Please make it easier to purchase as a guest
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:33 pm
A client just tried to make a purchase on my site, and got so frustrated that he gave up. Based on his feedback, here's what went wrong:
1. He did NOT want to make an account, and there was no obvious option to let him make the purchase as a guest.
I notice there's a thread on this topic from 2017 (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3823&hilit=purchase+as+a+guest), in which David (a name spelled D-a-v-e keeps getting autocorrected to "someone" in the preview for some reason) says, "There is a checkbox on the screen where they enter their shipping address that allows them to purchase without creating an account."
The problem is, by the time there's any indication that there's an option to not create an account, a client can be so distracted by their irritation and by filling in their information that they don't really register the checkbox beside "Create an account". By then, the expectation of being required to create an unwanted account is already established, and the client is already annoyed.
To make matters worse, he'd apparently already made an account in the past but forgotten it, so AFTER I finally got him through the signup process, he got the additional annoyance of discovering that it was all for nothing. He was already in a hurry, running late, and annoyed by PayPal's shenanigans, so this was not a scenario where there was much room for error. An easy-to-locate "purchase as a guest" option would've eliminated this whole problem.
Suggested solution: Put a "purchase as a guest" button on the signup page, so the expectation and annoyance of being forced to create an unwanted account is never established, and so that expectation doesn't create an unnecessary barrier to making a purchase. Also, in the "create an account" process, it should detect and give a notification when the client enters an email address that's already connected to an account, along with options and links with which to either sign in with the existing account, or ask the system to email them their password for their existing account.
2. The form's interaction with autofill is malfunctioning.
It repeatedly tried to autofill his phone number in the email slot.
Suggested solution: I'm not sure whether this can be fixed on your end or not, but if possible, it would save the client some annoyance if browsers' autofill features put the correct piece of information in the right box - e.g. emails in email boxes.
3. It asked him to "re-enter your phone number", but didn't tell him what was wrong.
He'd entered a valid phone number, but instead of accepting it, the system refreshed the page and gave him an error notification that gave NO indication of why it objected to his phone number or how to fix it, thus increasing his already considerable irritation. I suggested that he remove the "1" at the beginning of the number, and that worked, but the fact that I had to GUESS at the solution concerns me.
Suggested solution: When giving ANY kind of error notification, don't just say something's wrong. Tell the user WHAT is wrong, and how to fix it. Explain it like they've never used the internet before.
4. The request for a password looked silly.
When it asked for a password, its exact words were, "Do you have a Stephanie OBrien password?", which I think looks kind of silly. I'd like it to say, "Do you have a Coach Client Connection password?" This is a concern I've had about APWT from the start: it does a LOT of behind-the-scenes things automatically, such as choosing the name "Stephanie O'Brien" in the quoted sentence above, while giving no indication of how to customize them manually.
Suggested solution: Give APWT account owners clear indications of where auto-filled information like this is stored, and how to edit it. (Not an easy fix, I know, since this is somewhat pervasive throughout the system. For now, I'll settle for knowing how to fix the "Stephanie OBrien password" problem.)
5. It keeps nagging me to log in.
I tried to test my shopping cart without logging in, by just putting my info into the boxes, and ran into this:
If I didn't log in, it's because I didn't WANT to log in. I don't want this "make an account to make a purchase" feature to be shoved down my throat every time I try to make a purchase or test my system, and the feedback I've gotten so far is that my customers don't, either. Some people just want to make a purchase without having extra steps forced on them.
Also, the line "Please Call for further assistance." has an inappropriately capitalized letter, and I would prefer to get rid of it, as my phone calls are by appointment only. I'd rather it had a link to my contact page, but this - once again - is a feature that's automatically generated, with no apparent way to manually customize it.
Suggested solution: Just let people complete their purchase. If they don't want to log in or create an account, don't interrupt their purchase to force them to, even if they already have an account. Maybe show a gentle reminder that "hey, you already have an account - here are the benefits of logging in before you complete your purchase," but don't make signing in a mandatory extra step that creates an unnecessary barrier to purchase. Also, please fix the typo so it doesn't reflect badly on your clients (especially writers and editors like me!), and give us easy-to-find and non-coder-friendly ways to customize ALL notifications like that, to avoid showing inapplicable CTAs to our clients.
Thanks in advance for your consideration. Hopefully these fixes, if implemented, will prevent me and other APWT users from losing any more sales due to a user-unfriendly purchase process.
1. He did NOT want to make an account, and there was no obvious option to let him make the purchase as a guest.
I notice there's a thread on this topic from 2017 (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3823&hilit=purchase+as+a+guest), in which David (a name spelled D-a-v-e keeps getting autocorrected to "someone" in the preview for some reason) says, "There is a checkbox on the screen where they enter their shipping address that allows them to purchase without creating an account."
The problem is, by the time there's any indication that there's an option to not create an account, a client can be so distracted by their irritation and by filling in their information that they don't really register the checkbox beside "Create an account". By then, the expectation of being required to create an unwanted account is already established, and the client is already annoyed.
To make matters worse, he'd apparently already made an account in the past but forgotten it, so AFTER I finally got him through the signup process, he got the additional annoyance of discovering that it was all for nothing. He was already in a hurry, running late, and annoyed by PayPal's shenanigans, so this was not a scenario where there was much room for error. An easy-to-locate "purchase as a guest" option would've eliminated this whole problem.
Suggested solution: Put a "purchase as a guest" button on the signup page, so the expectation and annoyance of being forced to create an unwanted account is never established, and so that expectation doesn't create an unnecessary barrier to making a purchase. Also, in the "create an account" process, it should detect and give a notification when the client enters an email address that's already connected to an account, along with options and links with which to either sign in with the existing account, or ask the system to email them their password for their existing account.
2. The form's interaction with autofill is malfunctioning.
It repeatedly tried to autofill his phone number in the email slot.
Suggested solution: I'm not sure whether this can be fixed on your end or not, but if possible, it would save the client some annoyance if browsers' autofill features put the correct piece of information in the right box - e.g. emails in email boxes.
3. It asked him to "re-enter your phone number", but didn't tell him what was wrong.
He'd entered a valid phone number, but instead of accepting it, the system refreshed the page and gave him an error notification that gave NO indication of why it objected to his phone number or how to fix it, thus increasing his already considerable irritation. I suggested that he remove the "1" at the beginning of the number, and that worked, but the fact that I had to GUESS at the solution concerns me.
Suggested solution: When giving ANY kind of error notification, don't just say something's wrong. Tell the user WHAT is wrong, and how to fix it. Explain it like they've never used the internet before.
4. The request for a password looked silly.
When it asked for a password, its exact words were, "Do you have a Stephanie OBrien password?", which I think looks kind of silly. I'd like it to say, "Do you have a Coach Client Connection password?" This is a concern I've had about APWT from the start: it does a LOT of behind-the-scenes things automatically, such as choosing the name "Stephanie O'Brien" in the quoted sentence above, while giving no indication of how to customize them manually.
Suggested solution: Give APWT account owners clear indications of where auto-filled information like this is stored, and how to edit it. (Not an easy fix, I know, since this is somewhat pervasive throughout the system. For now, I'll settle for knowing how to fix the "Stephanie OBrien password" problem.)
5. It keeps nagging me to log in.
I tried to test my shopping cart without logging in, by just putting my info into the boxes, and ran into this:
If I didn't log in, it's because I didn't WANT to log in. I don't want this "make an account to make a purchase" feature to be shoved down my throat every time I try to make a purchase or test my system, and the feedback I've gotten so far is that my customers don't, either. Some people just want to make a purchase without having extra steps forced on them.
Also, the line "Please Call for further assistance." has an inappropriately capitalized letter, and I would prefer to get rid of it, as my phone calls are by appointment only. I'd rather it had a link to my contact page, but this - once again - is a feature that's automatically generated, with no apparent way to manually customize it.
Suggested solution: Just let people complete their purchase. If they don't want to log in or create an account, don't interrupt their purchase to force them to, even if they already have an account. Maybe show a gentle reminder that "hey, you already have an account - here are the benefits of logging in before you complete your purchase," but don't make signing in a mandatory extra step that creates an unnecessary barrier to purchase. Also, please fix the typo so it doesn't reflect badly on your clients (especially writers and editors like me!), and give us easy-to-find and non-coder-friendly ways to customize ALL notifications like that, to avoid showing inapplicable CTAs to our clients.
Thanks in advance for your consideration. Hopefully these fixes, if implemented, will prevent me and other APWT users from losing any more sales due to a user-unfriendly purchase process.