The pulse of Alexander Interactive

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the following Thursday are just days away… Holidays are right around the corner. We’re not looking to change the world here at Ai, but we do want to play our part in making this upcoming year a safe, secure and profitable one. That being said, have a look at an article I recently wrote which was published in the B2C Marketing Insider.

12 Tips on Creating a Safe Online Customer Shopping Experience

“84% of polled Internet shoppers don’t think that online retailers are putting enough effort into protecting customers” (Forrester Research, Inc)

The E-commerce holiday shopping season is upon us and online retailers are busy implementing new shopping features, social campaigns, analyzing their test results, and redesigning their funnels from browsing to checkout.

The experts are out in force: Focus on usability! Optimize your product page! Come up with brilliant holiday promotions! Study the shopping trends! Yeah! Yeah?

No. Don’t waste your precious and ever-dwindling time focusing solely on usability and Ui improvements. Bottom line: If you don’t have your customers‘ trust and confidence, you won’t convert–regardless of all the improvements that your testing results indicated you should make.

This holiday season, make it a priority to ensure that your site is providing your customers with the sense of safety and security they are longing for in their shopping experience. Use our tips below to ensure your customers spend their precious time deciding which product to buy from your site, rather than then if they should even buy from you at all.

Prominent Contact Information

Contact information should be prominent and in a consistent place within your header and footer so that your customer knows where to go when they have questions or encounter issues. Display both phone number and email address so that your customers can contact you in the manner of their choosing.

Privacy Policy

Include links to your privacy policy on all transactional pages. The ubiquitous footer link is a good place to start, but too often overlooked. On transactional pages, make sure you have it prominently called out in the body of the page, above the fold. Spell out pieces of your policy as needed. For example, when asking for an email address, state your email usage policy right next to the field. Best Buy says this perfectly “Best Buy does not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties”. Clear, blunt and to the point. As it should be.

Don’t Hide Costs

Transparency in shipping costs and delivery times is key – especially come holiday season. Be sure to provide all of the actual costs up front, including shipping, handling, and sales tax. These can have an enormous impact on the final price. According to OneUpWeb, 95% of customers want to know the exact cost of the order before proceeding into checkout. There is no better way to put the kibosh on a potential sale than to withhold additional costs until later in funnel.

When the user can expect to receive their package is enormously important as well, especially to shoppers cutting it tight during the holiday season. Show this information as early as possible as well. This is actually a deciding factor when it comes down to those final few days. Shoppers are willing to pay a premium as long as you can provide them with the security that it will arrive on time, as promised.

Return Policy and Shopping Guarantee

Shoppers want to know what their recourse is if their item arrives and is damaged, the wrong item, or just simply not what they wanted. Be sure to clearly spell out your return policy so there won’t be any surprises later. Do you have a shopper satisfaction guarantee? Nice! Again, place this prominently above the fold, and inspire your shoppers with confidence that they can’t make a wrong or irreversible decision.

Anticipate Their Concerns

Be mindful of the various sensitive touch points throughout the purchasing process.  Address concerns before they even arise. If you expect your customers to share private and personal information with you, you need to address the reasons why you need the information at the appropriate times.

• A “We 100% guarantee your safety” link right next to the checkout button, and in checkout header that leads to a DHTML popup with your 100% satisfaction guarantee inspires confidence and keeps the user in the funnel.
• “We will not share your email with anyone.” next to email field lets user know you aren’t going to sell their email address.
• “Shipping details” tied with product, in cart and checkout, makes user aware of costs and availability early and often.
• “You can always change your order later” when tied to a call-to-action removes some of the hesitation associated with doubts on whether to commit at that exact moment.
• Don’t be afraid to invite phone calls. A sale is a sale. Including “Prefer to checkout over the phone? No Problem. Call us at…” at the top of your checkout give shoppers a sense of security even if they don’t plan on calling you.

Apply the Human Touch

Ten other sites may sell the same product, at the same discounted price, and have the same safety features in place. Differentiate yourself by emphasizing a personal touch and telling your shoppers that you completely understand their concerns. Give them that warm and fuzzy feeling that they are in good hands by hitting the emotional aspects of shopping.

Using the right tone and personality makes a difference. It is comforting for a customer to see “Please don’t hesitate to call us with any concerns or questions. Your security is our sole priority.” compared to a simple link to the Help Section. Instill confidence in your customers by speaking to them like human beings, rather than unique visitors, throughout the shopping process.

Your “About Page” and Value Proposition

Part of converting the customer is making them feel confident that they are in good hands. The ‘about page” is an often overlooked part of creating a secure shopping experience.

Are you family owned? Are you quirky? Are you a huge company that started off with two people in a garage? Do you donate a certain portion of profits to charity? Don’t let “About Us” be one paragraph of fluff about commitment to selling great products. Shoppers will see right through this. Be yourself. Shoppers have a greater sense of confidence knowing that they are at a real store run by real people.

Make a Good First Impression

Visual design has a huge impact on new customers feeling safe. Shoppers will form an opinion of your company within five seconds of seeing your home page. Want them to feel safe, and not think you are a fly-by-night outfit? Invest in design. And it doesn’t necessarily need to be award-winning, gorgeous visual experience. The site’s design need to give an instant sense of credibility and trust to visitors. Even though customers may not be entirely conscious of it, good design inspires confidence.

Performance & Stability

A slowly loading page, a site that’s down, or obscure programming error messages can raise instant doubts in the shopper’s mind. It is likely they are in comparison shopping mode, so if they were to leave one site and arrive at a site that loads slowly, or not at all, then the experience comes to a quick end. If they see errors and messages they don’t recognize, they will doubt your professionalism and whether their information is safe on your site. A solid technical implementation is as important as a great design.

Badges, Tigers and Seals Oh My

Seals of approval from TRUSTe or Better Business Bureau Online are widely recognized, but remember that a seal is only a graphic; it can be counterfeited. To be sure, make sure you link to the certifying agency’s site that profiles the merchant information. Also, avoid the Times Square approach putting eight different seals on your site. It diminishes the effectiveness. If you really feel the need to bombard 8 seals on there, all I ask is that you use the animated graphics. At least your savvy visitors can get a laugh.

Sweat the Small Stuff

Be sure your site has been thoroughly reviewed and that there are no misspellings or grammatical mistakes. They may seem tiny, but they will immediately cast your professionalism in doubt.

Security Through Social Validation

Social validation is a proven factor in influencing how people purchase products, and it’s no different when it comes to influencing why they should shop at your site for these products. Customer dialogue, reviews and interactions (regardless of what is being discussed) brings instant credibility to your site. People want to know that other people shop at your store. They want to see activity and not just take your word for it.

Now more than ever, privacy is a huge customer concern. Between Facebook privacy issues, Google ego-searching, and countless ads aggressively targeting hackers and screaming identity theft shoppers are only getting increasingly more sensitive and aware of the how, why, and when their sensitive personal information is used.

As online retailers, it is our responsibility to provide a safe and comfortable shopping environment for the customer, both online or off. The most successful businesses are able to instill confidence in their customers, and adding a relatable human touch. They develop a trusting, ongoing relationship with their customers to ensure repeat purchases and loyalty.Look folks, lets not forget – it’s the holidays! Do your customer and your bottom line a favor by letting them focus on giving rather than worrying. So you better be good for goodness sake.

I called US Airways the night before a recent business trip to ask about a travel detail I couldn’t find online. (I’m not name-checking US Airways just to pick on them; it’s part of the story.) Their customer service is obviously outsourced to an overseas location–I had to call twice, and both representatives had trouble speaking clearly and understanding my question.

But this isn’t about offshoring, or customer service reps whose native tongue isn’t English, which doesn’t offend me. (I certainly couldn’t administer tech help in Hindi.) Rather, it’s about training.

Upon completing my second call, the US Airways CS rep said to me, “Can I help you with anything else today?”

“No, that’s it,” I replied.

“Thank you,” she continued, “for calling Use Airways.”

Use Airways. I headed to the airport the next morning still shaking my head about the woman who doesn’t know her employer’s name. Shortly after taking my seat on the plane, a flight attendant got on the PA system.

“All electronic devices must be turned off at this time,” he said. “If you do not turn them off and put them away, we will return to the gate and deplane you, and you will have to rebook on a later flight.” (Emphasis his.)

My seatmates chuckled at his earnestness, but I just thought about my phone call. In the span of a few hours, I encountered two different but striking examples of poor training and comprehension by consumer-facing employees.

My trips on US Airways have largely been pleasant and comfortable. But what is the brand impact of these employees’ mistakes? How many other people notice what I notice, and book their next flight on another carrier?

Airline flight attendants routinely say, “We know you have a choice.” What they–and their management team–need to say is, “We know you notice. And we’re trying our hardest.”

I had dinner Saturday night at the restaurant in my neighborhood where I eat most. From the first time I visited, I decided I wanted to “be a regular,” and early on we went frequently, schmoozed extensively, and tipped well to get the staff to remember us.
Saturday was a good example of the success of our efforts. The restaurant was full, but the owner put us on his waiting list without asking my name–although I gave it to him anyway–then took us as quickly as he could. He sat us in the front section, with his best waiter, who gave us a hearty greeting and cracked jokes the entire time. Each of them came by several times to check on us and chit-chat.
At the end of the meal, I asked our waiter his name, which prompted him to ask us our names. When we left, he thanked us by name. The owner saw us leaving, came over to me, shook my hand, and apologized to me by name for the wait.
The food, as always, was delicious. But our experience there makes us more and more likely to return (although the vermicelli ala vongole doesn’t hurt).
At some restaurants, only the hard-core regulars get this kind of treatment. At our spot, though, this is generally how we’ve always been treated. Our fun waiter is fun with everyone; should you order the cheese platter, the owner sits down at your table and personally explains the selection.
This restaurant has figured it out: customer service is king. The minimal decor and packed-in seating become afterthoughts when good food is served by a welcoming staff. It’s such a simple answer to a basic business question–how to get customers to come back.
Why, then, is it so hard to execute? Last weekend we ate at a highly regarded new restaurant in our neighborhood where the waiter did not speak to us from the moment we ordered until I hunted him down to ask for the check. A few weeks before that, another restaurant’s owner berated me on the phone when I said I was running 10 minutes late for my reservation. At that restaurant, our waitress actually disproved of our wine selection and told us it “wasn’t very good.” (Compare this to Spiga, around the corner from my regular spot, which let me order dinner twice just because I was an idiot.)
Which led to Saturday, when, in considering our dinner options, we barely thought twice before going back to our spot, which had a wait for a table all night. It’s easy to understand why.

I have never been a coupon clipper but I am an above average fan of oatmeal. When a new internet coupon for Jamba Juice oatmeal came my way, I decided to give it a shot.
This morning I went to Jamba Juice and saw that the person in front of me had ordered using the coupon. Good, I thought, it’s a valid coupon. After I made my order but before paying, the supervisor told the cashier (and indirectly me) that they were not serving any more oatmeal.
It was only 30 seconds in all, but it’s why I won’t be coming back. My experience highlights two business ideas that can never be underestimated: when launching a major product, be ready for the demand; and embrace the need to communicate with customers.
With a new product line it’s best to market-test to see that there is enough of a market for the expansion. Surprises about demand should be worked out in a reasonably run market test. No one wants to turn away an eager customer, but if you under estimate demand, there is no other option.
That’s the case if the reason I was declined is a lack of supply, but that’s the thing–I don’t know. I was just turned away after ordering.
Maybe Jamba Juice’s team would have given me an answer if I would have asked, but at that point I lost interest in buying anything. At the very least, tell me directly that you are not serving. Even better, give me another option. Something.
Every company needs to communicate with its customers. It’s not that important why a customer can’t have the special offer, but it’s very important that representatives are willing to share that information, and not just leave people like me disappointed.

At Ai we offer a warranty on every site and web system we build. A common gripe with purveyors of websites is that companies do not stand behind their work. Since Ai was formed, we have worked hard to overcome this characterization, not only contractually warrantying our product, but going above and beyond in our website delivery to launch sites and programs that function as specified. Most of our clients trust us to be caretakers of their primary revenue source–their websites–and we take this responsibility seriously.
A business offers a warranty for many customer-serving but also self-serving reasons. We find most of our new business through referrals from existing, satisfied clients. We love when our clients sing our praises and share the successes of our relationship with others.
I wanted to share an incredible customer service experience with New York-based Metrokane, the manufacturer of the popular Rabbit Corkscrew. Last year I received a Rabbit as a holiday gift and it has been an almost daily workhorse for over 12 months.
The Rabbit recently began to stick and was difficult to operate. Loving the product so much, my first inclination was to pop up on Amazon, find it, and purchase another one, which I did. Only after the replacement arrived (2-day shipping with Amazon Prime) did I notice the hard-to-believe warranty plastered right on the box:

If your Rabit Corkscrew fails in normal use within 10 years, return it with proof of purchase and $10.00 for shipping and handling.

Lacking the original proof of purchase for my broken Rabbit, I still decided to test it out. I called Metrokane, and the customer service rep not only offered to replace the malfunctioning Rabbit without the original proof of purchase (“You see, sir, we haven’t been around for 10 years yet, so we know you purchased this within our warranty period”), she was so intent on saving me the $10 S&H fee that she suggested I just drop into their office in midtown Manhattan to pick up a replacement. A few hours later (with the gracious help of Leslie and Robert @ Ai), I was the happy recipient of a brand new Rabbit Corkscrew.
What impresses me most about this experience is not only that this company stands behind its products or services; we all have to do that. But the grace and ease with which they allowed me to replace my faulty device and offered to save me the $10 replacement fee has turned me from a loyal product user into a proselytizer. Everyone wins. Thank you Metrokane.