Simple Tips on Managing Website Visitor Expectations

Here's how I define satisfaction:

Satisfaction = What You Get + What You Expect

So one of the ways to manage satisfaction is to manage visitor expectations. A couple of examples:

#1  We work with a CPG brand site that sells all its products through third party retailers. The retailers themselves set the prices, and so the brand site itself doesn't have info on prices. Through surveys, they found out people are coming to the site for 3 reasons: 1) to find a product 2) to check out specs 3) to get a price. Based on this intelligence, the web team had been fighting corporate policy to try and get permission to post prices, which just wouldn't work. Finally, they decided to just make a note on the website, letting  visitors know that they won't find prices and why. This turned out to be a simple solution that effectively managed expectations.

#2 We work with a service company that provides an online price quote engine. However, you cannot actually purchase the service online, because the business model is to funnel business to local offices. So not only can you not complete the transaction online, when you try to, you get a screen that says to "call local office" which could even imply that you've made a mistake. People were getting annoyed that they had been through the whole process online only to be routed to a local office at the end.  Our recommendation - inform the visitor upfront about the quote process rather than try to change the business model.  It was a really simple idea that hadn't been considered.

#3 Many retailers  forget to update their promotions (both on site and email) based on product inventory.  How would you feel after receiving an email promoting that hot new product you want and after visiting the site and seeing that home page promotion of the same product only to find out when going to check out that the product is out of stock.  Your expectations are not met and you leave dissatisfied.  Isn't honesty the best policy? Don't promote those out of stock products.

If your visitors or customers are  unhappy with an aspect of your website, our advice is usually that if it is an item that has a high impact on your overall satisfaction, you should change it or improve it however you can. However, sometimes for practical or business reasons that just isn't possible. You know what they say--the best offense is a good defense. Sometimes the best defense can be to manage expectations.