2 Sure-fire Ways to Lose Visitors and Prospects

Posted December 4, 2008 · Filed Under Recommendations · 1 views · 6 Comments

I’m pretty sure you’re not setting out to lose clients and prospects, but what if you’re doing it without knowing it?

Here are two ways others have lost me as a visitor or prospect in the last month or so and why. I’ll bet they won’t notice that I’m gone, but if too many others feel the way I do, they’ll notice eventually. The only question is how many will they have to run off before they notice? Worse, what if they’ve just started their business and are already thinking about giving up?

Have a look and make sure you aren’t making these same mistakes.

#1: Don’t Keep Your Promises; More Importantly, Don’t Communicate

This is the most recent thing that really yanked my chain. I signed up for a membership site for, among many other things, a monthly calendar of blogging prompts, one a day. The membership price was low, so I thought, why not? I joined late in the month last month, so the monthly calendar for November was already there and in place. I took a look at it, and was pleased to see that it was timely, meaning the topics turned toward gratitude, etc., as it grew nearer to Thanksgiving, for example.

Well, guess what…it’s December 4th, and the December calendar is still not up. Not good, when that’s the main reason I joined and paid for a membership. So far, no explanation has been given, nor an estimate of when the sucker will be up.

This site’s stated purpose in life is to help bloggers easily come up with new content to blog about every day. The main benefit they waved in our faces on the membership signup page was the Monthly Blogging Prompts Calendar. The new month is here but the calendar is not. So, I’ve spent money and yet I have the same “problem” I had before I spent money. Definitely not leaving a good taste in my mouth.

Yes, I know things happen, and yes, last week was a major holiday here in the U.S. and yes, I hope everyone was enjoying the day with family and friends. Not the point.

The point is you don’t make promises and then not keep them. And if something happens to prevent you from keeping them, you let your clients and prospects know. Online, just as in life, we all want to feel valued and taking your customers’ money, not delivering what they paid for and keeping them in the dark throughout is NOT the way to show you value your customers.

#2: Make People Jump Through Hoops For No Good Reason

A couple months ago, I signed up for a free teleclass series that was supposed to have one call per month for six consecutive months. I had to register with my name and email address, which I had no problem with. After all, he was going to give me 6 hours of time, attention and information – the least I could do was cough up my name and email address. Besides, I figured I’d get the dial-in information via email and probably some reminders each month. Maybe, if I was lucky, I’d get a recording of each call afterward, in case life got in the way and I missed attending one. But I’ve been online since there’s been an ‘online’ to be on, so I knew registering was the bare minimum required. He’s doing this to build his list, after all. I’m cool with that. Build your list, dude!

The first call occurred, and it was a good call. Afterward, I got an email reminding me of the ‘homework’ for the next month’s call. Handy…thanks dude. (I use my email inbox(es) as to-do lists, so it would stay in there until I completed the homework for the next call.)

Life goes on…before I know it, it’s time for the 2nd month’s call. I know it’s the 3rd Thursday of the month, so I start watching for an email. Nothing comes. I’m assuming it’ll be at the same time and at the same number as the previous month’s call. I try to call in – get told there is no such conference.

Huh?!!??

So I email the guy and you know what he tells me? That I didn’t register for the 2nd month’s call! Can you believe that mess? He seriously expected me to go back to his site and register FIVE MORE TIMES for the same 6-month teleclass series I had already said “Yes” to! For what?!! “Oh no, dude, I don’t roll like that. I said yes once, that ought to be enough for you,” I think to myself as I delete the remaining 4 call reminders from my calendar.

Try as I might, I cannot imagine a good enough reason to make people register 6 times for the same damn thing. I mean, seriously! It was almost like this guy didn’t really want anyone participating for the whole six months, making us jump through 5 extra hoops like that. So, I responded to the message he sent (whether it was the one he intended, or not) and did not register again or attend any call but that first one.

The Fix For Both

The easiest way to avoid mistakes like these is to put yourself in the shoes of the person you’re trying to attract. View what you do through their eyes. Is what you’re doing making sense to them? Are you honoring them? Are you putting your best foot forward and investing in them and the relationship you’re trying to build?

Every last one of us makes mistakes. That’s forgivable. What’s not forgivable is not recognizing that your visitors and prospects don’t HAVE to deal with you. They’ve got options. Act accordingly.

Have you run into this kind of nonsense? Leave a comment and tell us what happened, how it made you feel, and how it affected your view of that person or site.

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3366 Responses2008-12-04+05%3A00%3A08Suzanne to “2 Sure-fire Ways to Lose Visitors and Prospects”

Christa
December 4th, 2008 9:17 am

Thanks for this post Suze. I often ask myself if my site and message makes sense to people.

I haven’t run into a lot of this nonsense myself mainly because I deal with professional type of people like you.

I don’t have the patience for people who don’t stand by their promises so KUDOS to you for calling these folks on it!
Nancy Boyd
December 4th, 2008 2:57 pm

I probably have tons of stories about how someone disappointed me online (in that they either did not meet their promised performance or standards, or failed to meet my expectations.)

But the WORST ones are the times I did this to my own customers or readers! Sometimes, despite the most careful planning, things don’t go the way you expect. Or else, in one case I can think of, I didn’t think through ALL the steps completely and missed some key items that would have made my readers a LOT happier with me, had I done them.

The worst one was when I held a teleconference call with a 14-year-old boy who is a genius at manifesting. We had a few challenges setting the call up, but managed for it to go as planned on schedule, with a recording for backup. But after that, things got dicey again.

One of my VA’s failed to tell me she would not be available to get me the link, or to help me get a mailing out with resources for listeners. So instead of being able to get the news out to interested listeners within 24 hours of the call, it was. . . more than a week! Yuck. That was just awful.

When you build up someone’s enthusiasm and then lat the whole thing fall flat. . . it’s not good.

Big lesson learned there! But what is it they say? Experience is the best teacher? Yeah ‘cos there are some things you don’t wanna do twice, LOL.

Just my 2 cents worth today.

Nancy

Nancy Boyd´s last blog post..Flowers For Giving Thanks
Marelisa
December 4th, 2008 4:09 pm

I know what you mean about people making promises online they can’t keep. Too bad about that prompt calendar for blogging, it sounds interesting.

Marelisa´s last blog post..Start 2009 With a Bang: Create a Life List
Suzanne
December 5th, 2008 8:51 am

Christa – It’s good to ask yourself those questions from your users’ perspective. Just remember to do it in as unemotional way as possible. Otherwise, self-doubt can creep in and distort your perceptions. Better still, start yourself a list of people to whom you can go and ask these types of questions…not friends and family, so much, as they’ll not likely see you as the ‘expert’ anytime soon…but others whose opinions you respect. We are often not the best judge of ourselves.

Nancy – oh yes – there is always great value is messing up on a grand scale…like you say, those are lessons that won’t likely have to be learned twice. The trick is understanding (like I know you do) that you are going to mess up from time to time, but to never take for granted your audience. People (including me) are willing to overlook the grandest of foul-ups if they know it wasn’t on purpose and responsibility is taken to correct the situation.

The membership site could have easily kept me appeased by sending an email saying, “Hey – I know we promised X by X date, but we’re having Y problem. We’re doing our best to correct it, and will have your X to you as soon as possible.” Nobody understands how the best laid plans sometimes turn out better than me. But so far, not even an acknowledgment that they’ve screwed up has come my way, further cementing my impression that I am not valued.

Marelisa – Yes, it is too bad. And I ALMOST wrote a post recommending you all check it out immediately after finding the site. But a little voice in my head said, “Hold your horses, girlfriend. Let’s see if they can deliver, first.” I’m glad I listened to the little voice.
Michael E. Cantone
December 5th, 2008 12:59 pm

Suzanne,
Reading your comments to everyone made me realize something about doing business with the Guru’s. How about getting sucked into free stuff worth lots of Money, so they say, to find out that a fraction of it will ever be used then get bombarded with with more free stuff from other Gurus with the same use and the “One” they all have in common is their failure to launch like we don’t know what a sever is. It’s like there all in a club to take your money that covers more than the shipping cost and hope you didn’t see the part about the forced continuity that gets slipped into an email later that you ignore. That happened to me recently and I had a hard time tracing it back because; I’m going to be too busy using their stuff to check my credit card statement?

Michael E. Cantone´s last blog post..Finally Writer’s Digest Turned On The "$" Light Bulb!!!
Suzanne
December 5th, 2008 1:14 pm

Michael – oooohhh, that’s another great example. I’ve been burned like that before, too. While I can’t change how everyone else does their marketing, I sure can make sure I don’t do to others what I don’t like done to me! I have gone maybe too far the other direction as a result of ploys like this, and have probably missed some useful information just because I KNOW for sure I’ll get stuck with a bill if I’m not paying attention. I think this kind of thing also falls under the ‘make people jump through too many hoops’ category. I don’t want to have to set a reminder on my calendar to hunt my way back to a site just to cancel something. I’d far rather have them make it easy for me to try before I buy, and buy ONLY when I really want to.