Online product registration has come a long way from the days of paper cards. Digital methods, like mobile or web-based, are now the preferred methods for both consumers and brands. The benefit for consumers is an easier, frictionless and more convenient onboarding experience – or at least that’s the expectation.
In reality, brands don’t often put enough time or resources toward making product registration a frictionless onboarding experience – and many customers take to social media to share their frustration with faulty processes. We’ve dubbed these complaints #OXstories (Ownership Experience stories) because they really do share a story about the registration process from the perspective of customers.
We have monitored and compiled real-life examples straight from Twitter of how many brands’ onboarding experience can fail their customers – and lessons that brands can learn from these mistakes to give their product owners a better experience. Trust us, the results pay off to do it right!
OX Oops #1: Outdated Links to Online Registration
The Fix: Website links can change more often than product documentation does. This is why digital documentation has an advantage over printed documentation as it can be updated easily. In addition to maintaining current links on all documentation, outdated links should automatically forward to the current registration page.
All current links should be tested thoroughly to ensure they bring customers to the right page.
OX Oops #2: Complicated Online Registration
The Fix: Make sure your online product registration pages feature simple forms with clear instructions. Reduce the number of clicks, auto-populate fields with model and other details wherever possible. Alert users if the email they entered is possibly incorrect or missing information. Step into their shoes and see where you get stuck. Go beyond viewing registration as a transactional event and remember that they are trying to connect with your brand and give you invaluable information about themselves to receive value back from you!
OX Oops #3: Online Registration Site Issues
The Fix: Bugs happen but it should go without saying that online registration forms should be tested, monitored – and tested and monitored again! This is one area where it often pays to partner with a provider to ensure your onboarding experience is working and continuously optimized. An outside provider will also have monitoring in place to avoid errors and outages.
Websites go offline and glitches happen. While these unexpected and sometimes unavoidable events may negatively affect the customer experience, the backlash is often temporary. Much more damaging to customer satisfaction – and more likely to be shared on social media – are continuously unavailable or broken services and poorly crafted experiences that make the process more difficult than it should be.
OX Oops #4: Missing or Outdated Registration Form Information
The Fix: Another common customer complaint about a brand’s process relates to information that is missing from the form or does not match the product information, preventing customers from completing their information. The trick is how the form is pulling in data, often from an ever-changing product information file (often called the Model Master file). New products, model names and localized options are ever-changing for most companies so it’s worth the investment to optimize how key information on the back-end is driving a frictionless experience for your customers on the front-end.
OX Oops #5: Account Creation Required to Register
The Fix: Offering a customer account reinforces your value to your product owners as they can get all they need from your brand in one convenient place. But don’t ask customers to create an account just to register their product. It’s the number one way to lose people that want to identify as product owners and, in fact, more than 35% of consumers will abandon the process when you make them create an account. Instead, enable them to register and make account creation after registration-optional.
Creating Positive OX Stories: The Onboarding Experience
Brands that shift their perspective and view product registration as an important onboarding experience will offer a frictionless service that welcomes and delights product owners. And the payoff we mentioned earlier? Brands that prioritize a great onboarding experience identify 5x more product owners and on average a 2-3x lift in lifetime value thanks to higher owner satisfaction and bolstering brand loyalty.