Kristin Currier

One man's anguished cry for better usability

This post from Andrew Wilkinson at MetaLab would be really, really funny if it weren’t so true.

Now, Zappos ain’t gonna lose any love from me because I adore their selection and famous customer service. But what IS customer service, anyway? Awesome shipping policies? Yes. Crazy product selection? Yep. Quick and knowledgeable help via phone or email? Hells yeah. Zappos has all that. It’s going far and beyond what most companies are doing these days. Zappos should also get some credit for the way it displays its products on the main product pages. Multiple views of the product from all angles and a nifty color swatching feature help the customer visually pick up and handle the merchandise.

But the point is this: Usability IS customer service. Whether your customer has to shop dirty aisles and trip over floorstacks, or look at bleary jpgs and crappy navigational menus, it’s the same thing. Customers can “walk” into your webstore 24/7. Therefore, you should put as much effort into making the shopping experience for your online customers as intuitive and easy as you would for your earthbound store. A pleasant and groan-free shopping experience means more sales.

I am no web usability expert (yet). But I have enough years working retail floors, designing retail merchandising plans, conducting resets and remodels that I understand it instinctively. I also understand customer service. The more I work in eCommerce, the more I understand that what applies to real stores should apply to online stores as well. As more and more consumers buy online, it would behoove us to remember what it feels like to be a customer.