At Your Service, One Way or Another

In a past article (January 2005), we talked about a common site visitor perception: Companies that market products through “brick and mortar” in-store channels should offer the same products-or even a better selection of products-on their website. In this edition, we’ll take a look at how this “superstore mentality” transcends product offerings to encompass service offerings. If a company offers services that can be ordered by phone, in person, at a specific location, by fax, or by any other method, it is largely expected these services should also be readily available and easily ordered on the company’s website. After all, a service is not a physical product that needs to be stocked, or needs to be personally evaluated (eyeballed and handled), so why can’t these services be easily ordered online?Often times, service companies offer some but not all services online because some offerings require intense customization-something that involves comprehensive customer input to produce the right deliverable. If this is the case, service companies should first and foremost clearly list the offerings that cannot be ordered online and include the reason(s) why.

In a recent online research study for a B2B exhibit service company, 31% of the participants reported visiting the site to “Order products and/or services online for a show” and one-third of these visitors reported low or no success. Additionally, 16% reported not being satisfied with the site, 11% were not likely to recommend the site to a colleague and 6% reported not being likely to return. A verbatim feedback comment elicited from one of these unsuccessful visitors: “I would like to be able to order the Material Handling along with all my other needs through the website, instead of by fax. Now I have to fax that one form in and make sure the rep understands to put this with our online order.” This response illustrates that it was not clear why certain services could not be ordered online and the customer was not necessarily confident the order would be successfully fulfilled.

A recommended short-list of steps to alleviate this type of user experience:

1. Clearly list all service offerings that are not available online, tagged with the reason(s) why
2. Provide links to offline services that are as easily accessible as the links to online services
3. A link to a service that is not offered online should display:

1. A comprehensive service description,
2. the recommended method(s) of ordering,
3. the necessary steps to place an order,
4. what information customers should have ready/available to complete the order,
5. when they can expect the order to be fulfilled, and
6. what they can expect as order confirmation.

When the efforts are made to ensure all services can be easily ordered, online or otherwise, the customers who come to the site to purchase a service will feel they have accomplished their mission.

Hillori Hager
Online Experience Project Manager