Guest Post, SEO

Top 5 Things That Turn Customers Away From Your Online Business

Note: This is a guest post by Victor. The author’s views are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of Deepanshu...

Written by Deepanshu Gahlaut · 3 min read >
mistakes-to-avoid-in-online-business

Note: This is a guest post by Victor. The author’s views are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of Deepanshu Gahlaut’s Blog.

We live in a world where convenience is no longer an option, but a prerequisite, and where our options grow more numerous every day. Each customer has their own list of expectations, and when you fail to meet all of their often unspoken criteria, you risk alienating your audience.

Even if you offer a stellar service at a fair price, there are others in your industry who can outshine your presence simply because you’ve made certain mistakes.

So, the next time you notice a customer abandoning their cart or unsubscribing from your newsletter, dig deep and you’ll discover some of the following culprits for their desire to give their loyalty elsewhere.

1. Lack of Transparency

To an extent, a bit of mystery is an excellent strategy to grow your customers’ interest, especially when you’re about to launch a new product line or open a new office. Posting hints can be a great way to tickle their imagination into engaging with your brand. It helps generate buzz, get more people to listen and follow, and ask relevant questions.

Alas, there’s a fine line between being mysterious and being vague. When your entire online presence is deliberately ambiguous, you risk annoying your potential customers. They are not about to spend hours researching your entire website to discover you provide something as simple as a dozen of other brands that actually specify what they offer.

Transparency is one of those prerequisites that can help your customers determine if your brand is the best choice for them. Vague, imprecise terminology that aims to impress or intimidate your audience will only backfire and send them straight to your competitors.

2. Never-ending Delays

Do you like waiting in line? Neither do your website visitors. Once again, the sheer fact that we live in the era of convenience makes your customers less patient and most of them lead hectic lives balancing their careers, personal needs, and relationships.

They don’t have the time to wait for your website to load, or for your agents to respond after several hours.

Assess your digital presence thoroughly and find the most effective solutions to those speed issues. More often than not, businesses need reliable web hosting to make sure their website can load quickly on any device and no matter how many visitors there are at any given time.

A trusted provider can cut those load times and make sure that there are no delays when your customer is eager to find what they need on your site.

Furthermore, using chatbots and dedicated managers to respond to customer queries in a timely manner will also make them more inclined to go back to your brand more than once.

3. Being Salesy, Pushy, Promotional

Globally, around 30% of internet users now have ad blockers that help them refine their web browsing experience. Just like mid-lunch sales phone calls, popups and sponsored ads can be quite a nuisance for the modern digital user.

If your brand relies too heavily on these pushy tactics, chances are that more customers are blocking your site or leaving it as soon as they open the first page than the rare few who choose to stay and muscle through the ad-invasion.

Although your brand benefits from promotional content to an extent, you need to strike that fine balance between selling and educating, promotion and communication, so as to make sure your customers can engage with your brand without setbacks.

Keep in mind that the very same attitude is not something customers like even in brick-and-mortar experiences.

If your staff is too pushy and clingy, online as well as offline, your potential buyer might take their business elsewhere – somewhere where they won’t be ambushed by an overeager know-it-all salesperson with too many unsolicited opinions.

4. Damn Those Crickets

On the other end of the communication spectrum, as annoying as an ad can be, a lack of timely responses can be equally disappointing for your customers to ever knock on your digital doors again.

If you send out template responses, if you don’t have social media and customer support solutions on hand that keep those waiting times to a minimum, you’re losing valuable leads.

If you expect your customers to use the FAQ page all the time, or to always keep your guidelines at hand, you’ll be extremely disappointed to find out that convenience also affects our desire to do the digging ourselves.

Instead, we like to have those answers handed to us as soon as we send an inquiry, so making sure that each question is answered in a timely and helpful manner will not just boost your reputation, but also your customer retention rate.

By mixing your AI-driven chatbots with your human-based customer support team, you can always have the answers ready and your staff eager to please.

5. Not Following Through

Finally, seeking customer feedback has become the norm. After all, search engines love reviews, users love using them in their decision-making process, and they like making sure that someone hasn’t been disappointed by trusting your brand with their needs.

However, there’s no such thing as the perfect brand with a perfect track record, mistakes are a part of the journey. It’s how you treat those mistakes and poor reviews that will ultimately make a difference in how future customers perceive your business.

In addition to asking for it, make sure you actually use the given feedback to improve your services and credit your customers for sharing their suggestions with you. That effort alone will be enough to help you grow your brand reputation and handle criticism with grace.

You’re bound to make mistakes on your journey. Some can cost you more than the rest, so make sure you avoid the listed errors or at the very least learn from them so that you can make smarter business decisions and inspire your customers to stay loyal to your brand.

Author Bio:

Victor T. Miller, a Sydney-based business and marketing specialist who has expanded businesses over 5 years. Regular contributor at Bizzmark blog. I am a person who loves to inform people about the latest news in the industry also as sharing tips and advice based on my professional experience and knowledge.

Written by Deepanshu Gahlaut
I write on SEO, content marketing, latest technologies, and social media. You can find me online, or at home watching sci-fi movies, listening songs, or sleeping. In addition, my latest obsession is creating, collecting and organizing visual content on my new blog - Infopixi, to help bloggers, marketers, and businesses. Profile

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