Is your web site shit and repelling people?

I may have ranted about this before (there's no "may" about it), but shit web sites cost customer and business alike.

I've just spent and hour and a half on the Vistaprint web site designing some items I needed for my business.

That process went OK.

But as soon as I tried to complete the process by buying the items it all went to pot.

When I got to the section to pay, it just did nothing. It refused to go forward.

There was no message, no change in what I was looking at...nothing at all to indicate that I may have not completed something I should. Nothing...and everything looked right.

So I tried the process in 2 other web browsers, because sometimes they can misbehave for a particular site, but the same thing happened on each one.

I really wanted/needed the things I'd created so I persisted and tried to trick the web site by changing my address. Sometimes forcing a web site to go through a different path to the destination can remedy weird problems.

This worked. Briefly.

I managed to get to the "Submit Order" page. I'd even been through the entry of payment details and that all seemed to go fine.

But the moment I clicked "Submit Order" I was taken back to the Address page and the whole sorry affair started again.

As I clicked to go somewhere else a survey message box popped up - "Would you like to take a 2 minute survey to help us make our web site the best user experience possible?"

HELL YES!!!

So I clicked on the "Take Survey" button. Guess what happened. That DIDN'T WORK EITHER!

I'd gone this far, I was going to let them know how much time they'd wasted with their shit web site and how I'll never buy from them again...and I'll be repelling everyone else I can too.

So I emailed them and told them just that.

I bet I don't hear back.

You see, I used to be a software testing consultant. A job where people paid me good money to tell them what was wrong with their software...and then ignore everything I said.

Software Testers are usually only employed as scapegoats.

Companies don't want you to be honest in surveys (and by the way, stop surveying us for every little thing you morons). They just want to be patted on the back.

I've written a whole book about the customer experience but that's another story.

the point is, you've probably spent money on a web site that is designed to make you money and, through ignorance, arrogance and ignoring feedback you may well have created something that actually repels customers.

The aesthetics of a web site can be so-so, but if it is frustrating or downright confrontational to use, then people will bail out and slag it off faster than you can say "deleted shopping cart".

We aren't stupid. We see lots of things every day that, with a little tweak, could be much better. But they often aren't.

Have you ever wondered what makes product A more successful than product the superior product B?

Hmmm,....

Happy Browsing.

David

#website #testing #interface