One Strike, You're Out

With the abundance of easy, simple, fast options available to consumers these days companies need to be very wary of showing their weaknesses too early in their relationship with the precious-consumer.  Because switching costs are so very low (Travelocity to Expedia to Orbitz to Hotwire... do any really have any unique proposition to a consumer?), companies need to invest extra resources to ensure that not only the first but the first few experiences are damn near perfect. Other wise, one strike and you're out.

I recently experienced an example of a company showing their errors too early in our experience: GoToMeeting by Citrix Online.  A vendor had scheduled a meeting in which we would use this technology.  We would be on the phone as well as referring to a presentation during our hour-long meeting.  After opening the calendar item, clicking on the link and identifying my meeting,  I was greeted with the following screen.  Squarely in the middle is states "Click 'Yes' or 'Always' if prompted".  Pretty straight forward. I am now ready to respond in kind when presented with the opportunity: Yes or Always.

As expected, the very next screen rendered itself and I am now confronted with a choice:  Run or Don't Run. Let me stop here.

How does this strike you?  How would this make you feel if you experienced this?  And how does this influence the way you think about GoToMeeting?  And finally, if this was your first time engaging with this product, would your responses be any different?

There are several options in the online conferencing space: GoToMeeting, NetMeeting, and WebEx.  Even Adobe announced last month that it will launch on online conference tool within its highly successful Acrobat product line, Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. In other words, consumers have options. And not just options but options from companies that have good name recognition. 

In markets where there is little perceived differentiation between competitors and name recognition for competitors is reasonable, the need to ensure clean and concise on boarding of new customers is even more crucial.  If not, a company runs the high risk of striking out with that consumer after just one pitch.