6, Consistent Help, asks for help to appear in the same place on each page.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: an online retailer's support inbox fills with 'where is my order' and 'how do I return' emails, while the tracking and returns pages are linked only from the footer. Adding them to the utility navigation and order confirmation emails moves many of those contacts to self-service. Where volume remains high, an outsourced team can handle the rest.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses
• BPO Solutions for UK businesses

Support navigation checklist

• Tag a month of contacts by reason.
• List the top five 'where do I find' questions.
• Link each answer where the question arises.
• Put login and order tracking in the utility area.
• Keep contact options visible on every page.
• Re-tag contacts a month later.

• What poor website navigation costs a UK business
• Navigation metrics: proof visitors find their way

Next step

Ask whoever answers your phone and inbox for the five questions they hear most often.