Re: Launching a new browser window

From: Adrian Harvey <aharvey_at_sympatico.ca>
Date: Wed 31 Jan 2001 10:34:46 -0500

STEFANIE OLSEN <stefanieo_at_yahoo.com> WROTE:
> Is anyone noticing that a lot of sites are starting to
> trigger a new browser window when you leave the site? I
> noticed this on the Jobsonline.com site and it seemed
> like the technique porn sites use to keep you at the
> site? Can anyone talk about this technique?

TO WHICH ROB FRANKEL <rob_at_robfrankel.com> REPLIED:
> Didn't realize it was a trend but I always have advised
> clients to do this as defense against losing visitors.
> After all, if you work that hard to get people to your
> site, why would you give them an easy escape? A new
> browser window allows them to come back if what they
> clicked disappointed them.

Sorry. Can't agree. This is hogwash!

1 A website, or a retail store is *not a prison* to
'escape' from, as you suggest. When a browser is
finished looking around NOTHING should hinder them from
moving on. The trick is to get them to note the
address/bookmark of your store because they found it
interesting, with promise for future shopping.

2 What do you think the back button is for?... but to
give browsers CONTROL over their visits!! And nothing
should replace its function. If browsers want to go
back to your store they will use it, voluntarily.

If you managed a retail store and physically blocked
the exit door to customers who browsed but did not
buy....it's for sure they would never, ever come back.
(Would you also block the door to a paying customer??)
The trick is to thank browsers as they leave and
welcome them back soon...not harass them like an
inexperienced sales clerk. Or the porn sites. Or the
copycat e-commerce sites that mistakenly think this is
great CRM!

This interference with a shopper's freedom to move on
whenever and however they want, to me, a person who has
been involved with retailing and customer service all
his life, is simply jealous MALPRACTICE - to stoop to
any depth to try to DETAIN a person from leaving the
premises. It's worse than begging the customer not to
leave.

Sorry. But until the 'pure' e-tailers' realize that the
offline win-win tacit way to entice a browser to come
back - is to treat them like their mother - or at
minimum a *highly respected* visitor, they will NEVER
realize increased sales from repeat visits.

This negative, disrespectful attitude is one of the
(many) reasons why online retailing has not done so
well. The offline retailers who are now moving online,
assisted by experienced offline marketing counsellors
and agencies, will show how it can be done the RIGHT
WAY.

And to Joshua Smith's answer that " breaking a
visitor's flow of concentration so as to effectively
push an advertiser's message upon them."...

I say, again, hogwash! Take the time to study the
notion of website user 'flow'...and another lesson from
the real world: we NEVER break a shopper's
concentration with placards saying 'BUY THIS NOW!
stupidly shoved under their noses...

 (Someone has to say this, for a lot of people.)

Best regards to all.

Adrian Harvey, eBusiness Consultant
Specializing in P2P/XML/CRM
eStrategies, eSolutions, eServices / eBusiness Seminars and Workshops
Consumer-centric Creator/Writer/Producer/Project Manager/Trainer
adrian_at_cyberconcepts.ca 416.533.9211





Received on Wed Jan 31 2001 - 09:34:46 CST