How to Give Your Customers a 5-Star User Experience

If your clients don’t enjoy a simple, streamlined buying experience with you, you may lose their business to a competitor who can deliver one. And they will likely tell all their friends about it.

This is Part 4 in a series of articles called “5 Fast Fixes,” where we have been discussing simple, often inexpensive solutions to fix five common marketing mistakes that you may be making.

Part 4: Hoops, Hurdles, and Multiple Steps to Say "Yes"

We live in a world of immediate scheduling, 1-hour delivery, same day appointments, and 24/7 service.

The “hassle-factor” is slowly being innovated out of our day to day experience.

But if you make your customers jump through hoops, climb over hurdles, or navigate through a series of steps just to work with you, you may lose the sale.

If something requires a large investment of time – or looks like it will – it’s less likely to be used.

Don't Make Me Think Revisited

Steve Krug (p. 6)

The High Cost of Poor Customer Experience

When it comes to user experience, your brand's credibility and reputation is at stake. And once you've lost them, you may never get a second chance to win them back.

So as much as possible, you should eliminate the friction points of doing business with you.

Here are a few areas of user experience breakdowns to focus on.

Ask For the Right Information

Do you ask your prospects for a lot of personal information up front that you don’t ever use?

Asking too many questions can lead prospective customers to become wary and frustrated enough that they abandon the process.

The Conversion Code

Chris Smith (p. 14)

I worked with one client who had prospects fill out a simple intake form to schedule an appointment.

But this information didn’t consistently get to the call center who actually scheduled the appointments. So the prospects often ended up giving out their information again.

It begged the question: did they really need to ask for this same information twice?

The client decided to include a phone number in all their marketing communications, inviting people to call or text to schedule an appointment - allowing them to skip the intake form altogether.

Since a majority of consumers now interact with brands primarily via smartphones, this change made it super easy for a prospect to simply click on the number to call or text.

Things that increase goodwill….save me steps wherever you can.

Don't Make Me Think Revisited

Steve Krug (p. 170)

Make it Easy for People to Give You Money

The worst time for a prospect to encounter obstacles is when they are finally ready to buy from you.

Has this ever happened to you.....

You are ready to buy something online, you enter your credit card numbers, but the website doesn’t process the transaction. You try again, but the same thing happens. The transaction does not complete, you get frustrated, and eventually you give up.

Now you have to start the search again to find what you want.

And the business just lost a sale.

When someone is in a buying mode, don't get in their way.

Overdeliver

Brian Kurtz (p. 71)

Yes, there can be challenges with technology. But when these kinds of problems end up costing you a sale, you may never win them back.

It should be easy for people to give you money - or the equivalent response to your call to action - when they have decided to trust you and take a next step together.

Give Prospects a Path of Next Steps

Your prospects should always know the path of next steps for doing business together. Tell them what to expect so there are not any surprises.

Here’s an example from a home improvement project:

You received a written proposal for a home improvement project. But it doesn't say anything about next steps.

The contractor calls you two days later asking for a down payment of two-thirds of the project costs in order to start that day.

Hello! Where did that surprise come from?

If your process includes a deadline for making a decision and payment terms to get started, you need to be clear about those. Otherwise, you prospect could feel confused or even blindsided.

People don’t like to puzzle over how to do things.

Don't Make Me Think Revisited

Steve Krug (p. 120)

Be clear about the path of next steps for doing business together, including timelines and payment terms.

No surprises!

There Are Always Exceptions

It might be appropriate to include certain additional steps in a "qualification" process in order to screen out prospects that do not meet your ideal client profile.

For example, I have prospects complete an intake form to collects specific information upfront. The questions are designed to draw out information that can help us determine whether we are a good fit to work together.

This creates a preliminary screening process that saves us both a lot of time if we aren’t compatible.