The Risk Cycle: How Unresolved Risk Affects Your Customers

Susie quietly reads through your website with a smile on her face. She likes what she sees and thinks to herself, “Hmm, this might work for me.”

Then before she can reach for her purse, she’s paralyzed. Moments later, she’s gone.

What happened to Susie? Can you prevent this from happening on your website?
Yes, you can. All too often your clients experience risk while visiting your website. And without your knowledge they progress through fours stages of risk.

Unfortunately, you’re powerless to stop it unless you take specific steps to reduce the risk. In this article, you’ll why this happens and what you can do to prevent it.

It’s all all too familiar experience for our website readers
They come across a site and like what the see. But somewhere between the “I like what I see” and the “Do you accepts Visa?” we lose them for good. They’ve become a victim of risk and we’ve done nothing to prevent it from happening.

Can you prevent this cycle of risk?
Yes, you can. But you must first understand the elements of the cycle. Let’s take a look at them, shall we?

Phase 1- Hesitation & Paralysis

Susie Surfer either reads something that’s unclear or has a question about your service that remains unanswered. Without the opportunity to ask the question or discover the answer on the same page, she hesitates.

Hesitation leads to a paralysis; when given the opportunity to act on your offer, her ability to whip out her Visa card and buy your book is paralyzed.

If you could ask Susie what the problem is, she might likely comment, “I don’t know; something just isn’t right.”
Susie’s entered the first phase of the risk cycle.

Phase 2 - Sales Prevention

If Susie’s ability to buy is paralyzed by a lack of complete information, she’s prevented from making a purchase. This phase of the risk cycle is a result of the hesitation and paralysis experienced in phase one.

Phase Two could be called the point-of-no-return because once the customer makes the decision not to buy, there’s very little you can do retroactively to change their mind. This leads them directly into the third phase of the risk cycle and form a negative opinion of you and your site.

Phase 3 - Formation of a Negative Opinion

Susie hasn’t been able to receive a complete picture of your offer. She has questions she needs answered. But there isn’t an opportunity to ask them. This prevents her from buying and as a result she’s not too thrilled with you or your website at this point.

Once formed, a negative opinion opens the door to customer dissatisfaction. Customer dissatisfaction isn’t going to promote the warm-fuzzies. In fact it will give her the nudge she needs to click away.

Phase 4 - The Permission to Leave

Think about it; why should she stay? Would you stay on a website that didn’t provide the full story, offered no opportunity to ask your unanswered questions, and then expected you to buy? Probably not.

Are You Stuck With This?

No, not at all. Luckily, there are three steps you can take to remedy this situation and keep Susie surfing a good deal longer.

Step One: Audit your offer for unanswered questions
Get a friend or colleague to read your offer and note the questions that come up. You’re probably too close to the copy to be objective - especially if you wrote it. So get an outside opinion from someone who will be honest with you.

Step Two: Answer the questions
Once you have the answers, insert these into your copy in a way that answers the question before it’s asked.

Instead of: “We take Visa and all other credit cards.”

Consider: “You’re probably wondering if we accept you particular credit or debit card. We accept Visa, MasterCard, Diner’s Club, Discover, Am-Ex, and just about any other card you might have. To be sure, click on this link for a further discussion of payment options.”

Step Three: Offer an Opportunity To Inquire Further
Susie has questions and you’ve now don your darnedest to provide solid answers before she has a chance to think of them. But even thought you exhausted all possible questions, one or two might slip by your audit. In that case, consider using a contact for that Susie can fill in and send to you with a promise of a prompt reply.

Preventing your customer from entering into the Risk Cycle can mean the difference between a sale and no sale; the difference between a customer and memory.

Auditing your offers for any unanswered questions, providing those answers in a conversational manner, and finally offering a method of asking for additional information will prevent the risk cycle from setting up shop on your business website and keep Susie surfing right through to checkout.

Tags: Blog Posts, Risk