Let your patrons know when something is wrong
I see a lot of PEO sites out there that still use the canned error messages whenever something goes wrong. If I buy concert tickets for my wife's birthday and see an error that just says "L1029 - Credit Card Payment Transaction Failed" I will give up right there and either come back the next day, call the box office, or go to another website and buy her a different gift. People who have used PEO for a couple of years may think, "PCCharge must have frozen. I'll go restart it and everything will be fine". But keep in mind the patron has no idea what PCCharge or PEO are; they just know your organization.
Usability is key
Website usability is essential for driving online sales. And just as your site should be usable, so too should your error messages. When something goes wrong, you want a patron to understand two things to keep him from calling the box office (or abandoning the purchase altogether). He needs to know:
- What happened - The patron needs to know if the error that occurred was a system error or his own fault. People will admit their mistakes a lot more easily when nobody is looking. Include the error code at the beginning or end of the message so that, in the event of a system error, you know what to do internally.
- How to fix it - Tell the patron that the phone number field is filled out incorrectly or that the show just went off sale.
Some errors in PEO are not the patron's fault, but you can still put a message out telling him to contact the box office. This has a twofold advantage - it allows you to save the sale and alerts you that something is wrong with the site. Be sure to include a phone number in the message!
Let's do a quick example. Take the following error message:
L1020-Invalid Password
It gets the job done, but it's not really helpful. You could change it to something like:
Your password is invalid. Please try again. Remember that passwords are case sensitive.
If you have lost your password, enter your email address in the Login field and click Forgot Password to have it sent to you.
L1020
This message has several things going for it:
- It tells the patron what went wrong without being accusatory
- It offers clear steps to fix the problem
- It contains the error code in case a support call is needed
Care to share your own error messages? Leave a note in the comments.