Customer Disconnects
Customer disconnects are exactly what they sound like. It is your company doing something that gives the opportunity for your customer to disconnect from the buying process. Everytime a customer communicates with your company via any method, or for any reason, they are judging your company and deciding if they should do business with you or disconnect from the process. How much money is your company spending on advertising and marketing, just to have processes and communications that cause your customers to disconnect from the buying process?
I had to update my credit card expiration date on overture.com (now Yahoo) the other day. There was no place to update the expiration date, that I could find, so I tried to enter the new credit card as a new payment source. I received an error message and was told to call a toll-free number. No offers of another online chance, just call this number.
I don't know about you, but when I am working on the internet, I do not want to have to use the telphone to complete the process or vice versa.
What happened when I dialed the toll-free number? I was treated to phone tree. It was up to me to listen to all of the selections then decide how my problem fit into one of those categories and cross my fingers. Eventually, I got a message that asked for me to enter my account number. Not my login, which I know off the top of my head, but my account number, which of course was not showing on the screen I was viewing that told me to call them on the phone. I did not want to hit the "back" button, since I know this posts to the credit card screen, so I had to go offline and look-up the account number and then enter it into the telephone.
Eventually, I am transferred to a human. Guess what their first question is. "What is your account number please?" "Hey, I just entered my account number". "Sorry, I can't see that on my screen, I need it again."
Hey, you want my credit card information that will be good for the next three years. Why make it so difficult? Why give me so many chances to disconnect from the process? Of course I will still continue to do business with them, but I am on my guard since I don't want to have to call that help-desk again. These types of problems tend to add up over time, and since I don't max out the possible search engine dollars, I can always do without either overture.com or google.com (but not both).
MY PRESCRIPTION TO FIX THE PROBLEM :
1) Let me fix my online problems online. I don't like switching mediums.
2) Toll-free numbers are cheap. Do your customers a favor and link specific toll-free numbers to the correct department directly, and don't put me through the phone tree.
3) If you are going to need my account number, then put it on the screen with the phone number you want me to dial so it is handy. There was no security reason not to, since the account number appears on many of the other pages.
4) If you are going to ask me to enter my account number into your phone system, then make sure you deliver it to everyone I talk to. I should NEVER have to enter it again.
5) Figure out how your company looks from the point of view of your customer. a) where have we put them? b) where do they want to go? c) how can we make it easy?
Answer this question. Is there anything more important than collecting money from your customer? There is not one system in your company that should be easier and have less chance of customer disconnects. Customer disconnects can happen in many ways, but make absolutely sure it NEVER happens during the payment process.
posted by Cliff Rayman @ 5:48 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Got a response before I could finish my sandwich. Apply online for credit cards here and get approved very fast, just like me.
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