Home…Work…Heaven

This week as I was looking around for different autoresponder companies, I discovered a very disturbing trend.

I was searching and testing free and 30 day free trials from autoresponder companies to make up a list to give to my clients inside a new product I’m launching next week called: Recession Buster.

This usually simple task of testing applications that people who sell online use all the time…turned into a nightmare of frustration and out right confusion.

I’m not going to share the names of the companies at this point because this is not a review post. I will, however, do reviews in the near future.

My point here today is to talk about the useablilty of your online business. I am referring to both the experience that your prospects have the first time they come to your website, and the experience your clients have using your website, product, and/or services.

The task of signing up and setting up a simple autoresponder with 1 welcome message should take a few minutes at each site.

Instead it took me over 7 hours to try to set up and use 5 different autoresponders.

Why?

Simply because their websites are not user friendly. Now I’m not talking about design here. All have beautiful websites and look and feel very nice.

However, once you start to try to use their product you find out three things.

1. They have glitches in their interface making it impossible to complete the task of setting up a simple autoresponder with a redirect URL without having to stop and contact their customer support people.

2. What the company says on their home pages and what you see when you test your first website form and message are two different things.

3. They have a technical issue that on first look makes you wonder why in the world they would program a short coming like this into their systems?

Here are 3 quick examples:

First, I tried a Free autoresponder company that says they have no ads in your email autoresponder messages. They explain very clearly this is because they have sponsor’s offers on their home page and appreciate it if you click on some of them.

At first this seemed wonderful to me. Many people just starting a new Internet business do not have a lot of spare money to be testing out a lot of new applications to see which ones they should use.

One draw back I’ve found with Free autoresponders in the past is the ads they put in your email messages. I understand this helps them to keep it free. And most of these types of companies do have the option for a premium service where you pay for the service and then there are no ads.

This particular autoresponder company said no ads in your autoresponder email messages. So I thought, great, free and ad free! So of course I tried it.

Their interface worked great and I did create my first welcome message and website form quickly and easily.

Then I tested the form on my squeeze page. I went to my email to see how my welcome message looked and there was the shock!

Instead of my welcome message being in my inbox…there was an email from the autoresponder company…sent directly to the sign up name I used to perform this test…which would be my prospect on my website…with ads and offers inside it.

It was nothing but a large spam message. Then after 10 minutes or so my welcome message showed up.

So this showed me that their spam selling messages from their domain come first. Also I went back to their site and nowhere was it stated that they send emails directly to YOUR prospects.

This in my humble opinion is much worse that an ad inside your welcome message.

Second, I found 3 other autoresponder companies who had interfaces that did not work. You would press submit or next and nothing would happen. I tried refreshing my page several times on each of them to no avail.

Third, Last and definitely not least, I found a promising autoresponder company with a 30 day free trial.

I signed up and went through their video tutorials for the beginning steps and found it easy to use and understand.

I set up my first autoresponder email and then I went to their dashboard to set up my website form.

During the process of setting up my website form there is a step that asks if you want your prospect sent to a redirect page…another page on your site…after they sign up. Or, if you would like to create a simple page that says; “We received your information successfully.”

For my purposes I wanted to redirect my prospects to a new page on my website.

So I put in my URL and hit next. That’s when I hit a brick wall. I received an error message saying my URL had an invalid format.

So I typed it again. No luck. Then I reloaded my page and still no luck.

So I clicked on contact support. Now in one of the video tutorials I had just watched it said their customer support phone lines are open 24/7.

However, when I clicked on contact support I was taken to a pop up that said their customer support phone lines were only open on weekdays…and this of course, was a weekend afternoon.

So I opted to send an email, knowing it would not be answered until Monday. After I finished the email explaining the problem I was having I was taken to another pop up that said your email would be answered in 1 business day and if you wanted immediate help to call their customer support number.

I was a little confused at this point. Was their customer support number working 24/7 as their video tutorial said? Or was it only open on weekdays as their customer support pop up said?

So I decided to find out. After 7 hours of frustration I was hoping to find at least 1 good autoresponder company offering a free trial for my customers of my new product to use.

I dialed the customer support number and only waited 3 seconds or so and a very nice support person looked into the issue I was having.

After a few minutes I was told the problem was caused becasue I was using a .info instead of a .com in my URL. The nice young man explained that he would contact their technical support people on Monday and then email me back a solution.

I asked him why his company only accepted .com as an extension as there are so many other extensions being used today?

He said he did not know. I asked him to go ahead and have their tech people call me on Monday.

Okay…why am I talking about all of this today?

Simply because this is a big issue with online businesses right now both large and small. I have run into problems using all types of business websites and it seems to be getting worse and not better recently.

In addition, we are in a recession and people are saying they are having trouble selling their services and products online right now.

Although it is true we are in a recession, there are all kinds of online businesses doing well and many doing better than ever.

What is the difference, you ask?

One of the most important differences is useability of your online business. Putting the recession aside for a moment…you must have a website that is easy to use and understand by your prospects and customers…or you WILL NOT be successful online.

Now I am not talking about easy to read and nice to look at. Your website must be easy for everyone to use and understand.

You must create an atmosphere of ease. A user friendly experience that will be quick and easy and have no glitches!

I know from years of selling online that there are technical issues that do come up from time to time. I have to say here…none of the problems I faced in my testing were of this nature.

I faced issues that prevented me from using their product, or showed me they were hiding things they were doing that would impact my business very negatively.

Plus if we bring the recession back into the picture…we see that competition for fewer people spending money online online or anywhere is very high right now.

Therefore…now even more than ever your site MUST be easy to use and understand.

How do you do this?

Easy. After your website is up. Go through it like a new customer or prospect and sign up and order your product or services. Use a different email address and name so you can see your autoresponder results and order confirmation messages as your clients see them.

Then do one extra step. Ask some people you know who are not familiar with your product or service to use it and to give you honest feed back.

Also check your customer service and FAQ pages and pop ups. Do they all say the same thing?

Then when the results are in correct everything no matter how insignificant it may seem to you. You and your programmers and designers are experiencing your site from a different perspective and knowledge base then your prospects and customers.

Then, and only then, are you ready to launch your website and product or service.

Consistently checking the useability of your website and online business will keep you ahead of the competition. It will also pay you long range dividends in higher ROI and customer values…as well as increase the word of mouth referrals from your customers and prospects.

This is a win…win for everyone and will translate into quicker and easier success for you as well.

Take the time now to test your site from your users perspective and knowledge base and you will reap the benefits for years to come!