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Don’t Tug on Superman’s Cape

Posted on July 22, 2010, 10:17 am, by David Hills and received No Comments ».

There’s a Jim Croce song where the chorus says:

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don’t mess around with Jim

It’s referring to the no brainer things that people should never do. The song reminds me of some of the similarly ‘no brainer’ things that people should avoid doing that leads to fraud and identity theft. For example, if you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from your credit card company and they need to verify your account, don’t give out any personal information such as a social security number or credit card number. Instead, hang up and call the company’s number on the back of your credit card to see if they were really trying to contact you. Likewise, any e-mail claiming to be from your bank that validates your info by having you click a link and log in is almost certainly a ‘phishing scam’. Someone is trying to obtain your account information. Thankfully, many of us are wise to these types of ploys (RSA’s 2010 survey indicates that 76 percent of consumers are aware of phishing threats.)

I like to play it safe, especially online. If possible, I opt out of features that save my credit card information when I check out. It’s not necessarily that I don’t trust the merchant; I just don’t trust that they have the best security features in place. So I have to reenter my card when I visit next time? Big deal! It is worth the peace of mind to me.

Last week, I mentioned how you should accept as many payment types as possible, since shoppers may have a preference. Besides preferring certain credit cards based upon personal versus business purchases, I also sometime prefer to pay using PayPal or Google Checkout. If I am shopping at a merchant that I am not familiar with, I will always choose PayPal or Google Checkout if the merchant offers one of those payment options. It is comforting to go to PayPal and sign in to complete my purchase. I know PayPal even if I don’t know this merchant. I also know that, because I’m using PayPal, the merchant will not have access to my credit card information. And, as an added bonus, I don’t have to reenter shipping or payment info.

I understand that, because I’m in the eCommerce industry, I’m probably a little more savvy than the average shopper. But, just like more people now know to not click on login links from e-mails, we may see more shoppers being particular about how they choose to pay. So, for your peace of mind on not losing sales because of restricting a shopper’s payment options, give them choices! After all, it’s a no brainer.

Tags: Credit Cards, Google Checkout, PayPal

Pay me any way you want to!

Posted on July 15, 2010, 12:08 pm, by David Hills and received No Comments ».

Way back in my college days, at the end of the school year, a few of my fellow students and I would drive non-stop from our student housing in the west to get home back in the east. For any financial emergencies that should arise, my father had loaned me his American Express card. As we were just ‘starving students’, you can imagine how the junker we drove always had some kind of mechanical problem. On one trip, the car was burning or leaking through the oil so fast that, at every fill-up, we’d need to add a quart. This was not an expense we had planned for, so I decided to use my father’s credit card.

We received a nasty surprise the first time I tried to use the card (somewhere in Wyoming), when we found out that the gas station we had stopped at did not take American Express. No problem, I thought to myself, I’ll just use it at the next gas station. Unfortunately the same thing happened again! We eventually found out that Sunoco gas stations accepted my father’s credit card. Each time we needed gas, the search for a new Sunoco station began. It didn’t matter how far off the highway and into a town we had to travel, our only option was to find a Sunoco station. Of course, this was a major inconvenience for us!

I suppose that the American Express fees were a little higher than other credit cards, which might have lead some merchants to decide not to carry that card at all. In my particular case, that was a deal breaker. All of those other gas stations lost out on my business as a result.

I often see the same restrictions placed on eCommerce sites. Some major vendors will accept credit cards, but not PayPal. Many smaller merchants only accept PayPal but no credit cards (except through a PayPal account.) Even fewer will take checks.

If you don’t have any competitors, you can tell customers how to pay you. But, if your business is like most other businesses, you have competitors and need to remove any and all impediments to shoppers buying their products on your site. Now-a-days, people have their favorite credit cards to earn points or frequent flier miles on. Some, like me, may prefer to use American Express for business purposes and Visa for personal. Others may be more comfortable with PayPal. The point is, you can’t predict which method your customer will prefer to pay you with.

I can understand how merchants that are just starting out may only want to take PayPal, as there is no monthly fee – there are only transaction fees to worry about. But, as your business grows, you need to expand which payment options you provide. For us, customers can pay with just about any method they might desire, whether it is by PayPal, Google Checkout, Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card, American Express, or even check. I don’t care how our customers pay us as long as they pay us!

Tags: American Express, Check, Discover Card, Google Checkout, MasterCard, PayPal, Visa

Are you treating Social Networks like your personal networks?

Posted on July 8, 2010, 11:21 am, by David Hills and received No Comments ».

I follow a number of businesses on Facebook and Twitter. Surprisingly, I find that many of them do not act like businesses, but instead they act like several of my personal Facebook friends. Does your business fall into one of these three categories?

The Spammer
Everyone on facebook knows at least one of these people. You know the ones that have at least a dozen updates each day. Most of the updates are not that interesting – “Just had this for breakfast,” “Visited this store”, etc. Now, maybe if you are TV and Movie Star Ashton Kutcher, your fans will want to hear everything that you are doing. But, if you are a business, I don’t want a lot of tweets or posts. I especially don’t want you telling me stuff that I, as a customer and businessman, don’t care about. I’m busy, and I follow you because you share relevant information that I’m interested in. Maybe I want to know about your weekly special, coupons, new products, etc. Maybe you review and highlight a product once a week. Perhaps you share your thoughts on something about your market or industry. If so, great! That’s what I want to know about. I don’t need you to tell me to have a happy holiday or that you just had dinner with a business acquaintance.

The Lurker
I have facebook friends that friend me but rarely, if ever, update their status. The only updates I see are that they have friended other friends, so I know that they are still active on facebook. Apparently, they watch everyone but never contribute anything themselves. I’ve seen something similar occur with a few businesses on twitter. They have a presence there (they link to twitter from their web site, for example), but they rarely post anything! Why have a business presence on Twitter and/or Facebook if you are never going to use it?

The Spazmatic
This person is sometimes a spammer and sometimes a lurker. For friends, it is ok for them not to post anything when they have nothing to say.
A business, on the other hand, needs to post updates in a relatively timely fashion. Of course, we want that update to be relevant! Even if you do not have some great insight to post, I would bet that you’ve read someone’s tweet or facebook status that linked to a great article. At the very least you can retweet that. Then I will know that you are alive and that you are still sending me the relevant information that I’ve come to expect from you!

I think the rules for businesses on Facebook and Twitter are different than that of friends or celebrities. Decide what kind of information you want to have a reputation for posting and stick to it. Doing so will cultivate the audience that is after that information. Maybe you provide the special of the week, the new product of the week, the review of the week, or even the joke of the week! Just as your web site is tailored to a specific audience, you should likewise tailor your Facebook Brand page or your Twitter account. Besides giving me the relevant information I seek, remember to do it on a somewhat regular basis. That may just be once a week or several times a week. Just don’t post something to post something. Remember, just like you, I’m busy (except for when I’m playing Farmville on Facebook!)

Don’t Tug on Superman’s Cape

Pay me any way you want to!

Are you treating Social Networks like your personal networks?

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