Buy Call to Action

The Eisenberg brothers have made some good money helping companies succeed on the web. Call To Action is a compilation of their years of experience that will help you achieve great online results in ecommerce or any website you operate.

The book is divided into six main sections:

• Planning
• Structure
• Momentum
• Communication
• Value
• Accountability

The sections on planning and structure take up the majority of the book and dive into the most detail. Each chapter averages only a few pages and focuses on individual aspects of these overall section themes.

Since the shorter chapters make for a quick read, it seems as if they were weekly newsletter articles that were pulled together to create the book. While that may be, it does allow you to read a chapter quickly and then ponder how it applies to your situation.

Almost every chapter will leave you with a list of action items for improving your website and your visitor’s experience. You’ll learn how to improve your efficiency and persuade customers to take action.

Some of my favorite parts of the book are recurring mini-chapters that are guidance from industry leaders. These real world examples are often coupled with sound advice that you can directly apply to your online business.

Call To Action will change the way you are doing business online for the better. By implementing even a few of the ideas in this book, you’ll reap the financial benefits.

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Have you noticed a disturbing trend when you go to the grocery store? Your favorite cereal box keeps getting smaller. You probably don’t notice this at the store but the surprise happens when you run out of cereal sooner than expected. You scratch your head and wonder: did I really fill up my cereal bowl that much? No, there just wasn’t as much product to eat in the first place!

Hype the Good. Obscure the Bad.

Companies always seem to market and create hype when their products get bigger. Bold letters and bright colors accompany these changes because they benefit the consumer. However, when packages and volumes shrink there is no fanfare. These changes happen in silence and creep into your pantry or closet.

Delicious Example

The best ice cream in Texas is made by the good folks at Blue Bell. Their packaging proudly states: “still a half gallon.” This may not mean much until you look at the other brands of ice cream at the grocer’s freezer and realize many aren’t the half gallon they used to be.

Your company can take advantage of the mischievous doings of others by highlighting the fact that you’re not shrinking packaging. Don’t take your customers for granted. They’ll know when you’re being sneaky with them and will go do business somewhere else. Don’t cut features from your services. Add benefits and make your customer’s life better.

Customers will realize you’re being honest with them and that their money goes farther with your products. This will win you the sale today and tomorrow.

My wife and I had our first child back in May. For almost the entire 9 months leading up to his birth, we were visiting the ob/gyn doctor for checkups.

The bills started rolling in weeks after our son’s arrival. Most of these were accompanied by their matching insurance payments. However, the insurance company kept rejecting bills for any medical care associated with our newborn son. The insurance company claimed that he hadn’t yet been added to our policy.

Despite the insurance company seeing 9 months of prenatal care, labor and delivery charges for mom, and related hospital stay, they couldn’t figure out that we now had a kid that should be on our policy!

This partly defies common sense and logic. However, I had not yet submitted a form to my employer stating I now had a child because I was in the hospital with the baby or at home on paternity leave. Because of this missing paperwork, the insurance company flatly rejected all medical bills for my son. This caused headaches for our family and increased workload for the insurance company who had to reprocess all our claims. Don’t let this happen to your business!

Pay Attention

Your customers drop hints about their situations every time they interact with your business. Are you paying attention? Can you anticipate their needs based on past behavior?

You’ll see patterns emerging in their purchases that can help you plan your inventory. You may notice their typical delay in paying your bills. Some customers will always buy the same products. What patterns do you see in your customer base? Do you really know what kind of customers you have?

Make the Conclusion

Put the pieces of the puzzle together and take the next logical step. You’ll be able to make the customer successful and your company can avoid lots of potential surprises.

I swung by my eye doctor’s office yesterday to swap some disposable contacts for ones that matched my current prescription. When I walked in the door, I entered a packed waiting room with no one at the front desk. I waited a few moments and a lady appeared from down the hall…

Lady: Can I help you?
Me: I need to exchange these contacts.
Lady: OK, you’ll need to have a seat and wait. (She then turns to walk away.)
Me: What is your role here in the office?
Lady: Oh, I help Dr. So-And-So’s patients which is totally separate from your doctor’s stuff. You’ll need to talk to Andrea.
Me: OK. I’ll be right back.

I then walked a few doors down to check my mail and returned. The original lady with whom I spoke then asked for my name, disappeared into the back, and upon returning told me that they’d have to pull my chart. I did see a person whom I suppose was Andrea busily scurrying about but she never acknowledged me. I waited but when hopes faded of a speedy resolution I gave up and left .

Only Ask If You Mean It

When you ask a customer if you can help them, you darn well better be prepared to do so! It is OK to offer up helpful information to your customer without them having to specifically ask. The office lady described above could have updated me quickly and avoided us having to play 20 questions.

When You Can’t Help

If you aren’t the right person for the job and can’t help the customer, you need to explain such. Tell them who will be able to help them and when that help will arrive. Don’t leave the customer guessing.

Empty Front Desk?

Don’t let your customer’s first thought upon entering your business be: “where are all the employees?” If your front desk is empty or you’ve stepped away from your counter, don’t be an absentee business. Communicate expected wait time or explain the current situation via a sign or other visual indicator.

Yes, You Can Help Me!

Help your customers by setting proper expectations immediately upon entering your business or when you first speak with them. Doing so will help answer their questions, dispel any confusion, and put you closer to solving the customer’s problems.

We got a Lands’ End catalog this year that had a special note inside. They told us they were sorry about some fitting issues with their products. They outlined what they had heard from customers and what they were doing to correct the problem.

In so doing, they reaffirmed their customer-centric business and confirmed they were indeed listening to feedback. We’ve talked before about encouraging customer input to your business. Don’t forget to take action on what you learn!

They Aren’t The Only Ones

Remember when you were in school and the teacher always said that if you have a question, odds are others in the class have the same question? Well, feedback to your company is the same way. For every message you hear from a customer, there are also individuals with the same message who don’t contact you.

When you discover a problem in your business after hearing customer feedback, make a public announcement addressing the problem. This informs all your customers–not just those from whom you heard–that you recognize the problem and you have plans to correct it.

Fix customer-identified problems quickly and keep the channels open for more feedback on your corrections. You’ll create an iterative loop where customer feedback can make your businesses more successful.

The online world is not different from your brick and mortar location. Customers view your company as one entity and not as two distinct departments (online and off). Your business may need to realize this and remove the chasm that sits between your website and your retail location.

Inventory

I recently needed to price lumber for a few garden boxes my wife wanted me to build. Home Depot’s website allowed me to search my neighborhood store for in-stock lumber and easily locate the prices I needed to budget my project. I was able to find the information I needed quickly and without having to drive to the store and deal with finding someone to help me.

When customers need a product from their favorite store, they don’t want to drive to each location trying to find it. Ideally they could visit the store’s website, search the inventory, and then see which stores in the area have that product in stock.

You and your customers win when they can find the product they want to buy. An easy-to-find product will be purchased. A hidden product will never be found and will just gather dust on your shelves.

Sales, Discounts, and Pricing

Too many online stores have no correlation or knowledge of their offline counterparts. During a past visit to electronics superstore Fry’s, I asked the sales person if they could sell me the gizmo I wanted at the price shown on their website. The answer was no because “the website has nothing to do with our store here and is completely separate.”

Your company’s website should clearly state when a price isn’t valid in the store. This is a great opportunity to offer “web only” sales and opportunities to push your products through the more cost effective web channel. However, when you fail to inform the customer about price differences, confusion results.

In-Store Pick-up

One of the major hurdles of online shopping is the cost of shipping and the wait time before your package arrives. Often times it is cheaper to go to the store and buy something than pay for the online shipping. Additionally, customers may need the product pronto and can’t wait for delivery. Don’t lose customers because of these shipping obstacles, let them pick up the product they buy online at your store down the street. Circuit City has heavily marketed exactly this purchasing opportunity to their benefit as a company.

In-Store Returns

When buying online, you never quite know if the product you’ll get will work or even match what you saw on the website. This doubt may be just enough to impede the online sale. A customer friendly return policy can go a long way to resolving those concerns. However, if customers have to ship something back (often at their expense) it may not justify the risk of buying from you.

Wal-Mart, Old Navy and Sears/Lands’ End, for example, let you buy online and return the product to any of their retail locations. You can buy with confidence knowing you can always take it back without the return shipping hassles.

Unify Your Sales Channels

Your website and your store both fall under the umbrella of sales. Both should allow the customer to find what is needed and make the purchase. If one of these sales channels isn’t able to serve the customer, it should gracefully redirect them to the other. They should both work hand-in-hand to help the customer locate and purchase your products.