Undecided customers are the great Achilles heel of marketing strategies. customer loyalty. Surely, on more than one occasion, you have come across this type of consumer and, no matter how hard you tried, you never managed to get them to make a purchase.
It is relatively normal that you are outside, but you exist differently techniques to get them out of that state of doubt and end up trusting you and your brand. In this article we tell you what they are.
What are undecided customers?
All of us doubt when making a purchase. We may not fully trust the sellers, the product, the brand or the service, among other things. However, hesitant customers are those who, despite being interested in a product or service, systematically hesitate and postpone their purchase decisions indefinitely.
Despite the fact that undecided customers tend to doubt their purchases more when they are made in person (since there is greater interaction and tension), in online sales we can also find this type of consumer. Therefore, if you have an e-commerce or sell through marketplaces, it is also interesting that you know the characteristics of your undecided customers and how to negotiate with them.
Characteristics of the most frequent undecided customers
There are different profiles of indecisive customers (we will talk about them in the next point), but if we analyze their actions and thoughts we can find common elements that define them and that can help identify them:
- They ask very specific questions: they usually ask very specific questions instead of saying the typical “I wanted you to tell me a little about X product/service”.
- They need time and space to make the decision: They will not give you an immediate answer about whether you want to make the purchase or not. You prefer to assess the situation calmly and make the decision when you are 100% sure.
- They don’t finish giving their opinion: Despite the fact that they listen carefully to everything you are telling them about the product or service, they will never give you an opinion about it, despite the fact that you are carefully analyzing everything you communicate to them.
As we have said, we can also find undecided customers in the digital environment. In this case, we find more features than definitions:
- Repeated visits to the same pages.
- Regular consultation to the FAQs section.
Undecided customer types
If we analyze the personality of the indecisive clients, we can analyze them in 5 different groups according to the form of the act and the reason for the indecision. How to mark, determining what type of indecisive client you are facing will be very useful to know how to deal with him and how to make him become a satisfied client.
skeptics
These types of indecisive customers often communicate with the brand’s staff in an incredulous way, doubting the quality or operation of what it offers.
In these cases, it is best to offer them a free trial or a money-back guarantee, in short, to assure them that what you offer is risk-free.
Despite the fact that most purchase decisions are based on emotions, this type of customer also you need to see your most rational part satisfied. To do this, it will be very positive if you inform them about quality studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of what they offer, or show them the awards and recognitions that you have obtained as a brand. In addition, success stories can also be a great tool to attract this type of consumer.
busy
These types of customers excuse themselves by stating that it is not the right time to make the purchase or that they do not have time. Use of scarcity and urgency strategies can eat very well to convince them, such as putting a countdown on your ecommerce or telling them that you have few units left.
Using explanatory videos in your online store can speed up the sales process and the person can understand the characteristics of your products or services more quickly. Along these same lines, chatbots can also resolve frequent questions in an agile way and ensure that these busy customers end up being convinced of the purchase.
comparator
This type of undecided customers is characterized by wanting to make sure before making the purchase that they get the plus option of the market at the lowest price. Spend a lot of time analyzing your offer and comparing it to the competition.
To get their attention, be clear about what differentiates you from your competition and demonstrate your superiority. Find what makes you unique and exploit it. Again, as with the busy customer, using scarcity and urgency strategies will pay off very well.
saver
In this case, we are dealing with a customer who will always be dissatisfied with the price offered, regardless of whether it is affordable or expensive. Show the profitability that you will offer and get them to see it as an investment and not as an expense is a strategy that works very well with this type of undecided client.
Tips for dealing with hesitant customers
We have already seen how to deal with specific profiles of undecided customers. However, there are some strategies that can be useful to deal with all of them and with those that you cannot classify in the previous typologies. Again, it will be important that the differences between physical sales and e-commerce sales may result in different behaviors for the type of purchase.
physical sales
In sales that are made in physical establishments, the relationship that will be generated between the client and the seller is very important. Therefore, having your staff put some of the following tips into practice can go a long way when dealing with hesitant customers:
- offer alternatives: Presenting a single proposal to undecided clients is not the best option, as it will put more pressure on them. Showing them flexible and varied offers that will allow them to choose according to their criteria, will give them much more confidence. One of the best strategies is to present him with three proposals that vary both in value and in characteristics.
- Practice active listening: listening to undecided customers is key to understanding where the key to their indecision lies and, thus, managing to resolve the doubts that are preventing them from continuing with the purchase process. In addition, active listening, in which the listener is able to understand the speaker’s ideas and thoughts, will also make the well-cared-for customer feel more confident.
- answer with confidence: if there is something that characterizes all customers who are undecided, their doubts. As a brand, therefore, we must offer a counterweight, something that increases their confidence. Confidently answering all the questions they ask and being clear in your speech is one of the best ways.
- Avoid dominant postures: too much pressure should not be exerted, as it will end up overwhelming the person and achieving the opposite effect. Take a look at the explanation of the characteristics of the product or service, give them time to make the decision.
digital vents
You can also apply some of the advice from the previous point to your digital commerce through customer service. However, here are some specific recommendations to better deal with undecided customers in ecommerce:
- Offer human advice: It is very common for customers, and even more undecided ones, to have doubts, especially when buying online. For this reason, it is important that we offer them personalized and humanized assistance. This does not mean that you have to do without chatbots, as they are very useful for solving frequently asked questions. But it is important that they are always supported by a service made up of people. One of the forms of care most value customers is direct chat, for the supposed convenience. Implement in your business!
- Create a complete website: Incomplete websites are great enemies of indecisive clients, we must inform you that the helper has to make the decision. We recommend that you have a very elaborate question and answer page, as well as a clear shipping and return policy. The product sheets are also important, they can allow the customer to get as close an idea as possible, despite the limits of online shopping when it comes to knowing the product.
- Use of techniques to avoid cart abandonment: Add products or services to the cart and later regret it and not finish the purchase process is very common in indecisive customers. thanks, there are some techniques that can help prevent this from happening. Offer free shipping and returns, accept a wide variety of payment options, simplify the purchase process or allow payment without registration, are some ways to prevent your cart abandonment rate from rising in this type of customers. In short, designing email automation layers that notify the person that the cart is already full can be a great solution.
