Saturday, November 29, 2008

Signing Up: Making Registration Easier

Some sign-up processes are pretty simple. Want a Twitter account? Just choose a username and password, enter your email address and you’re all set.

For something more complicated, you may be in for a far more prolonged sign-up experience – if you finish the process at all.

I recently opened a new online brokerage account. It seems anything that involves money requires a fairly extensive registration process. I certainly understand why.

First, a brokerage firm needs to confirm that you are who you say you are and establish that you’re qualified to trade at the level you’re applying for. Second, a successful sign up requires that you fund your account – a phase of the process that may occur days later, or in some cases, never.

I attempted to sign up at three different firms, but only funded an account at one. The other two? They joined the ranks of the “abandoned sign up.”

Successfully engaging a customer through a complex process like this takes some pretty sophisticated design planning . How do you make it as easy as possible for a potential customer, meet all your critical regulatory and security requirements, and minimize abandoned sign ups?

I have a few suggestions:

1) Preview the sign up process

Nothing is more frustrating than starting something you think will take 10 minutes and still be at it a half hour later. You can waste a lot of time waiting for confirmation emails, verifying information you may not have handy, etc.

That’s why I think it’s important to provide a high-level overview. Don’t be shy. Tell your customer what the overall process looks like to set the right expectations

For example:

Signing up for an account at XYZ is easy. First, we’ll ask you some questions about your background, send you a confirmation link via email, and then complete the process with a few more questions about your needs.

This way I know what to expect, and more importantly, I get the sense that the company I’m signing up with seems to know what it’s doing.

2) Provide progress status

Even if you’ve previewed the sign-up process, it’s always helpful to know where you are within that process. If you’ve answered 15 questions on 3 screens, you might be frustrated wondering if whatever you’re signing up for is really worth all the effort.

I’ve always liked the way Southwest Airlines handles this. Here you can see my progress in booking a ticket:

The yellow text shows stages I’ve already completed, the red text shows where I am in the process, and the grey text shows what’s left.

3) Ask the easy questions first

Some financial sites start with a question that requires too much thinking. Do I want a margin account or a regular account? Do I want to be able to trade options? Do I want to set up a cash sweep? It’s nice to offer choices, but asking prospects to think about their choices at an early stage often leads to abandoned sign ups.

My suggestion is to ask easy questions first. A good start is to ask the user to select a user name and password, then ask for contact information such as email and phone number.

This way, you’re not leading off with questions that require a lot of thinking and you also get contact information follow-up purposes. If a prospect abandons the sign-up process, you then at least have some way to contact the prospect to find out why.

In addition, keep similar questions together. For example, it’s a lot easier for customers to answer a set of personal questions, then a set of financial questions as opposed to mixing them up.

4) Provide contextual pop-up screens

Your sign-up process may include asking for sensitive information, such as social security number. Because this can be a intimidating, it’s helpful to put a small link near that entry field.

A “why do I need to provide this information?” or “about our security” can help alleviate concerns. A pop-up window can then clarify the reasons you need this information and can also be used to provide help on questions that may be confusing.

5) Enable online chat assistance

While pop-up windows can be helpful, there’s no way to predict all of the questions an individual prospect may have.

For complex sign up processes, consider testing an online chat capability. While it may seem expensive, it’s an excellent way to learn how to improve your sign-up process and increase your percentage of successful registrations.

6) Follow up on abandoned sign-ups

If you took my suggestion on asking easy questions first, then you might get a valid email address or phone number to follow up.

Once again, follow-up programs can be expensive, but it’s a high-leverage opportunity. You’ve probably spent a lot of money to get someone to the point where they’re ready to sign up. For a small extra expense, you can learn how to improve your sign-up process and capture more incremental sign-ups.

Customers always appreciate it when you make their lives easier. Sure, hardly anyone will send you an email commending you for making your sign-up process clear, concise, and engaging. But you’ll know you’ve succeeded when you see more people signing up and fewer people signing out never to return.

Posted by Richard Bloch

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