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A few weeks ago I talked about how navigation and content are some of the most important aspects of a successful website.  However, these focus more on site factors.  In this article I look at one other missing aspect.  One that can make or break a website.

This article may hit too close to home for some website owners, but its a story which must be told.  That’s because even if your site has incredible content and is easy to navigate there may be one other important aspect which was not considered in the design:  The customer.

Why customers are important

It should seem pretty obvious but many site owners don’t consider the impact their site has on the sales process.  As I mentioned in a previous article, the web can be a scary place for some users.  Why make it worse by providing them with an unusable website?  After all you’ve got them there.  Now its your job to sell them on your product or service.

But all too often this is where sites fail.  They fail to entice the user to purchase, or they put up so many roadblocks to conversion that the customer leaves frustrated with the whole process.

What I’m referring to here is the whole usability aspect of the site.

So what makes a good site successful?

There are many sites out there that have turned online customer service into an art and they’ve made a ton of money doing it.  The first one that comes to my mind is Amazon.com.

If you’ve never been to Amazon may I suggest going to it (after you’ve finished reading this article of course :) ) and see how they deal with customer service.

Not only can you easily find what you want, from books to music to movies, but they go so far as to offer samples, reviews from other customers and even other product suggestions.  Amazon has mastered the online impulse purchase.

Expedia.com is another one. Not only can you book airfare online painlessly, but you can also plan the perfect vacation using a wealth of resources – all freely and anonymously. 

What is the common theme between these sites and others?  Well there are a few:

First is usability.  They make it almost stupidly easy to use the site.  I mean, if you can’t buy from Amazon or Expedia then there’s something wrong.

Second, they listen to their customers, and learn from their online habits.  How do you think the whole “people who bought this also bought...” area developed?  Because Amazon saw that when people browsed and bought online it wasn’t a matter of search – find – purchase.  It was a more random process:  Search – read – add to cart – search some more – add to cart – search some more – read – search some more – read - add to cart – checkout.  They soon realized that they could track these online interactions and use them to help other customers find similar products.

These are companies that know their customer so well, they can often tell the customer what they want before they even know it.

That’s great but, how do I apply it to my site?

While Amazon and Expedia have mastered the art of online sales, they don’t share their secrets.  However, simply browsing their site and trying to complete some transactions can provide great insight into what they’ve discovered.

So let’s take a closer look at how they do it.

When you create a new account at Amazon (so they can “help” personalize your experience) you are only asked for a few bits of personal information – an email address, a password and your birth date.

I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to have to fill out a form with dozens of fields, perhaps multiple pages long, just to get a “free” pdf.  To me this isn’t really free, if I have to give all this personal information.  That’s the cost to me – that information.

Once I signed into my new Amazon account I’m presented with some “hot” titles.  But for the purposes of this article, I chose to browse DVD’s.  The first one I saw was the first season of “Lost” on DVD.  I can pre-order it.  How nice is that – knowing that I can pre-book a copy of this?  But I just added it to my “wishlist”.  As soon as I did that, I was presented a list of other DVD’s which “people who ordered Lost also purchased.” And you know what?  The list was other shows my wife or I like – Alias, Desperate Housewives, Lord of the Rings Trilogy and more.  As I add more and more selections to my wish list, the list of available selections also changes – refining itself based on those I’ve already chosen.

With one selection, from my account that I had just created a minute before, I was already presented with a list of DVD’s that I was interested in.

And Amazon makes the entire checkout process painless as well.  They don’t need to know my phone number, spouses name, child’s birth date, or any other information which isn’t relevant to me pre-ordering my copy of “Lost.”

I didn’t get sent to another site to complete the purchase, and my purchase did happen on a secure server.  Amazon made it extremely easy for me to spend money.

And that’s what it comes down to – making it easy for your customers to spend money on your site.

By throwing up roadblocks like asking for too much information too early in the relationship, or asking for too much before the deal is complete, you are risking people leaving the site without purchasing.

Figure out what the minimum required information is needed for the various stages of the purchase.  For example, if you need visitors to sign in to view your catalog – be sure that its clear, and then only ask them for the basic information – such as email address and preferred password.  Perhaps consider creating a “mini-catalog” with smaller images and briefer descriptions that a visitor doesn’t have to sign in to, and then encouraging users to sign in to view the full catalog.

Later on, when it comes to pricing information, you can then ask for a little more information such as shipping address, in order to provide them with accurate pricing.

You shouldn’t have to ask for any credit card information until the person is ready to buy and not before.

Take your cues from sites like Amazon: They didn’t need much for me to be able to start browsing.  In fact, they didn’t even need me to log in, however to receive more personalized results, I chose to sign up.

And they didn’t need any more information from me until I was ready to buy.

Plus they also offered added benefits, such as other product choices, reviews and more.  All to help make my purchase decision easier.

One other thing to note:  Anywhere they wanted more information, there were plenty of links to pages explaining quite clearly why then wanted the information, as well as many clearly defined links pointing to their privacy policy.

They are ensuring that their customers are very well informed on the whole process, helping to reassure them that they are a worthy online business.

This raises another issue – online worthiness.  Why is your site more worthy than your competitors?  Sure you may be able to tell me, but does your site?  And how do I trust what you or your site says?

Let me put it another way.  Do you have a mechanic for your vehicle? Why did you chose the mechanic?  Likely you received a recommendation from a friend or family.  Online is no different.  Customer testimonials can go a long way to helping reassure potential customers that you are indeed a worthy online business.

As you can see, there are common themes with all successful sites:  They make the site easy to use, they remove barriers to sales, and they reinforce their worthiness to their customers.

If you follow these same rules, you too can have a successful online business.

And don’t forget – I’ve only referred to 2 sites here – Expedia and Amazon.  But there are many others which have the whole customer service process nailed.  Don’t be afraid to use their sites to see what they do to be so successful.  You don’t necessarily have to buy something (unless you want to of course) but do take the time to act as one of their customers and be critical of their process. 

Try and complete a purchase, from browsing to buying and see what you think of the whole process.  Be sure to take notes if there’s something there you like because chances are your customers will like that part of the process as well, therefore you can likely incorporate it into your site.

In the end, the web can be a valuable resource when you need to take the time to critique your online sales process as you can take cues from the ones who have already proved themselves online.  And don’t be afraid to be critical of your own site, after all your customers will be.