What we are not.
Most sites that sell product go to great lengths to explain what all their product can do. Few sites seem to do the opposite, though. One that does, is sunporch.com. We’re building a new patio this year and we’ve been toying with the idea of adding a sunroom to the house.
SunPorch’s site does a great job explaining exactly what their product is, AND exactly what it is NOT.
Looking at this, it seems like such an obvious piece of information, but yet you hardly see any sites do this. I imagine clearly explaining what you products and services are not drastically reduces the amount of dead leads that sales staff have to follow-up with, not to mention a reduction in basic FAQs that the web team need to responsd to.
In the end, I found out a SunPorch wasn’t a product that is going to fit our needs. Even so, I left with a great brand impression of the company. It sure beat having to go through 3 emails with customer support only to have them finally realize the product wasn’t a match for our needs.
Has anyone else experienced a site that goes to this length to clearly define what their product is not?
P.S. I also need to mention some other great user experience features of this site:
Guest Accounts
The pricing page will calcualte the price of the product for you based on the individual criteria you enter. While this type of custom pricing tool is nothing new, what really got my attention was the fact that it doesn’t require you to set up an account to use it. You can create an account if you want, to save your information, but they also recognize the fact that sometimes you just want a quick price without having to commit to a ‘relationship’.
Plenty of Photos
They make sure that you have a wide range of photos that go into great detail as to how the system works and is put together.
Setting expectations
Their ordering information page is a great example of how to keep your customers aware of the entire process. Reading through this page, the customer becomes fully aware of both their’s and SunPorch’s responsibilities through the ordering and shipping process.
