The other night, we had my father over for dinner, and he started relaying horror stories about various web sites. This happens to me a lot. Occupational hazard.

He told me about the first time he tried to order supplies from FedEx.com. He had recently bought a small shipping store and needed to stock up. Apparently, it’s very difficult for a first-time user to order supplies. The homepage, which contains 40+ text links, also contains several navigation menus, one of which is labeled “Ship”, another of which is labeled “Manage My Account”.

Neither of these two things really screams, “Order supplies here!”, but that’s where the links to the order form live nonetheless. My father had a very hard time finding them.

When relaying this story, he told me, “It would be easier to travel horseback to Pakistan than to order supplies from FedEx.com”.

The site is clearly designed for repeat customers, which is probably in their best interest, but it doesn’t do a good job of getting users up to speed in the first place. FedEx will get plenty of repeat customers regardless of their user experience, but in an industry where it’s just as easy to choose UPS or DHL, because no one really cares who ships the damn package, you’d be wise to pay close attention to how you handle your customers.

Making them happy may not make them stay, but pissing them off will certainly make them leave.

To counter this, he also told me a story about ordering a new mailbox. He found a site, chose a mailbox style, chose a size, chose a color, etc, and was on his way in under five minutes. He was thrilled with how easy it all was. He remembers the experience fondly, and he’s extremely likely to use the same site next time he needs a mailbox. (You know, ’cause that happens often.)

This happened three years ago. He still remembers it.

Yes, people really do care.

Posted by Robert on December 27th, 2006