I bought something online today. It cost me 6 pence, it cost 99 pence to have it delivered and it gave me value of about £20. I was chuffed, because something else I’d previously purchased now worked properly.
The remarkable thing about this activity, for me, was the simplicity of it. Not only that, but it’s the way such transactions have become a part of everyday life and our expectations of service have risen so fast.
The part I was looking for didn’t, to my knowledge, have a name. It was a small metal ring that would allow a lampshade I’d bought to fit onto the light mounting in our living room.
So, what to search for in Google? I have to admit I wasn’t sure but I knew that I could refine my search if I wasn’t hitting the exact spot. So I typed in my problem rather than trying to come up with a name for this strange object. “Lampshade hole too big”. Surely this can’t work I thought, but no, lo and behold at position 2 there was the answer to my problem and it was clear even from the short excerpt of text that appeared alongside the response – this was what I was searching for!
It was, of course, only a short hop, skip and a jump to review it more fully, decide to buy and within a few clicks it was being packaged and posted to me.
Now, I know there are many who feel that some of the online behemoth stores are not for them – they kill the high street, they work their employees too hard, etc. – and I know they’re not perfect, but the simplicity of what I had just done struck me as something many businesses can learn from.
What’s to learn then?
If you want to get found think about what people might search for. That includes the phrases people may use, because they don’t all use the corporate language you do, even consider descriptions of the problem the customer may want to solve. Describe your product or service offering clearly and make sure you optimise how your page will appear in search. Make the purchase and delivery process simple.
It’s not easy, and I know you might not sell widgets like this, but if there are others out there doing it, then it becomes the standard which we will all need to meet.