Bank of America has a very impressive on-line bill pay service. They keep tweaking and improving things every time I look.

I recently read some complaints about how Bank of America forces you to enter dates when paying bills. Almost on the heels of that commentary, I see Bank of America updated their user experience to address exactly that issue:

Old Way

Customer had to determine when they wanted the bill sent so it would arrive on time.

New Way

Now customers can just pick when they want the payment delivered.

Less is Better

Sometimes removing a feature is the path to a better user experience. Other times you need to remove hurdles that lie in the customer’s path. In our example here, Bank of America actually removed some of the decisions and mental processing the customer needed to do to complete their bill paying task.

Make it Easy

Continuously refine your product based on customer feedback and your own innovative ideas. However, don’t go overboard and pile on complexity. Empower your customers by simplifying and clarifying existing processes.

I recently upgraded my Backpack online organization tool to their “basic” plan because I found myself straining under their free version. My first credit card statement for the charge had this description:
“37SIGNALS.COM/CHARGE”

When I tried that URL, I got a “page not found error”:

I thought this was a little ironic considering the 37signals guys had written the book Defensive Design for the Web. The description on a credit card statement can often determine if a charge is disputed. A “page not found error” definitely wouldn’t bode well for customers surprised to see a new charge on their account.

So I dropped them an email letting them know of the problem. When I checked later that day, they had fixed the problem but I never got a response to my email.

So today there are 2 morals to the story:

Check Your URLs

You never know how your website URLs will be displayed offline, accessed by users, or mangled by typists. Make sure the case sensitivity bug doesn’t bite you.

Give Thanks

When customers bring bugs or problems to your attention, thank them! It does take effort to inform you of such issues. Showing appreciation will help build a stronger relationship with your customers that will, in turn, keep them loyal to your business.

I purchased a PDA library from Borm Bruckmeier Publishing this week for my Dad. During the download process I was surprised to see the following screen:

They prompted me to “read the End User License Agreement (EULA) before proceeding.” The box where a lengthy EULA should be located contained this simple sentence:

Borm Bruckmeier Verlag EULA goes here…

This was obviously inserted by the programmer (not the legal department) and clearly slipped through the testing process. They did test their checkout and download process, right?

Lesson learned: Always test your web application for more than just functionality. Read and proofread your copy!

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.

Many brick and mortar retail stores or businesses offer online store locators. We’ve recently had a new Walgreens pharmacy and Sears store open by our home. This week, I needed to find the store hours for both of these new locations. Knowing that they wouldn’t be in my out-of-date phone book, I turned to their respective websites.

Store Locator

Both sites had a little store locator link in the upper right corner of their home page. After clicking on this, I saw two different approaches to help me find the store.

Sears went with a cluttered page and confusing instructions. Although the instructions said I had a choice between zip code or address, the text fields were all grouped together:

Walgreens clearly showed that I could enter a zip code or address.

Simple Search

For your online store locator, give the visitor a simple form that allows them to search using the information they have. Don’t force the user to give you so much information that it impedes them from completing the task. Take what they can give you and extrapolate the rest.

Store Pages

Walgreens beat out Sears hands down with their individual store pages. They show address, hours, map, and phone numbers:

Sears spreads their information across two pages. One for a map and another for store departments. Which one should I choose to find the store hours? Neither, because they don’t have that information!

Consolidate Information

Walgreens’ site was most effective because they combined all the information I needed on one page. I was able to find what I was looking for and then continue on with my day without undue frustration. I had but one simple query for both sites. Why did Sears need to make such a production of it?

When you add a store locator to your website, remember to keep the search simple and give as much information about your stores as you can in one glance. Overly complicated search entry and result pages will put barriers between you and your potential customer’s money. If the customer can’t find your store information online, they may never visit your retail location, and you’ll never make the sale.

My wife and I joined online DVD rental service Netflix a few months ago. Overall, I’ve been satisfied with the experience and their prompt delivery of DVDs. I’m sure it helps that they have a distribution center here in Austin!

Shipping

Your company may sell products to customers and ship them via UPS, FedEx or even the U.S. Postal Service. With online shopping, there is always a time gap between when the order is placed and when it arrives. This time can often fill the customer with doubts as to when their purchase will arrive.

Provide Tracking Information

Always give your customers the tracking ID for your shipping carrier. This will allow customers to see for themselves where their package is located at any given time.

Email Notifications

Netflix uses the U.S. Postal Service to send and receive DVDs. Since there is no tracking system for first class mail, they can’t give customers a tracking number. Nevertheless, they have effectively leveraged their knowledge of their distribution network and standard USPS delivery times to estimate arrival dates.

Since I’ve had my share of issues with the USPS in the past, I always have a little bit of doubt when I drop a letter or DVD in the mail. Will it ever get to its destination? How long will it take to arrive? Netflix soothes my concerns by acknowledging receipt of DVDs via email.

On the flip side, when another DVD ships to me, Netflix will email and tell me it is on its way and the estimated delivery date. So far, their estimate has been on the mark about 95% of the time. Not too bad!

Visibility into the Shipping Gap

Setting expectations with shipping helps comfort your customers during that gap of time between a product’s purchase and its delivery. Remember that communication is the key to reassuring your customers:

• At the time the order is placed, set the delivery expectation. If you know it, tell them the exact day.
• Email the customer when their order has shipped.
• Email the customer when you receive mail, a package, or a return from them.

Netflix does a great job of communicating with its customers about delivery and shipping times. What lessons can you apply to your online business?

A few months ago, my wife bought some flowers through 1-800-Flowers and used my email address. Since then, I have been getting spam email from them almost every other day.

They try to follow one of my guidelines for a successful newsletter by having a “remove me” link at the bottom of the email. However, this link takes me to a page on their site stating:

If you no longer want to receive our promotional email offers, please send an email to remove@reply.1800flowers.com from the email address you would like removed.

This requires too many steps and too much time!

One Click Please

Have a “remove me”-type link in your company emails that directly unsubscribes the customer from your mailing list. Don’t make them jump through hoops to leave your mailing list.

Customers will want to unsubscribe from your mailing list for an untold number of reasons. Forcing them to take undue extra steps in that process will surely leave a bad taste in their mouth. They may no longer receive your emails but that doesn’t mean they won’t make future purchases. Don’t kick customers on they way out and they may just come back again.

I talked the other day about iStockphoto’s reminders to use previously purchased credits. While their timely reminders were helpful, I had one grievance with their email content. Near the end of the message they state (emphasis is mine):

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at 1-866-478-6251 or service@istockphoto.com.

Thank you,
iStockphoto

–
Please do not respond directly to this e-mail. The originating e-mail account is not monitored.

So while they could give me the service@istockphoto.com email in the body of the email message, they couldn’t set the “from” email field with that same address.

Setting the “from” address on an email is a trivial programming exercise. Many companies already do this, so why not iStockphoto?

People hit reply

Most users of email applications will hit the reply button when they wish to respond to an email. Don’t force them to use other, more inconvenient methods to respond to your email.

Be approachable

Messages that tell the customer to not respond to an email reinforce the thought that they are just a number and aren’t getting personal attention.

Your automated emails should be sent from an address that is monitored and processed by someone in your company.

The first two parts of this series talked about making your website easy to use and more efficient. These are nice but how do you know if your website is effectively achieving your goals?

To see if your site is effective, you need two key components: goals and measurements.

Effective Goals

User Goals

Make a list of the goals your customers would have when coming to your website. Then review your site and see if you can get those same things done.

If the information is there or the process is in place, examine it further to make sure it is easy to use.

Company Goals

Now, turn the focus to your company. What are some of the business objectives for your website? Is it to sell products or educate customers? Increase leads or provide tech support? Write down the goals for your site.

Balance

It is important to maintain balance in your goals for both your customers and business. Company goals can’t overshadow the customer needs and the customer experience must incorporate elements that lead to your business objectives.

Effective Measurements

Can you tell if you are reaching your corporate goals for your website? You’ll need to incorporate some reporting tools so you know exactly what is going on with your website.

With accurate reporting in place, you can compare reality with what you’ve recorded as your company and user goals. Seek out the discrepancies and focus in on what could be improved. Continually tweak and enhance your website so it can become a truly effective extension of your business.

In part 1 of this series, I mentioned that your website must be easy to use. However, just because it is easy, doesn’t mean it is efficient.

Improved efficiency means getting big results from minimal effort and work. Your website should be efficient to both you and your customers.

Customer Efficiency

Because visitors to your site don’t have to drive to your store or office, your website could be considered efficient. However, let’s not stop there. Your site should help your customers:

• Save time
• Save money
• Find what they are seeking quickly
• Answer their questions
• Provide them the information they need to make the decision you want them to take

Company Efficiency

The beauty of ecommerce is that it is automated. Your website should be an efficiency gain for your company, not a burden. Not surprisingly, there is some overlap here with what a customer needs. Whereas your customers need your website to be efficient one at a time, you need things to be efficient on a larger scale. Your site should:

• Save you time - you can automate processes that you currently do manually
• Save you money - by automating your sales process, customer accounts, etc. you can do more with less overhead.
• Make you money
• Be scalable - can it handle 1 customer as easily as 1000?
• Work while you are sleeping - Your store or office doesn’t have to be open all day to serve your customers. Leave that to your website.

When your website is efficient, your customers are empowered and you reap the benefits. Examine the points above and see if your ecommerce solution is really as efficient as it needs to be.