Whether you sell a product or offer a service, you’ll have to check certain things regularly to make sure all your customers have an easy time using your product, accessing your available services or goods, and paying for those services or goods. By doing so, you take care of your business’ financial health and take it one step closer to turning a profit. Here are some ways to act as your own customer in order to make sure that every aspect of your business is running as smoothly as possible, which will help keep your investment and finances intact.
Shopping
Pretending to be a shopper in your own store is particularly important if you run any sort of online store, but it is also a great idea in physical stores as well. Checking the ease with which customers can find, access, and purchase the items your offer for sale is the best way to make sure that they are never leaving your store, whether online or in person, without making a purchase just because there was some sort of problem that you could have solved. Online, go through every aspect of your business’s website. Are all the tabs functional? Do pages load quickly and correctly? If you are using an online store, this is when you should pay special attention to the ease with which people can add items to their online cart. If there is any malfunction in this process, it’s very important that you correct it as soon as possible. If people have trouble shopping for items, they are unlikely to continue struggling with your website long enough to make any sort of actual purchase. If any of these things occur, you’re hurting your business and your ability to keep it financially stable.
Paying
Even if customers have an easy time selecting items to buy, if they have trouble purchasing them, they are much more likely to walk away or abandon their online shopping carts. Test your own system by not only adding items to your cart, but by going through the entire check-out process from start to finish. If you encounter any problems, it is probably time to change or update your POS software. If you offer discounts or promo codes, try to enter those, also. Make sure any bonuses such as free shipping or customer loyalty discounts are working properly. While some customers might be dedicated enough to contact you if they have an issue checking out, there are many who will simply walk away or close their internet browser. Don’t make it easier for your customers to leave without purchasing the items they want. If you pretend to be a shopper and go through the entire process yourself, you will know exactly how easy it is to check out and pay for your cart full of items.
If you have problems with your own system, it’s likely that customers are having even more trouble. You can eliminate many of these problems by catching them before the customers do. Set aside a certain time on a certain day every week to test elements of your website, your store’s functionality, and your checkout system to make sure that customers never walk away from a sale due to frustration or difficultly. If you do this you’re sure to have a business that is financially sound.
