If I could add one feature to every website and software product that I use, I’d vote for a “Delete All” button. For instance, I’m really sick of products that are designed to let you send and receive messages, yet force you to delete the old messages one by one. So the more you use the product, the more time you spend just getting rid of the old entries after you’ve read them. This gets frustrating very quickly, and hurts the overall experience. Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way. Just include a “Delete All” button whenever a list has more than a couple of entries, and customers will thank you for it.

The shiny new CVS store in my neighborhood was scheduled to open over the weekend. Well, the weekend came and went, and the same “Coming Soon” sign is still on the window, with no indication of when the store will actually be opening. I don’t know what caused the delay — perhaps they’re waiting for some city inspection or fire code check. (The latter would be especially ironic, since there’s a fire station on the same block.)

Regardless of the reasons why they missed the grand opening date, they really ought to do a little better on communicating with prospective customers. Since dates will be approximate when you’re planning months in advance, start by modifing the “Coming Soon” sign (and things like your website and press releases) to include an estimated date, e.g. “Grand opening in May 2009”. Then, once you’re absolutely sure of the date, change out the sign to say something like “Grand opening on May 23”. Sure, it’s more work to keep people up-to-date, but it sets the proper expectations and builds trust with customers even before the store opens for business.

In a perfect world, every word and sentence in your emails, web pages, and proposals would be checked and re-checked until it was 100% error-free. But what do you do if you have a gigantic document, and there simply isn’t enough time to give every section the same attention? I’d say focus on the beginning and the end of the document, since anecdotally, people seem to skim the stuff in the middle. And if the document contains anything like prices or deal terms or diagrams, make sure those are perfect, since I suspect people will jump right to them during the review process.

Here are three businesses I’ll never buy anything from, or that I’ve vowed never to visit again:

– A restaurant that charges $10-15 for a typical breakfast
– A barber shop where a men’s haircut costs $25
– A doctor’s office that inflates their prices to at least twice the going rate, presumably hoping to rip off uninsured patients or those who aren’t familiar with what their insurance covers

What do all these places have in common? They either don’t accept credit cards, or only take a few types of cards. I can understand why ultra-low-cost businesses would be cash only — the transaction fees alone can eat up a lot of profit on a $3.99 breakfast. But for everyone else, failing to take credit cards is inconvenient and even insulting to customers, and most certainly ends up hurting overall revenues and profits.

They’re getting ready to open an impressive new building in my neighborhood. Known as “Aqua”, the facility includes rental apartments and condos in an 80+ story tower, along with a grocery store and other retail establishments near ground level. Like many new buildings, it’s being marketed as environmentally-conscious, with energy efficient climate control and sustainable materials. So far, so good. But I recently learned they’ve taken this too far, and will be using the dreaded bamboo flooring in many of the apartments.

If you know anything about hard flooring, you’re probably aware that bamboo is a more renewable material than solid hardwood. However, when you compare bamboo to engineered hardwood, which makes use of a hardwood layer on top along with recycled and pressed materials in the middle and bottom layers, the environmental impact is probably a wash.

Why does this matter? Well, bamboo is a nightmare to own. Nearly every personal anecode I’ve heard and review that I’ve read has mentioned how easily the bamboo scratches, even if you wear slippers around the house. In contrast, engineered hardwood is much more durable and harder to damage. My point here is this: whoever made the decision to put in bamboo floors throughout Aqua has sacrificed quality and practicality in the name of trendiness. After a few years — heck, even after a few months — I suspect they’ll regret that decision, as dozens or hundreds of residents start asking why their eco-friendly floor is already falling apart.

Have you ever thought about going to a restaurant, but decided otherwise when it looked totally packed from the outside? That happened to me a few months ago, and I wasn’t in the same neighborhood again until this past weekend. The restaurant didn’t look very crowded this time, so I walked in to assess the situation. There were a few tables open, and I noticed something interesting: they had a whole dining area upstairs too.

We ended up eating in the upstairs section, and it was cozy and full of character. The food was great too. I bring all this up for one reason: if I had known they had all that extra room upstairs, I probably would have eaten there the first time. Perhaps they could put a sign in the window that says something like “Come right in — we’ve got lots of seating here and in our upstairs dining room.” For people who have never been there before, that extra bit of information might be all it takes to make them give the restaurant a try.

This applies to lots of other businesses, too. Here’s the key question to ask yourself: Is there something about your business that all your regular customers know and appreciate, but non-customers have no clue about? If so, put up some signage or other messaging that gets that point across, and you’ll hopefully convince more new customers to come through the door for the first time.

In my opinion, most outdoor advertising is quite uninspiring. I think this is a by-product of how outdoor ads are sold. The campaigns tend to be very localized, so they either get assigned to a mediocre local agency, or some big agency handles the job but has to cut corners to produce the thousands of regional variations that are required for a nationwide campaign.

With this in mind, I was very impressed by an ad for Potbelly Sandwich Works, a Chicago-based sandwich chain with about 200 locations. The ad I saw was located at a downtown El station, but it wasn’t the image or tagline that caught my eye. Rather, it was a simple piece of text at the end: “State and Lake”. That’s the location of the nearest Potbelly store to where the ad was placed.

This is a great approach: they tell you about the product and why you should buy it, and then let you know the closest place to find a store. That takes away a big hurdle in the sales process, since people know exactly where to go if they want the product right now, or where to find it if they’re in that neighborhood in the future. I’ve never seen another restaurant take this approach with their outdoor ads, so I bet it’s helping Potbelly gain market share over the competition.

While some airlines advertise their best deals in terms of round-trip costs, most airlines seem to focus on one-way fares. And almost nobody includes taxes and fees in the advertised price. However, if you go to a travel comparison site like Kayak, you’ll see everything in terms of round-trip costs, including all the taxes. Why does the same product get such different treatment?

Perhaps the obsession with one-way fares is rooted in tradition or some obscure airline advertising regulations. Either way, it’s quite misleading to consumers, since the vast majority of people are looking for a round-trip cost, including all the extra junk like taxes and security fees. Plus, the advertised fares usually require a round-trip purchase anyway, meaning you couldn’t even buy a one-way ticket for that price if you wanted to.

At a minimum, the airlines should start including estimated round-trip costs whenever they advertise their special offers. For instance, if an ad promises “Flights from $99 each way”, they would insert some text saying “Round-trip costs start at $220 including all taxes and fees.” Or better yet, just do the logical thing, and ditch the one-way advertised specials in favor of all-inclusive, round-trip pricing. Customers will have an easier time understanding the offers, and I bet those ads will convert at a much higher rate.

After seeing some confusing tracking information on the US Postal Service website, I decided to give them a call. But despite plastering their toll-free number all over the website, the automated phone system said no details were available regarding the shipment. When I tried to press zero to speak with a real person, I got a particularly irritating message: “Customer service is not a selection at this time”.

Really? That’s the best they can do? No option to contact the local post office, no way to hold for one of the few people working at the call center? Yep, it’s really that bad. And the way the message is phrased is just idiotic, since it’s vague about what “customer service” means and implies that it might be available if you try at another time.

What they ought to say is this: “There are no customer service reps available on this phone number, but if you need to speak with someone, please call your local post office as follows.” Then, provide a working number for the local post office that handles things like orphaned packages. Apparently, only the main branch in a given area has access to this data. I called four post offices in and around my zip code to locate my mystery package, only to find out the online status was wrong and it had been delivered right to my mailbox. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but when dealing with the USPS, confusion and guesswork seem to be the norm.

Trying to buy an item, only to find that it’s out of stock, can be frustrating — especially when it’s something that you purchase regularly. Amazon and other stores realize this, so they provide an option to notify you when the item is back in stock. However, this won’t do you much good if you need to get the item right away. Maybe it sold out yesterday and won’t be restocked for months. In these cases, getting notified when the item is back in stock seems like too little, too late.

But there’s a variation that retailers could employ to make customers a lot happier. Instead of just telling people when something is back in stock, tell the regular buyers of that item when it’s almost sold out. In other words, when there’s only a few of the item left, send an email to anyone who buys the product frequently — and give them a chance to replenish their own supply before you run out.

With this approach, you’ll make your loyal customers happier, while also gleaning valuable data about how quickly you can sell the remaining stock when needed. This can reduce your risk in carrying additional inventory for those items, which should make it easier to avoid running out in the first place.