Why You Didn’t Get My Business: The Web Site List
1. You require me to fill out a full-page form (including type of company, budget, etc.) before I can download a free white paper, which turns out to be a two-page “executive summary” that is nothing more than marketing speak about your company. (Tip: People lie on these. And, they don’t want to give your their real phone number in defense against bolt-outta-blue sales calls.)
2. You force me to suffer through floating ads before I can read anything on any page. (buh-bye!)
3. You don’t tell me where I can buy your product locally.
4. Your on-line chat is apparently staffed by poorly programmed cyborgs.
5. You list wonderful products, but don’t give the prices, even on the order form.
6. You list wonderful products with prices; I’m ready to buy…and then you tell me I have to download a PDF form, fill it out and fax it.
7. You force me to go through the entire order process, including taking my credit card info, before you tell me an item is out of stock. Then, you force me to start all over.
8. You charge me a credit card “convenience fee.” This makes you look small-time and cheap. (Hint: Build it into your overhead.)
9. You don’t have a toll-free number to call for questions or issues.
10. You spend more space telling me what you won’t do than what you will do. (Multi-page policies on returns, lengthy disclaimers, etc - makes me think you must have a lot of problems!)
Related Posts:
Why You Didn’t Get My Business: The I Hate Pink List
Why You Did Get My Business - List #1
Why You Didn’t Get My Business - The Retail List
Why You Didn’t Get my Business - List #1
Why You Didn’t Get My Business - List #2
Psssst. Want Me to Buy Something?
Tags: sales, customer service, marketing, marketing troubleshooting, web marketing,, web site development,web site design, ecommerce
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February 26th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Good list, Mary!
Here’s my personal pet peeve, a variation on #5: You force me to read through an incredibly LONG (and I mean that) direct-sales style pitch, including all the extra goodies you’ll throw in if I buy NOW, but you won’t tell me how much the product costs until I click through to the order form (hint: I probably won’t - sorry, buh bye!)
February 28th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
As I usually only buy small-ticket items on the internet (I prefer to watch humans squirm in person as I use my amazing negotiating skills!) I find the most annoying issue to be shipping costs.
While I don’t mind paying them (heck, my UPS delivery guy has to pay for those ugly brown shorts some kinda way) I always factor them into my purchasing decisions.
And if one store offers free shipping and another charges $10 per item, I’ll add the amounts to their published prices to get an idea what I’m really willing to pay.
I just can’t stand having to walk through six (okay, maybe three) pages of billing info and shipping addresses and junk just to find out that all the company’s profits are made on shipping charges.
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