SEO
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Copywriting Click here to keep learning
Audio feed[audio:http://www.polepositionmarketing.com/emp/blog-audio/usability-guidelines.mp3]
Sites that are designed to sell products and/or services must go the extra mile to enhance the visitor’s engagement with the website. Shopping cart abandonment (shoppers abandoning their carts before deciding to pay for the “items” they’ve added to their cart) can result in a significant loss in potential sales. But much of that can be reduced when the shopping process is streamlined and geared for shopper satisfaction.
The selling process–from initial interest to the very last checkout page–must be able to grab shopper’s attention and proceed to drive them through to the finalization of the sale. But even after the sell, you must deal with customer service issues in order to keep the sale finalized. Good customer service will bring your purchasers back for another and another and another. Here are fourteen general usability guidelines that will enhance your shoppers overall experience on your site.
Stoney has a relatively hands-off policy regarding what the team blogs about on (EMP). Occasionally he’ll give us some general direction or guidance (Titles, people! It’s all about titles!!!) and he tell us to always keep it relevant to business and marketing, but other than that we pretty much have free reign. And while he doesn’t like to write negative posts about other small businesses, he’s never specifically said we can’t, so I’m going to vent a little and, well, if a particular local web hosting company gets in the way, that’ll be their problem, not mine.
Some of you may have noticed that our CodeMonitor tool has not been working properly for several weeks (actually it’s been over a few months now!). A while back we started having some issues with our web host. At the time, it was on the same account (1and1 Hosting) as our client reporting suite, task management system and this blog. Our site’s started going down periodically and the customer support we received was less than stellar.
When was the last time someone received a thank you note from you? Been a while? Don’t assume that people know you appreciate them or their help. Tell them. You know yourself how much a thank you means — and how good it makes you feel when someone says it. Take the time to thank people no matter how busy you are.
There are countless articles and business tycoons that swear by the mighty thank you note. Management guru Peter F. Drucker, honorary chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, attributes much of his success in life to his early habit of writing 10 to 12 thank you notes a day. Ken Langone, VC and Home Depot Founder states “The two most powerful things in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture.” Southwest requires it in their hiring criteria, “We look for listening, caring, smiling, saying ‘Thank you,’ being warm.”— Colleen Barrett, president, Southwest Airlines.
There are countless occasions that merit a thank you note such as, a nice to meet you note, a new project from a current client, a vendor that has recently done a great job for you, an employee for a job well done or a presentation they assisted with, for people who refer others to you, etc.
Audio feed[audio:http://www.polepositionmarketing.com/emp/blog-audio/social-media-branding.mp3]
Think of all the ways that companies use branding to build awareness of themselves or to promote their social awareness and customer service values. A few things come to mind such as greeters at the entrance of your my favorite store, go-green awareness issues, charity drives that “give back” to the community for every purchase made, TV screens playing music videos or news as you wait in line, and the list goes on.
None of these things lead directly to conversions but they do lead to higher company awareness and the good old fashioned fuzzy-feelings we get when we know that that we are valued as a customer. Most times we are probably not even be aware of these things on a conscious level. But the effect shows as we have a tendency to patron these companies more frequently than the other alternatives.
Almost exactly four years ago, my husband and I decided to check out some new cars at one of the dealerships in town. We had no intentions of buying a new car, but we were just curious what was available and what prices were like. Six hours after walking on the lot, we were driving off in a car that we were never interested in buying. We left the dealership that Friday at midnight, and when we got home, we were completely baffled by what had just happened.
We got had.
Along with the About Us page, your Contact Us page is one of the most important and crucial pages on your site to get right. In fact, the Contact Us page could be considered the absolutely most important page. Even if the rest of your site succeeds in the goals, if visitors fail to find the information they need to contact you then you will bring their shopping experience to a screeching halt.
Shoppers are often hampered if they don’t feel they can get a hold of a real person or are limited in their contact options. With all other areas of the site working, a bad contact us page may cause someone to think twice about purchasing with you altogether.
In Part 1 of this saga, I used my recent experience with a local optometrist to outline five tips for good customer service. To sum them up again:
- Follow up with the customer when there is a problem – unforeseen or NOT
- When the customer is unhappy about one thing, and something else unforeseen goes wrong, do something, anything to make them feel better. In the post I suggested a gift card, even a hand written paper note would be nice
- Don’t tell the customer it is their fault when the product is not right
- Assure the customer the problem will be fixed
- Refer the customer elsewhere if you can’t provide the service
I recently noticed the newest selling tactic for major technology vendors: vending machines. Companies have begun selling equipment like iPods and cell phones in vending machines in major European hotels and airports. I can’t imagine myself using my credit cart to purchase an iPod in a hotel, but I suppose there must be some sort of target that will.
The bottom line with these machines is it allows customers to quickly and confidently purchase tech marvels with no strings attached. This is often difficult to find in the current e-commerce landscape. Many sites require me to register prior to checkout or ask me to sign in (to which I never remember my info from four years ago). All this to say that e-commerce web sites haven’t always lived up to a “quick and easy” transaction.
(Don't wait for the movie!)
E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing & Marketing Your Website Online
