Info-Profits Talk - Do You Have Problems With Your WebTV Customers Ordering From You?

williec

This time of the year is the busiest season for my cookbook business. In-fact, I sell more cookbooks between November 1st and January 1st than the entire rest of the year! It is a seasonal product after all... something people buy for Christmas presents and looking for recipes for holiday meals.

Just today I've received over 20 phone calls and as many emails from customers using WebTV having problems ordering from me. My response is to take the order and process it manually. They all seem to have problems as the order process takes them from page to page. I'm sure it has to do with cookies tracking the order from page to page since WebTV doesn't have a harddrive to store information.

I was wondering if anyone else noticed a similar problem and how you handle it. Perhaps the demographics of your customers are different.

Thanks,
Willie

williec

As a follow-up, when I noticed the trend, I sent out an email to all webmail users on my list. I sorted my list by domain using that feature of ProfitAutomation.com In the email, I pointed out that I noticed a problem and explained what I thought the problem was when Webmail users try to order. That email generated just over 60 orders!

It goes to prove another point that I've long understood. If someone complains about something not working properly on your website, or of having problems, there are probably 10 times as many potential customers/users who had the same problem and just gave up. Most won't bother to inform you of a problem so when you get an email from a customer or even a customer service type question.... think to yourself that a lot of others probably had the same problem and just gave up.

Willie

dmgammage

"Television" based internet access systems have limited support of Javascript, and typically NO support of Java. Flash support is usually limited, and sessions established through cookies can also be sketchy. This is why many e-commerce systems do not work well (or at all) with TV-based systems.

This is due to the closed architecture of the system. MSN TV is the next-generation version of WebTV and is somewhat better...but still inferior to an actual computer.

Anyone else have any input on these? I ran into these issues when I was developing an e-commerce system for a client in ColdFusion 4.5.

:confused: