With the vast majority of people using a browser that supports multiple tabs, webmasters need to consider how their sites behave when opened in the background. For instance, what if a user clicks on several of your pages at once, or bookmarks your pages as part of a tab set they’ll be opening later? Does every one of your pages start playing audio the moment it’s opened?

Hulu is a great site, but it suffers from this problem. As soon as a Hulu video page opens, it begins playing the video and audio stream. Save a few Hulu tabs together, and you’ll be greeted with a blaring audio mix when you load that tab set. And I bet other streaming sites have the same issue.

What’s the solution? Let customers check a box or set a preference to turn off the autoplay feature. Then, they can press the Play button to start or resume playback when they’re ready. Or, save the state of each video when it’s closed, so that paused videos re-open in their paused status. Either way, you’re giving customers more control over their video experience. You’re also encouraging them to watch more videos by making the process of pausing and resuming the session a lot more pleasant.

Virtually every drug store has a special section or endcap devoted to travel-sized items. Typically, this consists of personal care products like toothpaste and deodorant, with each product limited in size to what TSA allows on flights. Presenting the smaller items this way, rather than scattering them all across the store, is a smart move. It gives customers one-stop shopping and likely leads to more sales.

If drug stores can do it, why don’t grocery stores join in on the fun? For example, I know that Trader Joe’s sells snack-sized bags of fruit and nuts, but you have to hunt for them amongst the half-pound and pound packages. Why not consolidate all the food and snacks that come in little packages into a single area, just like the drug stores do? Add a little bit of signage to explain why those items are great for travel, and I bet sales would soar.

I only have a couple of credit cards, but I’m trying to use each one somewhat regularly to avoid getting the accounts cancelled for non-use. After I made a purchase on one card that I hadn’t used in a long time, I signed up for online statements and bill payment. But when the first bill arrived, I was a bit confused. You see, the bank sent one email saying the statement was ready, and then another email saying I had an online bill ready. Aren’t these the same thing?

Perhaps they’ve got some goofy legacy systems in place that require this separation. However, it doesn’t make any sense from the customer’s perspective. At a minimum, they should turn off the second email notice, and only send a subsequent email if the bill remains unpaid a few days prior to the due date. Otherwise, people are likely to be confused by the duplicate messaging, which probably leads to additional customer service expenses as they call in for an explanation.

A few days ago, I called a store to check if they carried a certain product. Their phone system picked up immediately, and proceeded to play a fairly upbeat but rather lengthy greeting. 75 seconds later, I had heard about every one of their special offers. Was this useful to me? Not a bit: I still had to speak with a representative to answer my question.

Perhaps the majority of people calling actually do want to hear all the specials. But you shouldn’t force everyone to listen to such a lengthy message before presenting other options. A better approach would be to limit the mandatory greeting to 30 seconds or less. Then, in the menu options, add something like “Press 1 to hear our current specials”. That way, those who want the full spiel can get it, without degrading the quality of the interaction for everyone else.

When I sign into a secure website to manage a bank or credit card account, I expect a clean and straightforward interface that makes it easy to accomplish tasks like viewing a statement, paying a bill, etc. I also understand that those companies need to make money, so I don’t mind if they use the account management site to let me know about other products and services. But sometimes they go way too far.

One credit card I use is a great example of this. They’ve managed to intersperse several promotions for products I don’t use onto nearly every page of the account management site. Plus, these ads look just like the links you use to navigate the regular functions, like viewing your statement. At best, it’s distracting, and at worst, it’s deceptive.

A few guidelines would serve everyone well. When placing promos or ads inside a secure customer site, try to consolidate them on the welcome screen or similar areas, maybe with the heading of “Special offers” or “Products you might like”. Then, make sure to give these offers a unique visual style so they aren’t mistaken for regular navigation. A subtle background or border should do the trick.

Whatever approach you choose, remember that customers come to the account management site to complete a task. If you try to trick them into clicking on the wrong thing every time they visit that site, it’s going to lead to lower satisfaction and higher attrition over time.

We replaced our shower heads recently, and the new ones came with a “Lifetime warranty”. What does that mean, exactly? Is the warranty good for my whole life, or just as long as I live in the same residence? Is it transferable to a new owner? What about normal wear and tear?

I’m sure all the details are in the fine print. But from a marketing and sales perspective, is it possible that a simpler approach would actually sell more? For example, would a 20 year warranty actually be more enticing to buyers? I think so. The benefit is a lot more tangible, and doesn’t leave any loose ends about how a lifetime might be measured.

On the balance, there should be a fixed warranty length that outperforms the lifetime option when it comes to selling the product. Maybe it’s 25 or 30 years instead of 20. It might even be as short as 10 years. Either way, I’d be very curious to see someone run a test where the same product was marketed with a variety of warranty options.

Very few people keep anything long enough to worry about it lasting a lifetime. Thus, I’m guessing that a fixed-length warranty in the 20 year range will end up generating the most sales, while cutting down on the rare but costly scenario where someone tries to return, say, a shower head that the previous owner bought 50 years ago.

New restrictions on credit card issuers are scheduled to take effect in early 2010, and many people expect the credit card companies to stick it to consumers with new fees and reduced services. For instance, some companies have already begun to charge annual fees on accounts that never had such a fee before.

With this in mind, I decided to look into the annual fee situation with one of my credit cards. The issuer actually provides this info online, so I clicked the link to view the list of fees. On the next screen, it said something like “Annual fee: $0.00”. Did I get the info I needed? Sure. But a simple design change could have made the message a lot more effective.

To make it immediately obvious that there’s no annual fee, you want to avoid anything that looks or reads like a number. Don’t write $0 or $0.00 or “Zero”. Instead, try something like “None” or “No annual fee”. By removing the need for the customer to process a numeric reference, it’s absolutely clear that no annual fee applies. Even better, you can use this space to tell people how long the information is valid. For instance, if you won’t be re-evaluating the fees on that type of account until the end of 2010, you might write it as: “Annual fee: None – No annual fee through at least 12/31/2010”. With this approach, customers can instantly see where they stand, and will feel confident that you won’t be sneaking an annual fee in behind their backs.

Lately, I’ve been getting tons of emails from companies that I haven’t heard from in years. I suppose this is a result of the recession, as companies try to get more value from their existing opt-in lists. But as a recipient, it’s a little weird to be ignored by the marketing team for five years or more, and suddenly be worthy of getting regular promotions now. And I’m guessing this type of resurrected mailing list tends to have a very high rate of unsubscribes.

Is there a better way to proceed when you’re unearthing a dormant email list? Definitely. In the first message, acknowledge to the reader that you’re getting back in touch with old customers and prospects. Explain what your company does today and how it may be useful to them. Tell them how often you plan to send email updates. And give them an easy way to opt-out or transfer the subscription to a colleague, in case the topic is no longer relevant to them.

By taking these steps, you’ll be re-introducing your company in a friendly and customer-centric way. This should lead to more conversions from the email marketing campaign, while burning far fewer bridges than the hard-sell tactics that most companies use when resurrecting an old list.

Whenever I’m waiting in line at CVS, I always marvel at the large number of customers who never signed up for the store’s loyalty card. If you’ve shopped in CVS at all, you probably know that virtually every sale price or offer requires the card, and buying stuff without it can be a very pricey endeavor. Anyways, as someone who is very picky about the loyalty cards I carry, I’d like to share some ways that a store can increase the number of customers who actually sign up for a loyalty program:

– Create an easy sign-up process. Don’t require any more info than the customer’s name, and let them sign up on a kiosk or at the register, instead of using paper forms.

– During sign-up, let customers check off a single box to opt-out of all marketing messages. They shouldn’t have to call you later just to use the card in peace.

– Don’t generate personalized coupons for purchases that people might feel uncomfortable about. Most people are going to be a little weirded out if their receipt includes a coupon for extra-strength hemorrhoid cream.

– Make it easy for existing loyalty card holders to get their friends and family to join. Give current members a $10 bonus for each person they refer, and grant a similar bonus to the new member once they make their first purchase.

Anecdotally, it seems like only 10-20% of the customers in my local CVS are members of the loyalty program, so I’d be very curious to see if adopting tactics like these would move the needle in the right direction.

When I walked into Trader Joe’s last weekend, something was different. Actually, everything is more like it: they had moved virtually every section somewhere else — only the checkout lanes and a few other areas remained intact. There was no signage explaining the change, so I finally asked a staff member about it.

According to the employee I spoke with, the change was for the downtown Chicago store only. The goal was to optimize the store for walk-in customers, rather than people who arrive by car, since the former group is much larger. Apparently, they had this backwards when the store opened several years ago. No matter the reasons, a change of this magnitude is bound to annoy some customers, and they could have done a much better job communicating what changed and why.

Here are a few steps they could have taken to tell customers about the new store layout:

– A few weeks before the change, put up signs advising people that the store layout will be changing, along with some customer-centric reasons why it’s taking place.

– Once the change has been made, update the signage to explain what changed and why.

– Assign several employees to work the entrance areas, so that confused customers can ask where their favorite products are.

– Give out a map that shows the new store layout, along with a brief explanation of the rationale behind the changes.

This sounds like a lot of work, but it’s probably quite small compared to the process of moving an entire store around. As it stands, the way Trader Joe’s handled the Chicago change left a lot to be desired — and I bet the sales of many products will suffer while customers get re-oriented. Hopefully they can use a slightly more intelligent approach next time, and be able to reap the benefits of the new layout without causing a large disruption for customers during the transition period.