Too Many Systems and Barriers

I got an e-newsletter from a business in town this morning. I was interested in what they had, so I clicked through and got to their site. It told me a little more about the service but I wanted to know the price. It seemed that if I would click again, I would get that. Suddenly I felt like an animal in an experiment but I clicked again. I was taken to a login page where I'd be first be required to create an account before I could see the price. Ok, close that tab - and I left.

A login or creating an account is a barrier. Maybe if I had all my questions answered (needs met as a customer), I would have made the purchase. Instead, I ditched the site and was left wondering. My perception of that business has also changed slightly. I don't understand why they would hide the price from me unless I first gave them my email and created an account with them. Is that a glimpse into how they do business? Do I want to be a customer of a company like that?

I actually happen to know a little bit about this company. They're not a client but I know them a little and know how they've put together the back end of their website. Basically, it's a cobbled together system made up of several "tools" in such a way that they think it's working. I'm actually not sure if they're just trying to save money or really don't know about this problem. I think what happened is that they grew and as they grew, they added in new things. A few years later, they have a bunch of those "new things" all clumped together, making for a very unseamless (is that word?) user experience.

I also noticed that I was bounced between various domain names and the look of the site changed a few times - the logo even disappeared on one screen. Again, is this a glimpse into how their business works? If I did sign up with their service, would I get good, consistent service or would I have to fight to get what I thought I paid for (perception and expectation)?

Fixing the Problem / Less Barriers

Websites are definitely a first impression of a business. Is it the right impression or the wrong one? That's the question. In my mind, I'd rather take that question out of the equation and have less barriers. That will mean more sales.

The key to creating the best user experience often does start with the right foundation. At Webstix, we offer two main Content Management Systems: WordPress and Joomla. Our job when working with a new client is figuring out which way to steer them. We don't want to later find out that we put them into WordPress when they actually needed Joomla because they had lots of big plans for their business and website.

Fix Your Website

If you're tired of your customers complaining about your website, maybe it's time to finally fix it. Maybe you don't even know if you're losing sales because of a clunky website. If that's the case, we can first analyze that for you before we do any work - we can get tools like Google Analytics installed on your site and let it run for 30 days or more and find out what people really are doing. Maybe things are fine or maybe you're losing more business than you thought because of barriers that your website is putting in front of your website visitors.

-Tony

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