39 lines
1.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
39 lines
1.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
Today I lost a customer
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:date: 2012-01-18 23:30
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:author: Russell Ballestrini
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:tags: LinkPeek, Opinion
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:slug: today-i-lost-a-customer
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:status: published
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Today I lost a customer.
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I added some new code to `LinkPeek <https://linkpeek.com/website-thumbnail-generator>`__ to accept coupons and I didn't think of an edge case.
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This ended up creating an uncaught exception in my server side code which ultimatly served the newly subscribing customer an HTTP 500 error page.
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The damage was done.
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This error was catastrophic and ultimately killed the conversion. Here
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is an excerpt of how the user felt after the experience:
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At this point the website has failed spectacularly enough that I can
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no longer trust you with my business. Please void the charge on my
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American Express card before it's processed. I need to hear from you
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ASAP.
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Customers and prospects are forgiving for normal bugs in software.
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However, customers are intolerant to bugs in the sign up or payment
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flow. An error in payment flow will cause friction and friction will
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kill the sale.
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Running a start up is hard work, and negative (but justified) feedback
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hurts more then I thought it would. This email made me feel awful.
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Fortunately I learned from this mistake and the user's card was never
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charged.
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Always make sure to extensively test payment and sign up code. Try all
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the edge cases. Try to make your software break. Don't inflict friction
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on your potential customers.
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.. contents::
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