Undecided customers can make it really difficult to craft effective customer loyalty marketing strategies. You have probably encountered these types of customers on more than one occasion, and no matter how hard you tried, you could never get them to make a purchase.
It’s relatively normal for this to happen, but there are different ways to get them out of that state of doubt to trust your brand and become happy customers. In this article, we'll review what they are.
All of us hesitate when it comes to making a purchase. We may not completely trust the sellers, the product, brand, or service. However, indecisive customers are those who, despite being interested in a product or service, regularly hesitate and postpone their purchase decisions indefinitely.
Although indecisive customers tend to be more hesitant about their purchases when they are made in person (since there is greater interaction and tension), this type of consumer is also present in online sales. Therefore, if you have an e-commerce or sell through marketplaces, it’s beneficial for you to know the characteristics of indecisive customers and how to deal with them.
There are different profiles of indecisive customers, but here are some common elements that define them and can help you identify them:
As we've mentioned, indecisive customers can also be found in the digital environment. The characteristics that define them are:
If you analyze the personality of indecisive customers, you can group them into 4 different groups according to the way they act and the reason for their indecision. As a brand, determining which type of indecisive customer you are dealing with will be very useful to know how to deal with them and how to make them become a happy customer.
This type of undecided customer often communicates with brand staff in an incredulous manner, doubting the quality or performance of what you offer. In these cases, the best thing to do is to offer them a free trial or a money-back guarantee to reassure them that your offer is risk-free.
Although most purchasing decisions are emotional, this type of customer also needs to have their rational side satisfied. To do this, you should inform them about quality studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of what you offer or show them the awards and recognitions you have obtained as a brand. In addition, success stories can also be a great tool to attract this type of consumer.
This type of customer claims that it's not the right time to make a purchase or that they don't have time. Using scarcity and urgency strategies can be very useful to convince them, such as including a countdown on your e-commerce website or telling them that you only have a few units left of the product they are interested in.
Using explanatory videos in your online store can speed up the sales process and the user can better understand the characteristics of your products or services. Chatbots can also answer frequent questions in an effective way and convince busy users to make a purchase.
This type of indecisive customer is characterized by wanting to be assured before making the purchase that they are getting the best option on the market at the lowest price. They spend a lot of time analyzing your offer and comparing it with your competition.
To get their attention, be clear about what differentiates you from your competition and demonstrate your superiority. Find out what makes you unique. Again, as with the busy customer, using scarcity and urgency strategies will work very well.
In this case, you are dealing with a customer who will always be dissatisfied with the price you offer, regardless of whether it’s affordable or not. Showing them the profitability of your offer and making them see it as an investment and not as an expense is a strategy that works very well with this type of undecided customer.
We have already seen how to deal with specific profiles of undecided customers. However, there are some strategies that can be useful for dealing with all of them and with those who don't fall into the 4 categories mentioned above. Again, it is important to differentiate between physical sales and e-commerce sales, as the behaviors are different depending on the type of purchase method.
With sales made in physical establishments, the relationship generated between the customer and the salesperson is very important. Therefore, having your staff implement some of the following tips can be of great help when dealing with undecided customers:
Some of the tips in the previous point can also be applied to your digital commerce through customer service. However, here are some specific recommendations to better deal with undecided customers in e-commerce: