UCD Concepts

I stumbled across a great new blog (maybe it’s only new to me) called Palmer Web Marketing.  They have a 25 Ways Series that is very thought provoking and something I will certainly blog about in the near future.

Now back to the reason for this post. 

I was reading a guest post by Justin Palmer on Get Elastic called Losing Customers at the Register: 12 Checkout Blunders.  This is an excellent article for those of you in e-commerce that have anything to do with the checkout process.

Justin talks about 12 checkout blunders that attribute to the loss of customers at the register.  While many of these are refreshers for some, this article might spark some interest in others that may be starting in e-commerce.

Get Elastic is one of my favorite blogs for e-commerce usability tips and statistics.  I find that a good majority of posts they present (whether big or small), really provide valuable insight into the many problems that online retailers face.

Since I don’t yet know the rules and etiquette of quoting articles from other blogs (I just started blogging), I am going to only name the 12 areas and allow you to follow the link to read the article.

1. Unfriendly Credit Card Errors
2. Login
3. Default Credit Card Type Selected
4. Cancel Buttons
5. Up-selling or Cross-selling
6. Disclaimers, Explanations, and Warnings
7. Insecure Page Errors
8. Only One Payment Type
9. Dead End Receipt Pages
10. Hiding Additional Charges
11. No Prominent 1-800 Number
12. Product Stockouts

Please be sure to check out the comments at the bottom of the article.  I find those that participate in the comments sometimes have a different point of view and call out things that the author may have missed.

I added my own comment regarding #11 - No Prominent 1-800 Number because I am of the mindset that companies need to balance the user experience with what they can justify in cost to provide - meaning that if a company cannot afford the staff to handle the volume of calls the experience will become sour fast.  There are very few times you will ever hear me say that, but how would you like it if you called an (800) number and went through the multiple phone paths only to find out that there is no rep available to help you?

Personally, I would much rather avoid that experience as much as possible.  There are other alternatives that can be cost-justified such as Click to Chat.  Retailers using Click to Chat can allow one rep to handle multiple help inquiries simultaneously while a phone rep can usually handle only one request at a time.

That alone should help justify the technology, but let’s look at it from another angle.

The call center can continue to provide phone service along with the Click to Chat and possibly cut down their daytime calls if users have the second option.  The reduction of calls could then be seen as a possible increase with customer satisfaction which should lead into an increase in conversion over time. 

Clik to Chat can also be the “after hours” contact method allowing a fraction of reps for maximum handling of help inquiries and allowing for a 24/7 customer service for all those night time shoppers.

It could be a win/win situation for everyone involved.  Maybe I will visit this topic again in the future with additional information.  If you would like to read more about Click to Chat or Live Chat as a sales tool, check out this article at Internet Retailer called Let’s talk Once seen as a customer service option, live chat has become a sales tool

Again, the link to the article is Losing Customers at the Register: 12 Checkout Blunders and I promise it will give you something to think about.  Maybe it will remind you of something that happened at your online store in recent months.

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