One of the challenges of ecommerce-in-a-box is that you work so hard to piece together a credible vendor solution (i.e. Shopify) that you don’t stop to ask yourself how the customer sees the experience.
Example?
Friday Pickleball.
I was on the ground floor, watching their funny videos years ago.
I’ve spoken with the guys at a pickleball tournament. If you’ve never been to a PPA Tournament in Mesa (or elsewhere), by all means, open up your wallet and enjoy. You might see the guys there.
My wife paid $ to be coached by Kyle Koszuta. I’ve forwarded his videos to my audience at Pickleball Mathlete. We’ve watched him battle the pros in early rounds on Pickleball.TV. We’ve enjoyed watching Rachel Rohrabacher battle the best in the business, using their paddles as their first signed pro.
We took their Pickleball Personality Test.
We watched those guys as they changed their lives, moving to Phoenix to grow their careers.
Last week, I needed a new paddle … I bought the Friday Aura to help protect my arm from tennis elbow.
You’d likely say I’m a “fan”.
Their ecommerce-in-a-box solution doesn’t know that. They’ve sent me two ecommerce-related messages since.
- Please Become An Affiliate Marketer For Them.
- The Message Below.
I just bought a paddle, and NOW you’re going to tell me you’ll help me find the right paddle?
Mind you, this doesn’t change anything because I’m a fan. I’m with them.
The message is for you, it’s illustrative for your business. The vast majority of your customers are not fans. Nope. Those who aren’t fans don’t want a “customer relationship”. They want you to fulfill a want/need they have at a point-in-time. Telling them you can solve a problem hours after they purchase thinking they’ve already solved the problem is counter-productive. It’s especially counter-productive because you are a small/scrappy brand using Shopify / Klaviyo so you can compete/beat somebody like Macy’s … only to have ecommerce-in-a-box fail you.
Again, I love what the Friday Pickleball folks are doing overall – I’m a fan, so I’m not going anywhere. Most of your customers are not fans, so the rules for those customers are different. Your messaging should reflect that fact, it needs to be more “on point” if you will.
