Let’s say that you run an online service that is primarily used by other businesses. As part of the service, you send email reminders to your business customers when their immediate attention is required for a specific issue. Sometimes, you have no control over when these messages are sent, since issues can arise at any time and the emails are generated immediately afterwards. But in other cases, the messages are created based on a daily or weekly reporting period, so you have a little bit of flexibility about when they get sent out.

Now here’s the part that just baffles me: why would you send a message to another business in the middle of the night to notify them about a time-sensitive issue, if you already had enough data earlier that day to give them a proper heads-up? For instance, if you’re providing a tech support application that sets a two day benchmark for responding to customers, and it’s nearing the end of the second business day after a case was submitted, should you really wait until midnight to tell the user that they’ve fallen behind? Of course not. Send them a message a few hours before the close of business on that second day, and they’ll actually have a fighting chance of addressing the issue on time.

In general, if you have enough data to predict when alert messages are likely to be sent, then try to send those email alerts to business customers during business hours. After all, if you’re giving them a heads-up that their immediate attention is required, it makes sense to deliver that correspondence during the time period when they can actually deal with the issue at hand.

A few days ago, I needed to look up an old support case that we had logged with a vendor. Their website keeps a record of all the historical cases, and it was easy to locate the right one. But when I opened up the page for that case, only the most recent set of comments was visible. All the other comments, including the initial description of the case, were hidden by default. In order to make each one appear, I had to click a link to show the original info, which became rather tedious after a half dozen or so repetitions.

Why would this vendor’s website hide so much of the text? I’m guessing their case management software was designed back in the days of dial-up connections, when even a few paragraphs of text could make a measurable difference in page load times. By hiding what they considered to be the less-important comments on the case history page and providing a way to load the extra info with a few clicks, the original programmers probably thought they were doing users a huge favor.

In today’s broadband world, text is cheap. In other words, the cost of adding more text to a page — in terms of load times — is negligible. Customers are accustomed to websites that deliver all the info they need in an instant. Not only do pages need to load quickly on a typical broadband connection, but those pages need to present the information people want from the moment the page appears. By forcing customers to click a bunch of times just to see text that should already be on the page, you’re just wasting their time.

So if you’ve got any really old websites in your stable, be on the lookout for excessive use of links like “Show more”, “Expand this comment”, or “View entire text”. By removing those links and just showing the entire block of text, you’ll give people more of what they’re looking for. In turn, they’ll be far more likely to associate your brand with speed, efficiency and other positive attributes that contribute to long-term loyalty and sales growth.

To make sending holiday packages a little bit easier (and avoid the dreaded post office), I decided to open an account with one of the national shipping companies. This process involved the following steps:

– Create an online services login

– Create a shipping account

– Add payment info to the shipping account

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, not exactly. I also had to skip or ignore several other steps, including:

– Add payment info to the online services login

– Create an online billing login

Clearly, the website was designed to accomodate many different usage cases. This is great if you have a highly varied customer base, but tends to be confusing and frustrating for new customers.

What’s the solution? First, figure out the optimal series of steps that a new customer should take when creating an account. Then, publish those steps in a clear and obvious location on your website, so that people know what to expect. And finally, tailor the new account creation screens so that you actually guide customers through the process. By covering all the necessary steps and removing the extraneous ones, you’ll sign up more new customers, and give them a positive impression of your website from the start.

While sending a package with a well-known delivery service, I came across a comparison table that described various add-on services that they offer. The table looked simple enough: there was one column for the name of the service, and another column labeled “Fee?”. I would have expected the second column to have a checkmark, “X”, or Yes/No text to indicate whether the particular service involved a fee. However, there were only two possible values in the column: a checkmark (or maybe it was an “X”), and the word “Free”.

It’s not hard to see the potential for confusion. As you read down the table, your mind is trying to answer the question of “Is there a fee for this service?” But instead of finding a yes/no answer (either with those words or a boolean like a checkmark or “X”), some of the lines contain the word “Free”. Sure, that means there is no fee for the particular service, but it takes a lot of extra mental cycles to process the lack of a yes/no answer, and then differentiate two words (“Fee” and “Free”) that are only one letter apart.

The right approach for a comparison table is to keep things simple. For each column, you should stick to a yes/no structure, or simple values like size, weight, and color that are easily processed by the reader. In addition, try to avoid using words that are only a single letter apart, like in the “Fee” versus “Free” example that I described. By providing a straightforward structure, your comparison table will be easier for customers to understand. In turn, they’ll be more likely to select your product over a competitor’s, while choosing the right product and service options for their needs.

As I was paying for my purchase at an otherwise modern retail store, I encountered a rather odd scenario on the POS terminal. The text asking me to swipe my card was legible enough. But when I got to the screen where it usually asks you to sign and press OK, none of the text was legible. Apparently, those areas of the screen had failed, and a series of random lines appeared where the text would normally be.

I asked the cashier what to do, and she was immediately familiar with the situation. This clearly happened a lot — perhaps every time a customer paid with a credit card. The workaround was for me to sign a paper receipt instead of using the screen on the POS terminal.

Obviously, I haven’t visited enough stores in this particular chain to know how widespread the illegible POS problem has become. However, the store in question is a very high volume, “flagship” location. If that store doesn’t qualify for replacement of equipment that has clearly reached the end of its useful life, what sort of priorities does that retailer have?

Taking a step back, I bet the real issue is just one of reporting. The corporate office would probaby be glad to replace any broken gear in stores that bring in substantial revenues. Of course, someone needs to tell them about the problem in the first place. Normally, that responsibility falls on employees — especially store managers. But if that line of reporting and communication isn’t working, maybe it’s time to get customers involved, too.

Enabling shoppers to tell you about this sort of problem is easy. In fact, it’s really no different than how stores present customer satisfaction surveys today. Just add some messaging to the receipt with a toll-free number to call to report any issues with stuff that isn’t working right, and offer a small incentive for those who report problems. By turning shoppers’ attention to these issues, retailers will have the information they need to better identify and prioritize hardware replacements, and customers will end up with a smoother and more enjoyable shopping experience.

Last weekend, I bought a new pair of dress pants. Before I headed to the register to check out, I asked the sales rep if they were running any specials. It turned out there was a promotion for 40% off anything in the store. So, I went right back to the area where the first pair of pants came from, and looked for another in the same size. Unfortunately, I was already holding the only pair in stock, so I settled for a single item at the sale price. Sure, I could have gone home and bought another pair online, but I doubt the sale price would have applied.

This experience made me wonder: why don’t retailers do a better job at turning the first purchase into a series of repeat purchases? In the case of clothing, for instance, anyone who buys a shirt or shoes or pants would probably benefit from having a second copy of that item. Even if they haven’t thought about buying more than one, a small reminder may be all it takes to generate a repeat purchase.

How do you get customers to think about buying another copy or pair or set of the thing they just purchased? For starters, include some messaging on the in-store receipt or order confirmation email, or inside the shipping box, that reminds them about the value of owning two or more copies. Then, offer a discount if they buy a second or third copy of that same product within a few days after the original purchase. Together, this messaging will help focus the customer’s attention on their satisfaction with the item they just bought, and make it easy for them to acquire more copies at a competitive price.

For most online retailers, it’s standard practice to include a packing slip in every box they ship. This serves as a checklist for the shipping department to verify that all the right items are in there, and also functions as a receipt for the customer.

But what if the buyer doesn’t want a packing slip? It’s one more thing for privacy-conscious customers to shred, and would also be a waste of paper in the eyes of environmentally-conscious shoppers. How do you balance this with the retailer’s need to ensure that all the right items are in each box?

Eliminating packing slips altogether probably isn’t practical. But there’s a middle ground that would work for everyone. First, the retailer should remove as much of the customer’s personal info as possible from the packing slip. For instance, just show the list of products in the box along with the buyer’s last name and shipping zipcode. Data like the full address and billing info could be left out, thus alleviating any privacy concerns. Second, make the packing slip smaller, which should be easy once the info above has been removed. This would address any complaints about excess paper usage and make the whole process more environmentally-friendly.

Overall, these changes to the packing slip design are good for all the parties involved. The retailer will spend less money on paper and maybe get some nice press coverage from making the changes, while customers enjoy more privacy and less environmental impact from their online orders. Will these changes lead to a dramatic increase in sales? I doubt it. But the cost savings and customer goodwill should certainly make the redesign worthwhile.

Last Saturday, I called the pharmacy to refill a prescription. I waited on hold for about five minutes, which is much longer than usual, and figured that it must have been really busy over there. So, I hung up, took care of some other tasks, and tried again about 15 minutes later. However, the result was the same: mediocre hold music, and nobody to answer my call.

As it turned out, I needed to go to the pharmacy anyway to pick up some non-prescription items. And when I got there, I immediately saw why the hold time was so long. The pharmacy area was locked up, and nobody was working there. Ironically, I could hear the public address system in the pharmacy, which was announcing messages like “There is a pharmacy call waiting.” But much like the saying about a tree falling in the forest, a phone ringing in an empty store might as well not be ringing at all.

I have no idea how many other people tried to call while the pharmacy was closed. But if you multiply this effect across all the stores that the particular pharmacy chain operates nationwide, I’m guessing that hundreds of people a day end up waiting in endless queues when the pharmacy staff is missing in action.

To prevent this frustration, the store should configure their phone system to detect whether any employees who can answer the phone have clocked in that day, or make them indicate their phone availability with some other method. This is quite common in call center environments, but apparently hasn’t made its way into regular retail scenarios. Otherwise, the retailer is causing needless frustration for customers who expect prompt service, but have no way of knowing that there’s nobody on the other end of the line.

I’ve been shopping for a new multi-function printer for our office, which will be replacing a flaky older model that we’re glad to be rid of. Typically, this sort of device includes copy, print, scan, and fax features. Oddly, when reading the reviews of various products, I noticed a common issue: the scan-to-email feature seems to cause trouble for a lot of buyers.

In short, the problem is that most email providers require authentication before you can send mail through their servers. Every modern email program has fields or special prompts for this purpose, so you can specify the server address, port, username, and so on. But this level of detail is almost universally lacking in even the high-end multifunction printers. Thus, a lot of customers end up with no way of using the email functionality.

There are several ways to correct this issue:

– The buyer can obtain an email account that doesn’t require authentication for outbound messages. However, from what I understand, this type of account is nearly impossible to find.

– The device manufacturer can provide a free email service to buyers of the device, so that no configuration of a third-party service is necessary.

– The device manufacturer can add in the fields so that the available options match what you’d find in a regular desktop email program.

The latter two solutions could be included with the next revision of the hardware, and delivered to existing customers via an optional firmware update. But whatever the approach, the takeaway is the same. If the online reviews are to be believed, a lot of people who buy multifunction printers want to use the scan-to-email feature. People expect the email configuration to work like a regular email program. By recognizing this requirement and including the right features, a savvy manufacturer will enjoy better product reviews, more sales, and a lower return rate.

If you’ve ever filled out a form on a website, you’re probably familiar with those annoying word verification prompts, more formally referred to as a “CAPTCHA”. I don’t even know what that crazy acronym stands for, but like most people, I find the process of trying to decipher and type in a cryptic string of characters to be a real pain.

Granted, some websites handle the CAPTCHA experience more elegantly than others. Here are some notable enhancements that I’ve seen in the wild, along with another improvement that I’ve yet to see anyone implement:

– Tell the user if the characters are case sensitive. It’s a lot easier to type in a phrase if you don’t have to worry about matching uppercase and lowercase.

– Provide an obvious way to generate a new image when the first one is unreadable. A lot of sites have a little refresh icon for this purpose, but a text link for “Can’t read these letters?” would be far better.

– Don’t show CAPTCHA prompts to users that you’ve already verified in other ways. For instance, if someone is a registered user of your e-commerce site and has made several purchases before, that’s a good sign they are a legitimate customer. You don’t need to make them keep jumping through the hurdles that you present to first-time users.

Is it more work to implement these features, compared to just using a generic word verification system? Of course. But since frustration with CAPTCHA prompts can lead to failed transactions and reduced customer loyalty, the revenue you’ll lose from ignoring the problem is probably far greater than what it would cost to get it right.