Lost customer. Please call roadside assistance.

I found out yesterday that my parents are selling their old Suburban which is well past due.

It got me thinking about how, as a child, my parents would load up all four kids in Suburban and we would drive into uncharted territories. They would say “let’s get lost” and I remember thinking how cool it was that we had no clue where we were going.

Getting lost usually meant that one of us got to sit in the front seat and be the navigator. We’d look at the map (do people still use maps) and tell my dad when to go straight, turn or pull over to take in the scenery.

Because my dad generally knew where we were, he’d question if I told him to take a right, inadvertently taking us 80 miles in the wrong direction. He didn’t really want us to get lost, but he did want us to explore and learn more about the world around us.

If only we had the same oversight when customers are on our website. A visitor can come to your site from a variety of starting points (Point A) with an end goal of making a purchase (Point B). It’s your job to help them get to their end goal without getting so lost they want to give up.

If they get lost while driving, they can’t just magically snap their fingers and they are back home. Eventually, they continue down a road until they see the freeway sign to home. It’s also highly like that at this point, they are frustrated and so irritable that no one wants to be around them.

On your website, however, they aren’t forced to find the big green freeway signs. If they get lost, become frustrated or irritable, they simply close their window and never think of you again.

Take a look at Point A’s on your website and see if it’s clear for your customer on how to get to Point B.

There are lots of different ways to get from Point A to Point B. Ideally, no one is going 80 miles out of their way to get there, however, there may be many stops along the way to take in the scenery.

The scenery, or information about your products and company, is adding value on their way to Point B. Let’s remember that Point B isn’t always the checkout. Sometimes Point B is a newsletter sign up.

My dad can’t be there to help guide a visitor from landing page to checkout. He taught me well though and I have built my Website Review to help with situations just like this. With a Website Review, you’ll get fresh eyes on your site, providing specific recommendations on how to guide your visitors to Point B.