posted on March 16, 2006 04:25:59 PM new
Regarding the checkout completion without paying problem (where the customers think they have paid and haven't):
http://www.vendio.com/mesg/read.html?num=15&thread=97879
Perhaps while Christopher is at it he can pass this along to engineering as well: If the Paypal screen items cannot be tagged for errors or clickout by Vendio, then the screens preceding it need to be changed. Other sites that use Paypal do not have this problem because they manage their customers according to the customers' expectations. If more than a rare customer demonstrates they can't handle this screen by documented recurring problems for the sellers, then it has to be presented in another way so they can get through it successfully for everyone.
I'm not an expert on how to do that, but in some private web sites there is a triage process to get to the Paypal login screen. For instance, when the people click on the "confirm order" equivalent they could get a screen on how to choose to pay: Pay by Paypal, Pay by Check or Money Order, or Pay by Credit Card (meaning without Payal). If they click Paypal an intermediate screen can be presented asking if they already have a Paypal account with "Yes" or "No (no problem, you can sign up for Paypal right now--it's free!)", and "Go Back and choose another payment method" choices. Those can be coded to trigger specific instructions for upcoming screens or better yet be followed by a screens all to themselves that instruct something like:
---"Since you already have a Paypal account you will now be directed to your familiar Paypal login screen where you can log in to Paypal to complete your payment. Vendio will import the details automatically from your transaction on the Paypal site to your seller's Vendio checkout. [If you don't have a Paypal account yet click here]." (because invariably even with this some will still click and arrive the wrong place).---
Then, however someone ends up at the no paypal account screen they can get a message that gives a brief plug for Paypal, that is it free to them, secure, 65% of ebay buyers use it, blah blah blah. Then it can instruct something like
---"Since you do not have a Paypal account yet, you will now be directed to Paypal's standard registration and login screen. Please be sure to use the LEFT side of the Paypal screen for new registrants [the right side is only for those who already have an account and password]. If you have a Paypal account but have forgotten your Paypal password, you can click here to get it." (give them the link to the Paypal screen that requests it)---
All those screen components like the "Okay" buttons will then be Vendio's and can be coded with all sorts of warnings and pop ups and devices if the customers muck up when they bumble through. The need is to make this process as attention-getting and as redundant as necessary to make it idiot proof. That means idiot proof as far as the customer is concerned, not as far as the designers and coders and sellers and customer service folks who deal with this every day think it is.
