What are floating action buttons and why should you use them? Floating action buttons are small buttons that can appear anywhere on a website. Most of the time they are floating on the right bottom of the webpage. These buttons allow customers to easily take certain actions on your website. The most common actions are the click to call, SMS and/or WhatsApp button.
I hear you think, why not use a contact form or place your contact information on your website? It has always worked fine, right? Well, no. Most people don’t like contact forms at all. It is a lot of work to fill them in and it takes a while to get a response back. For example: the average time to get a response on your email is 9 hours to three days. The average response with text messages such as WhatsApp or SMS is 90 seconds. So, if a potential customer has an urgent question, they will most likely use something quick as a chat message over a contact form or email. Simply because it takes less time, it’s easy to use and they will get a quicker response back.
Take a closer look at your audience
Every company has a different audience. You should really look into that and do some research. WhatsApp has a huge audience with over 1.5 billion customers, so chances are that your customers are using WhatsApp as well. But there are always people that don’t use WhatsApp, even this company has a specific audience. A lot of elderly people for instance, don’t use WhatsApp. Simply because they don’t have a smartphone, in that case an SMS or Call button would be better.
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There is even a difference between a call button and a chat button, if you look at your audience. The youngest generations (such as millennials) are scared of calling people. If they have a question and the only option is to call you… That will probably scare them of. They are used to using messages and that is why they will always choose a text message over calling. But older people, (age 30+) rather call. They are not afraid to call, so if they want a very quick response, they will probably use the call button. It’s very important that you choose the right button actions. Otherwise, the conversions of your website won’t go up. Most floating action buttons have multiple button actions, some even have up to 7 and more buttons. There is always the possibility to use the most popular socials. Try a SMS, WhatsApp, Email and call button. If a button isn’t used at all in a couple of months, you could replace that specific button with another social media channel. Try the buttons out and choose the ones that work best for you and your customers.
Design your buttons
Some floating action buttons are even customizable. It mostly depends on the brand and if you pay for the product or not. Why is customizing your button so important? Every company has a different style, and that style presents the company. The floating action button should be a part of that design. Have a website for elderly people? Change if possible, the font and font size, it should be big and clearly readable.
You can choose to show the label, but also choose to hide the label. Watch YouTube tutorials and just play with the design.
Use animations
Animations are a great way to make the button stand out. Make it jump, let it move. Sometimes people won’t see the button, because it’s a very small button in the corner of your website. If the button moves, customers will automatically look at it.
Time schedules
Work is work, and you probably don’t want to get messages from people in the weekends or when you are on vacation. This is very stressful and not healthy. Some floating action buttons have the possibility of time schedules. In this schedule you can schedule when people can or/and can’t reach you.  Are you free on Mondays and don’t want to get work related messages? Just turn Monday off in the schedule and you’re good to go. It’s that easy!
