Amazon and Google have an important thing in common. They both make it easy to do business with them. Amazon’s shopping cart is easy to use, but they recently made it easier by adding a “Buy Now” button that reduces the buying process from three clicks to two. Google’s search page is the most valuable digital real estate on the internet. They could make (an even greater) fortune selling ads on the page, but they don’t. The company wants the search experience to be easy for users. (They’ll make money later in the process.)
So how do you deal with your prospects and customers? Would they say you are easy to do business with? Do you have a process for promptly returning calls? Does your Facebook ad take prospects to your home page where they have to navigate to find the answers they came for?* Is it easy for prospects to book an appointment with you at a mutually convenient time? Do you confuse your prospects with the thirty options you could provide, or do you present them with your three recommended “best sellers”? Do you schedule appointments between “Noon and 4:00” or can you tell your customers when your service tech will arrive? Do you use industry jargon when talking to clients, or do you speak in plain language? Is it easy for customers to understand and pay invoices? Do you provide a positioning document to customers so they know what to expect, or are they constantly surprised by what is routine to you?
James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits, describes the Law of Least Effort. The law tells us that, when deciding between similar options, people are hard wired to gravitate toward the option requiring the least effort. Who among us doubts that?
You are losing sales (and referrals) with every step you impose on prospects and customers. Where do things hang up in your selling and delivery processes? Where is it easy for you but hard for them? Where do customers show frustration in your processes? Start there. When dealing with competition and customers, the easy option needs to be you.
*The British government increased the response rate from 19.7% to 23.4 % by sending online taxpayers directly to a form rather than to a webpage where they could download it. And that was to pay TAXES, for crying out loud.