Keep It Simple
I recently saw a poster advertising a charity walk for a good local cause – the hard of hearing. The novelty about the walk was that participants would have to wear earplugs to simulate hearing difficulties.
It sounded like a great idea, a worthy cause and something that I, my wife and other friends could get together for. In all, everyone would get some exercise in the fresh air, should have a good time and raise some money for the hearing-impaired. What could be better?
The poster carried a QR code for registration. Great – they wanted to ensure as many people as possible registered. However, this was where things started to go wrong.
The instructions for registration required us to go to one location with payment at specific times (working hours, luckily) and to return two weeks later to pick up the official walk t-shirt. The problem was, it was only one location to register in an area where parking was notoriously difficult to find. For one trip, that might have been OK, but then to have to go back to collect t-shirts…?
The organisers could have set up registration points at different locations (they had the capability to do this), but it seemed that something else was driving the “single registration point”. It might have been someone’s convenience, control of cash and handing-out of t-shirts, we don’t know.
The three criteria for a positive customer experience are that the experience should:
- Be enjoyable
- Be easy to use
- Meet the customer’s needs
Registering for this walk would probably not have met any of these criteria (although we would have enjoyed participating in the walk itself).
It made me think: if I want people to buy, I need to make it easy for them to do so. I mustn’t make them wait in hard-to-find queues or go to out-of-the-way spots to take action. One only has to look at the process of buying goods on the likes of Amazon to see how fiendishly simple their process is to separate us from our cash.
Is it easy for customers to find your business? Is there sufficient parking and loading space (if needed)? Is signage on the premises clear so that people know where to go? Is the process of paying (or whatever it is that our business does) quick, easy and convenient?
If not, we need to rethink our strategy.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Strategy
posted by William Martin @ 12:10
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