Is Your Buying Process Pleasurable or Painful?

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I think I've learned a mistake that I've been making, but I did not catch myself doing it.  I experienced the frustration as a buyer, but I realized that I can be guilty of this, too.

Key Question: Are we making it too hard for our customer to buy from us?


Places Where It Is Easy to Buy: The Pleasure

Before you start to answer that question, think about places that make it REALLY easy to buy.

Amazon: Once you register your PayPal account, buying from Amazon is easy.  In fact, they even suggest similar products so that you can buy even more...without hardly any effort.  How nice of them!

eBay: eBay makes money when we buy and sell things on their website.  Is it any coincidence that eBay makes it awfully easy to buy and sell things on its site?


More Painful Purchasing Experiences

On the other end of the effort spectrum, recently, I saw a website that is trying to sell an author's book.  The problem is that it is not obvious where you need to click to buy this person's book.  In fact, the first place you click (if you're right), does not even take you directly to the page where you can buy the book.

It should not be that hard to buy something.

During an event, I wanted to buy the book from the speaker.  I had my cash ready on the table and everything.  This speaker told me that there would be plenty of time to buy her book.  She was right, because she was not selling the book by itself.  The book was free...with the purchase of something much more expensive.  Later, I learned that her book is for sale on Amazon.

I wanted to buy her book, but she made it hard.

Recently, a friend of mine wanted a quote for a service.  He needed some help, and a I knew that a different friend of mine had the right type of business to help.  So what was the problem?  I called one of my friend's workers, but I could not get a quote...at least I could not get a quote for 2 weeks, and this company only did one type of service.

A good test is to ask yourself, "What does a customer have to do to buy from me if he (or she) has money already in his (or her) hand?"

If you find yourself hesitating for any reason, you might need to make some adjustments.

What does your website visitor have to do to buy from you?  Can he (or she) give you money without ever having to call you?  If not, you might need to find something different?

(By the way, I am guilty of this one.)

If you ask people to call you to place an order, can they get in contact with you?  How easy is it for them to pay you?

Do people enjoy buying from you, or do you provide reasons for them to spend more effort to buy from you, possibly giving them just enough incentive to avoid you next time...or maybe even cancel this time?

How can you make your buying process more pleasurable for your customer?

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