Issue #018- Customer Care: Being Prepared for Errors and Website Abandonment

Powerhouse Linking Seminar

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Written by Scottie Claiborne © 2005

Does your website take care of its visitors, or does it send some of them away in frustration? Companies that really don't care toss phrases like "customer care" around so loosely these days that it's a phrase that has lost it's meaning. I guess they think if they say they care, you'll believe them. But when you need care is when things have gone wrong and often, there are no plans in place to handle errors.

We expect our websites to respond consistently to every visitor, but the truth is that sometimes things are out of our control or we can't fix an issue as quickly as we'd like. How much effort have you put into making sure you are taking care of customers when things go wrong?

On a recent flight, I got stuck in the dreaded United Airlines concourse G at Washington-Dulles airport. This outdated, horribly unorganized barn of a terminal was worse than usual- all the planes were held up for 30 minutes or more. There was hardly any room to stand as more and more confused people poured into the terminal expecting to board a flight. This was made worse by the fact that the monitors all displayed incorrect departure info and gave no indication that things had changed.

When you have issues on your site, such as slow response time or out of stock items, do you have friendly error messages to let the customer know what's going on? If a process takes a while to complete, do you offer a "wait screen" that lets them know it will be a few minutes and asks them to please wait?

The incorrect information caused huge backups at the gate as people tried to find out what was going on, worried that they had missed their flights. The irritated agents kept repeating over the loudspeaker that they were NOT boarding flights and NOT to approach the deck until your flight was called. They never told us why we were being held up or what to expect- they basically just told us to stop bothering them.

When you do have errors on your website, do apologize for the error and give visitors a chance to report it? Or does your site "have an attitude" with messages like "If you are unsure on how to use this feature, please read our help files" which implies that the user has done something wrong?

In the confusion and chaos, the airline overlooked announcing my flight. I and 9 other passengers who had followed the rules and "waited for our flight to be called" were left behind. The aggressive passengers who had crowded the desk heard the gate attendants say it was time to board.

Are you leaving visitors behind? Is a 404 error rate of 2%-10% acceptable to you? If you have broken pages or links on your site, fix them! The more aggressive users will continue to look for what they want, but many will assume the page doesn't exist, since that is what your server told them.

Your logfiles will show how many 404 errors you are receiving and a free tool like Xenu's Link Sleuth will show you broken links, both internal and external. ANY visitors left behind are too many. Include a site map on your 404 error page to help users find the page they were seeking.

We were told to go to "Customer Care" to re-book our flights. We tried the bank of direct service phones… but there was no answer. The service center was closed, apparently. We queued up for the ONE service attendant who was trying to handle over 30 aggravated customers, each of whom wanted to complain loud and long about their treatment.

We waited 45 minutes and the service agent helped 2 clients. We were then told the terminal was shutting down and we'd need to go get in the main customer service line in the primary terminal. On arriving in the main terminal, we were preceded by another 20 or so angry customers who had already been waiting for THAT single agent for an hour.

When you offer users options for help, how quickly do you respond? Live chat assistance is annoying if it's never turned on, and emails that aren't returned in 24 hours or less make a bad situation even worse. Remember that websites are accessible around the world, not just in your time zone. Make it clear what hours you are available for assistance and what the expectations are for off-hours help response.

As a contrast to United's "it's-your-own-fault-you-missed-the-plane-we'll-get-to-you-when-we-get-to-you" attitude and their reliance on human help, Delta takes care of everything with technology. When my connecting flight was late arriving in Atlanta, I arrived at the gate to find I'd already been booked and confirmed on the next flight out. I was pointed to a bank of scanning machines where I passed my missed boarding pass under the laser and in seconds, it printed a new, updated boarding pass. A uniformed agent was available to help, polite and pleasant, and apologized to me for the inconvenience.

You can minimize a bad situation by being prepared, letting users find their own answers, and automating as many processes as possible. If you have significant user issues that regularly require attention, maybe it's time to upgrade your technology and fix it. Remove the need for humans and let people find the information they need on their own instead of waiting for you to get back to them. Implement a knowledge database or at the very least, have a comprehensive FAQ page. Focus on making the answers easy to find.

No one wants errors, delays or confusion on their site, but ignoring the fact that "things" happen leaves your visitors abandoned, annoyed, and confused. It's not much better than an airline blaming passengers for their screw-ups!

Errors do happen and while you can't have a 100% error-proof site, you can show your customers that you do care by communicating with them promptly and in a friendly manner, giving them alternatives, letting them find their own answers, automating as much as you can and testing your system regularly. Customer feedback is gold- the complaints will help your business a lot more than the compliments! Take customer feedback seriously and show your customers that you really do care.

Scottie Claiborne is the Web Marketing Strategist for Right Click Web Consulting and the facilitator of the Successful Sites Newsletter. She is a speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conferences and the High Rankings Seminars as well as the administrator of the High Rankings Forum. She avoids the Washington-Dulles Airport at all costs, after spending the night on a bench there.

High Rankings Seminar

Learn web marketing from the top experts in the industry at this two-day seminar in Philadephia. Jill Whalen, Christine Chuchill, Debra Mastaler, Karon Thackston, Matt Bailey, Dan Thies, and Scottie Claiborne teach this comprehensive course. Registration available soon!

Written by Kim Krause Berg, © 2005

There is a certain similarity between human relationship breakups and web site abandonment:

"Why do they always leave me?"

"What am I doing wrong?"

"It wasn't what I thought it was supposed to be."

"I tried so hard to make it work!"

"I just never found what I was looking for."

"Boy, was I ever taken for a ride! I was so fooled by what I was told."

The good news is that making a good first impression with your web site visitors is much easier than preparing for a blind date. For starters, you can be surfing in your pajamas, no makeup or with "bed-head" and the web site won't laugh its head off at you.

For good web design, you should have a good idea ahead of time about who will be knocking on your web site door. You need to be ready with at least one critical thing they're looking for.

Moreover, it has to be quick and easy for your visitor to figure out. Things like who you are, why you're better than your competitors, and how to buy something make for positive first impressions.

Don't Lie to Me

Speaking on behalf of web sites only, not as a relationships counselor, one of the biggest turn offs web site visitors have is dishonesty. It comes in many forms. For example, any job search in Google will inevitably bring back employment sites, as well as work from home sites. Here's how one web site promoted itself:

"Earn up to $300/hr. Hot jobs. No experience necessary. Apply in seconds."

Really? I can earn that kind of money without any experience? And my application will take "seconds"? I'm gullible, so I clicked to see. When I arrived at the homepage, I discovered several images weren't loading. I didn't see a link to their "apply in seconds" application, but I could watch a demo. (I wonder how long that would take? It didn't say.)

There were 14 paragraphs with boldface text explaining how people make money with the product, how it's the best one out there, and for a fee (which is supposed to prove YOU are sincere), you can make so much money per month that all your dreams will come true.

Nowhere on the homepage did it say how you would do this. It did mention the product name itself, repeatedly. (Probably for the sake of search engines, not you.)

Nowhere on the homepage did it say why this company could pay that much money to anyone, regardless of their background, work history, age or location. Where does this money come from?

I finally located where to apply way down at the bottom of the page. Apparently, the designer believes everyone who comes to that page is going to read all 14 paragraphs.

Credibility? I could write a long list on all the credibility and authenticity elements that were missing from the homepage alone. I never entered the rest of the site because their claim was the same one made by thousands of other web sites just like it on the Internet.

Once burned, twice shy. But more importantly, this web site didn't persuade me to take any action. No second date for this one...

If you've read studies on the pros and cons of long content vs. short, then you know that long pages aren't so terribly awful. If you can manage to engage your visitor, they'll hang in there with you. It's like if you're lucky enough to meet someone who is funny and a great conversationalist. Once they grab your attention, you want to know and hear more.

Do You Have What I Want?

It takes a long time to know if a person has everything you want. Shania Twain walked through a blazing hot desert in her music video for "That Don't Impress Me Much", tossing aside all kinds of things that didn't impress her. She sang, "Oh-oo-oh, you think you're special, Oh-oo-oh, you think you're something else."

This is what people are thinking to themselves when they download any page from your web site. They're looking for what's special. They want to know why it's worth doing business with you. Who are you, really?

My son wanted a certain popular kids book series on history. To find it, I could have gone directly to Amazon, but not knowing anything about the books other than seeing a few of them arrive home with him from school, I asked Google for help. The search engine quickly took me to the publisher of the series. When I arrived at the publisher's web site, I was happy to find the following elements within the first few seconds of arriving:

1. Attractive, colorful web design

2. The web site name, and a reference to the book series I searched for. Therefore, I knew I was in the correct site.

3. A "Featured Book" was front and center, in clear view.

4. There were three types of navigation, indicating a large web site. But, each navigation scheme had a purpose and a targeted end user habit. The top was auxiliary stuff, such as "things to do on our site". These links would attract return visits such as kids looking for parent-approved games or needing homework help.

The left side navigation was designed for first-time visitors and browsers who are "just looking". Sections for Parents, Teachers, Kids and Writers indicated they intended on meeting the needs of many different types of consumers. Every link described in descriptive terms destinations like "Discussion Guides" or "Mother/Daughter Book Club", rather than simply "Discussion" or "Clubs".

The central navigation filled the main body of the web site and was broken into sections. This is how I learned the Dear America series had several categories. They briefly describe, with well-chosen words that provoke interest, each category and a drop down menu allows the visitor to scan and click directly to the corresponding section inside the web site.

5. I knew I could purchase from this site because of the "Shop" button at the top of the page. It wasn't a tiny shopping cart icon, which some kids and non-computer savvy folks may have missed.

Informative and attentive was provided to convince me of the company's customer commitment and professionalism.

What was missing?

While grateful to have found information on the series, chances are good I'll do some comparison shopping elsewhere, looking for good deals, sales, or even used books in good shape. No pricing information, sale items or discounted items were on the homepage.

Curious about pricing, I clicked from the central navigation scheme on a book title that sounded like one my son might like. I was taken to a page describing the book with a cover shot of it, and an excerpt, but there was no "call to action" link or button provided to find out how to buy it, or how much it would cost. Incredibly, when I clicked on the Featured Book link back on the homepage, I met another conversion dead end. This web site had convinced me their products and company were credible, but they forgot to show me how or where to make a purchase.

I had a choice of clicking around the site looking for prices, or leaving and ordering elsewhere. Armed with all the information they provided me, I could easily find the book at Amazon.

What Am I Doing Wrong?

Every break up usually ends up where someone asks this dreaded question.

For web sites, what you're doing wrong is directly related to who you're doing it for. You're totally co-dependent on the needs, whims, wishes, desires, dreams, financial status, location, age, gender, and personality of the person who clicks into your web site.

Content writing can be an ego-trip, which is why I prefer a third-party be hired to write your copy, both from a search engine marketing standpoint and the marketing one. The number one priority is not to satisfy the stakeholders, unless you happen to have some who understand design goals. Your web design mission is to meet needs, answer questions, and point the way to productive activity such as purchases or registration.

The bottom line is this. If you have something great to offer, flaunt it! Get out where everyone can appreciate it.

Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com, Cre8pc.com, and founder of Cre8asiteForums.com. She's recently found and married a great guy, so she no longer has abandonment issues. :-)

Wrap Up

It's Seminar Time!

I haven't been on the road since April, but fall is gearing up with lots of opportunities to teach, learn, and network!

First up is the Powerhouse Linking Seminar in Charlotte. This one is in my backyard! Charlotte is lovely in the fall but who cares? You'll be learning that all-important, critical skill of LINKING! If you know anything about search marketing, you know that links are pivotal to getting good rankings. Where do you find them, how do you get them, does it matter where they come from? Let the talented Debra, Eric, and Dan guide you to linking success.

I'm producing the event but not speaking. That means I'll be fetching your coffee and handing out namebadges and running to Kinko's for last-minute changes. It's a glamorous life...

But I'll be around if you have questions and will defintely be at the cocktail reception the evening of Oct. 27. Free drinks! I'm there...

Then the following week, we'll be invading the city of Brotherly Love... Philadephia, look out! Jill and the entire High Rankings crew will again be offering a comprehensive two-day seminar on web marketing from start to finish. With topics like SEO-friendly design, keyword research, PPC, usability, webstats analysis and effective copywriting, you're sure to go home with tons of practical advice to make your website better.

Jill doesn't have the registration page up yet (cause she's a slacker) but I should have a link for you in the next newsletter if you are interested in joining us. As always, we'll have a fun networking dinner so if you are in the area and would like to attend, we'd love to meet you!

Fun at the In Search of Stuff Blog

Mike and I had a little fun this week with a post calling people who don't think for themselves "sheeple". We came up with some of our own definitions for forum folk and you can find them here. "Chimpanzeeple" has been a favorite so far, but I like Jill's "cheaple".

Next edition we'll have a fun article on usability and target audience (doesn't that just sound fun? I know, I can't wait either...) and another great article from Diane Aull. That's all I have for now -Scottie

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