Internet,”We” and “Free”
People still look for things on Internet for free. We still are not adapted and we don’t want to buy any services from internet by even paying a little amount. When we google something we do append the word “free” to it. When we need a software we look for trial versions of it. When we want to listen to songs we download the pirated versions and even watching movies we want to see them for free.
The same thing happened with our portal www.healthcaremagic.com. Whenever we turned the knob of free consultation with a doctor. The number of people coming to chat grew enormously. Out of so many people landing on our web site every second guy took a consultation. The very next day we turned the knob off and made it mandatory for users to pay and consult, the number of conversions that happened showed a great fall. One thing i realized out of it. ”how much painful it would be for people who are running businesses and trying to make money by giving free services for trial”.
Well we cant change anything. The other way to see around it is why do we look for free stuff.? Since we think it is not worth paying for it.? Or we have developed a habit of free. It is engraved in our mind, Internet means free? The answer to this is “I will buy it from Internet if i see a great value for money in it as a customer” If i am paying an amount x i should at least get x amount of benefit out of it plus something more.”
Lets take an example of any product X. As a consumer. I will search over internet. I will find out all the options. Then i will finalize one website. I will for sure go till the payment page, if there are some options to try out discounts I might do that also but when I come to the final step, many questions start revolving in my mind.
1. Is the guy charging the money to me, going to give me a good service.?
2. Can i still find a better alternative ?
3. Is this web site a spam / cheat ?
and so many other stuff. And with in seconds i will click on the cross button at the top. If you try to notice all the questions that will come to the mind. They will revolve around “trust and value for money”. As a consumer i am looking for trust. As a consumer i want to see the clear cut picture of benefits i get out of buying this product. So i can say the crux of selling something online is trust and value for money. Using badges, showing symbols like customer satisfaction, giving them chance to ask for money back if they don like the service, Writing lines telling we will make sure you get the best service, giving each customer a personalized feel are some things which will help. So the gist is, trying to build a cozy environment for people, so that they don’t hesitate to buy things from you.
