The Little "Gremlins" That Are Killing E-Commerce (Part Two)
Cliff Ennico
www.creators.com
You can forgive a small Mom and Pop business for not having its act together when it comes to e-commerce. But what if the company is a large one with a multimillion dollar budget, in fact a leader in the field of electronic publishing? That's when the little glitches in a company's Website really burn your breakfast.
Being a lawyer, I always like to order new lawbooks in December, so I can deduct the purchase price on my tax return. Most lawyers do this, and the major lawbook publishers (there are only about three left standing after a wave of industry consolidation) offer special discounts and sales at year-end to encourage lawyers to buy that $2,000 treatise on federal trade regulation they've been dreaming about (I know, I know, it doesn't take much to get lawyers excited . . . )
And so last week I attempted to access my account on the Website of a leading lawbook publisher (I won't mention names, but they know who they are). I typed in my username and password, and . . . nothing happened. I tried it three times, and each time received a message saying "error - page cannot be displayed." I figured that maybe I had forgotten my password, so clicked on the "Forgot Password?" prompt. Within minutes I received an e-mail message with my password -- the same one I had typed in initially.
Time to pick up the phone, and brave the company's automated customer service hotline ("automated customer service" is an oxymoron, like "jumbo shrimp" or "strong weakness"). After six levels of "make your selection" and a few minutes of horrible holiday music, a very nice Indian gentleman named "Al" picked up the phone. I explained my problem to him, and we spent the next several minutes reconfiguring my username and password. When nothing worked, Al put me on hold, saying he was going to discuss the problem with the company's "technical support" team.
In other words, the company's customer service hotline in India had to call the company's technical support hotline (probably also based there) and had go through the same rigamarolle I did to get to a human being. After several minutes, Al got back on the line, apologized for the delay (I can't really knock Al - he was very nice, clearly doing his best, and seemed about as frustrated as I was that he couldn't solve the problem) and repeated to me what the company's technical support team told him -- that the automated "account access" system was down and wouldn't be back up again for the next two weeks.
Two weeks! At the company's busiest time! I asked Al if he could take my order, but he apologized and said I would have to call the company's sales department. I thanked Al (sincerely) for his time, wished him a happy holiday (assuming there is a holiday in India that is observed this time of year), and hung up.
And dialed up the Website of the company's leading competitor. And registered an account there (which I didn't have before). And bought a book that competes with the book I wanted to buy originally. Yes, I could have called the first company's sales hotline as Al recommended, but by this point I was pressed for time and frankly didn't have the patience to scroll through another "telephone tree" before reaching another human being.
For those of you wishing to join the e-commerce parade, here are a few tips:
Your customer is ordering online because it is fast and convenient - any aspect of your online ordering system that slows the customer down or throws roadblocks in her path will be viewed by the customer as a moral failing on your part;
Make sure there is no system "down time" during peak periods of customer demand - if you must perform scheduled maintenance and upgrading of your system, do it at a slow time of year and beef up your "offline" customer support;
If your system is down, be sure to explain that to the customer in simple English (i.e. no cryptic "error" messages) so the customer doesn't think (as I did) that he or she was doing something wrong; and
If you provide "live" support for your Website, make sure your customer service reps know what's going on so they can perform "damage control" and prevent you from losing orders and customers.
It all boils down to simple respect, folks. If you treat your customers with respect, and show that you value their time as much as you do your own, you will find they will put up with the occasional gremlin. If, however, you waste their time and give them the choice of blaming either themselves or you - tell me, which way do you think they're going to go?
Cliff Ennico (
cennico@legalcareer.com
) is a syndicated columnist, author and host of the PBS television series 'Money Hunt'. His latest book is 'Small Business Survival Guide' (Adams Media, $12.95). This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at
www.creators.com
. COPYRIGHT 2007 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
