Why You Should Make Your Customers Feel Like They’re Buying a Ferrari

November 27, 2014 , 26 Comments

There’s a certain mistake I have seen far too often, on far too many websites and it has to do with how you make your visitors and customers feel.

The best way I can explain this is with an analogy. Watch the video below to see what buying a luxury sports car has to do with your website and your online business…

[thrive_borderless type=’custom_code’ position=’default’]

[/thrive_borderless]
[blank_space height=’2em’]

Links & Resources

As important as a good purchase process or signup process is, it’s not the first thing you need to worry about. This and this still apply.

Shane's Signature

Image Credit

About ​Shane Melaugh

I'm the founder of ActiveGrowth and Thrive Themes and over the last years, I've created and marketed a dozen different software, information and SaaS products. Apart from running my business, I spend most of my time reading, learning, developing skills and helping other people develop theirs. On ActiveGrowth, I want to help you become a better entrepreneur and product creator. Read more about my story here.


​Related Articles

  • Outing Confusionsoft – Love it!

    • It just had to be said. They’re not the only ones with an awful default process, though.

  • You really make us think Shane! I love it as always. Do you have any recommendations for e-mail marketing software that lives up the the expectations you have for such a software? I’m currently with Mailchimp, but I’ve considered changing for some time now. For some reason I’m not able to reply to your comments, but hopefully it will work this time.

    • I haven’t found any email marketing system that really nails it and lives up to my standards. There are several that do a good, basic job, though. For example Aweber and GetResponse are both decent solutions and they give you a good amount of freedom in customizing that opt-in and confirmation process.

  • Many moons ago I bought a new car (not a Ferrari!) and went to the garage to pick it up. I was really disappointed when they gave me a key and told me where to find it on the parking lot. It was covered in dust and grime having been delivered straight from the storage depot without cleaning or valeting. Suffice it to say, I never did business with them again.

    It’s the same with any business – if the check-out process is poor then you start looking for a better customer experience because you begin to question the value you are receiving.

    • Thanks for your comment, Mark! Too bad it wasn’t a Ferrari. :)

      You highlight a good point which is that when the purchase process is disappointing, it gives you the impression that the vendor is careless, which is never a good sign.

  • Wow Shane,

    Yeah you made it, Im completely out of my socks, this is so freaking awesome Stuff! This is a so important and most forgotten part of customer relationship. Emotional Feelings of Peoples! Is it good they will sharing, like, giving feedbacks and come back soon, like me! :-) You never must use hard selling or extreme Power Marketing to sell or bring me back to your Stuff. You open up my Eyes with your Story, now i understand really what makes the Difference and why. I can see the pictures in my Head, You are my Hero, Thanks!
    And please do me and you a Favor, go to grab your Ferrari or rent them for you. You’ve earned this! I have seen the little smile and the shiny Lights in your Eyes, this must defintely your next dream goal. But please go careful we need you alive! ;-)
    I hope for my Future i find later a Business Partner like you. Thanks for your great helpful Stuff all the Time!

    Best Joerg

    • Haha, thank you, Joerg!
      I’m actually not that into luxury cars. They’re nice and I’d probably enjoy driving around in one, but I wouldn’t actually want to own one. Owning a Ferrari isn’t on my bucket list, but I thought that the analogy was one everyone can relate to and “Ferrari” is like a symbol for the ultra-luxurious car, right?

  • I’ve been working on this really hard a couple of months ago (and I’m still refining it whenever I can)!

    I think it’s really useful to keep asking yourself: How can I/we make this “frictionless”?

    And sure, you will always be somewhat limited in terms of tools and cross-platform compatibility, but just by thinking through the ideal experience you’ll notice there is a lot you CAN do.

    After removing as much friction as possible, you start asking yourself: how can we upgrade the experience and make it more exciting/enjoyable?

    It’s so amazing what you can do with small things like original “thank you” & “welcome” video’s, or a simple login redirect to get people instantly to where they want/need to be.

    To me it’s really weird that people go all out to get you to buy, and just neglect pretty much the whole buying- and after sale experience, except of course for the up sells or ascension series, can’t neglect those lol ;-)

    You made some great points and I think that most people don’t realize that this experience actually IS part of your product!

    • Damn, you just said it better than I did. Yes, the experience is part of the product. That’s exactly why it’s so important.

      And I also shake my head in wonder when I see how often this part of the product is neglected. Even outside of virtual sales, like in hotels that have a fancy looking lobby and crappy rooms.

  • I use to be a mortgage loan originator. One time I was at a sales conference put on by a guy that was closing 200 -300 loans each month. He asked everyone in the audience what they felt was the most important part of a loan transaction. Was it what happened Before the transaction occurred (what you did to get the customer). Was it what happened During the transaction (what you did while originating the loan) or what you did After the transaction (after the loan had already closed and funded).

    As you well may have already guessed each person in the audience chose either the before, during or after. He corrected us and said they are all equally as important. So I see this happening in the online space as well. We are so interested in getting the opt-in or the sale but we definitely forget the courtship after we get these items. Oh what a travesty.

    • Thanks for your comment, Rick! That’s a good example and it definitely applies to online transactions as well.

  • Hi Shane! This post came at the exact right moment in my situation! I have been gathering email addresses using ActiveCampaign and with some tweaking I am able to give people submitting their emails a decent experience which I am okay with.

    Following good advice (yours) I am now about to “launch” my first product, an eBook.

    I built my sales page using TCB landing pages and I had decided to go with Jvzoo for delivery/affiliate, despite actually having not liked beeing on the byers side of the table (I bought VideoMakerFX and Mascot.ly through them).

    My thoughts were: “You gotta take the bad with the good” (they do offer simplicity regarding delivery and affiliates), but after seeing this post I am having serious second thoughts!

    Should I find another way to sell the eBook or should I keep my course? :)

    B

    • Hello Birgir,

      That’s great to hear and congratulations on making it this far.

      Like I mention at the end of the post, the Ferrari thing isn’t the highest priority. What’s more important is that you ship. When it comes to products, the quality of the product and the purchase experience is one thing that will set you apart. But the first thing that will set you apart is actually putting your product out there, where most people never even do that.

      Personally, I’m not a fan of JVzoo either. Take a look at Zaxaa, which I think is a superior option. However, do not let this hold you back. If it takes you an extra afternoon to switch to a better affiliate system, do it. If it takes you an extra 2-3 days, just launch with what you have and worry about improving things later.

  • Hi Shane,

    Thanks for reinforcing what I knew I should pay some more attention to for a while now and I will try and focus on this over the Christmas holidays.

    I am currently making and selling heavy duty brush cutter blades, but in many ways I have two customers. The men find my product, (mostly on a mobile device now) but almost 50% of purchases are carried out by that person’s wife, partner or girlfriend. (I mean, real men who use big brush cutters don’t use computers, right) So almost half my customers are not experiencing that purchase satisfaction.
    Question, should I try and tailor the thank you experience to suit the female buyer as well, as I am sure, for many of the female buyers it is just a chore that they want to get through as quickly as possible. Perhaps some of the females who follow you could also offer some advice here.

    Thanks again for the good information, as I have said to you before; you are the only one that I always read or watch. My open rate to other marketers depends on my mood and time available at time of opening and I find that if I do not read or watch it right then I never get back to it.

    Regards Anton

    • Hi Anton,

      That’s an interesting situation. One thing you can do, even if the buyer isn’t the user of the product, is make the purchase process friction-less and pleasant. No matter who’s buying, they’ll always appreciate not having to jump through extra hoops in the process.

      Think of it like this: if you’re making a purchase at a market, one way the purchase process can be pleasant is if the vendor is very helpful, charming and friendly. The other way it can be pleasant is if the vendor serves you very quickly and efficiently and then lets you get on with your business.

  • Hi Shane;
    Another excellent video. I recall from a marketing course I took a couple of years ago, that no matter how much research and weighing of benefits and costs..in the end the purchase decision is an emotional one. It applies to all people, not just women.

    It’s so rare to find an awesome customer experience these days, that actually being treated with respect and made to feel important, seems to stand out that much more. Never underestimate the ‘warm and fuzzy’ feeling you can give your customers at each stage of the selling/buying process.

    By the way, the text graphic in the upper right of the video, towards the end, has the word ‘Thoughts’ spelled incorrectly as ‘Thoughs’. I won’t hold it against you though…LOL.

    • Oops, didn’t notice that typo. :)

      Yes, what you say is exactly right. No matter who’s buying and no matter how rational the buying decision may seem, there’s always an emotional component at play.

  • I’m going to take a moment and write down the story of the perfect purchase process for whatever it is I am considering buying right now. How do I want the process to go? What does the website do, what do the owners do, and what do I think and feel as I complete the transaction?

    Let’s call this the “story” of my ideal customer’s sales process. As I approach each sales funnel – from initial lead generation through post-sale conversation – I infuse the process with the story of their ideal experience.

    People don’t just want the transaction, they don’t simply want a plugin or a theme or a fancy car — they want the story that’s already in them about the experience they will have with the plugin/theme/car … and they want to have that story unfold in real life.

    We don’t want to pay US$10 to watch a video of someone reading a JK Rowling’s novel in a monotone. We want the full, exciting, colorful experience that stimulates our senses and takes us inside Harry Potter’s journey – including all the giants, ogres, demons and magic.

    Especially the magic.

    -D

    • Very nicely said, Don! I can only agree with you emphatically. :)

  • Hello Shane,

    Getting people to make their businesses “look right” for customers is so difficult. I am always telling clients that the first impression they make with a customer is the one that will be remembered but they generally fail to act on it.

    Perhaps it is because of cost; both financial and effort required. It is also a skill that has to be developed over years.

    Let me tell you a story. I have never owned a Ferrari but I gave my wife a Porsche as a present. In the UK we have a Road Fund Tax that has to be paid in order to put a car on the road and the Porsche dealer asked me when he should purchase the tax disc.

    It was a few days before the end of the month and to get maximum value from the tax I needed to buy the tax disc on the first of the next month. I told the dealer to buy it on the first which meant he would have to keep the car in his show room for a few days.

    The dealer created an impression I will never forget. He bought and paid for the tax out of his profit on the car and gave me the key to drive away immediately. The next Porsche I buy will be from that dealer. I had not purchased from him before that transaction but he left me with the right first impression.

    Best regards,

    Peter.

    • That’s a really beautiful example of someone going the extra mile in customer service. Thanks for the contribution, Peter!

  • Making the customer feel great after being on my website is something that I never thought about. Appreciate your wisdom and ability to convey the message we need to make better websites for our customers!

  • {"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

    ​Develop the Ultimate Entrepreneurial Superpower: Productivity!

    ​Countless "wantrepreneurs" fail to achieve their business goals - not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of a lack of productive, effective implementation. Don't be one of them.

    >