I can truly relate to many of these sites and frustrations. The ones that get me are the online travel sites like JetBlue, CheapTickets.com etc…I still go to their sites only to see if they have changed anything and of course, to find cheaper airline tickets. I recently made in-advanced airline reservations on JetBlue, never used them before; however, everyone else keeps bigging up their prices and the online experience. Well on this night, I said since my flight is two months off, I thought I’d try their new technique of “Bill Me Later”. What a “crock”. How p’ed off I was when I checked my bank and realized that JetBlue had already taken the money out of my account. In calling JetBlue I was told that the only thing that could be done was for my reservations to be cancelled and it would take “7″ business days before my refund would be granted. I was naturally frustrated and quite angry. How can you advertise something if you haven’t tested it to see it if really works and then you have no direct answers for the customers who have been ripped off for merely trusting in “word of mouth”. I was so frustrated that my fiancee merely told me to leave the reservations because there was no guarantee that we would get the same reservations ie..seats and/or pricing. So he opted to give me the money back just to shut me up. How fair is that? And what makes it worse, these sites have the nerve to tell you that you have to pay such and such in order to make any changes to your reservations. And to top it off, there is always a third party involved in the sales they collect from unsuspecting customers. Priceline is another that really p’es me off. That darn negotiator is a pain in the “you know what”. Neither here nor there, you almost NEVER, get the price “you name”. The prices go up higher and higher and then you keep receiving all these stupid emails telling you a price has been found. What do you do about these aggravating situations?

Regards,
Bruno

I am not sure it was meant as a scientific term but one that would open up discussion. That is the value of a blog and I am glad you joined in. While it may not resonate with you Paul, I wonder how many GrokDotCom readers agree how important it is to even be thinking about this in any way; scientific or not.

would I really do something like lay poodiddly on your doorstep?

Well, um ok – maybe.

But you have a good point. We actually create anti-personas who represent customers you DON’T want – we use them to make sure you get rid of those visitors quickly.

For the customers you do want – what some people like might piss off others. That’s why we plan different scenarios or pathways for different personas.

Example: One methodical persona might love lots of detailed technical information about diamonds. One spontaneous persona might get pissed off by all that useless technical information.

She may want the latest celebrity diamond news. That might piss off our methodical persona.

That’s why we create two different scenarios/pathways where each persona gets what they want and neither gets what they don’t want – thus reducing your POF.

When is it acceptable to piss somebody off? Jeff doesn’t throw slow pitch softballs … he sizzles some hardball advice down your gullet … and no doubt has pissed off a few folks in the process. I think the real question to ask is Do You Know Really Who You Are and hence Who Your Customer is. For example a Wal-Mart shopper would be turned off by Saks … and maybe visa-versa.

I’m not suggesting it is acceptable to piss off people because you have a crappy website … but maybe your website needs to have an edge, an attitude, a personality that will appeal to some and perhaps piss off the right (wrong) people.

Enquiring minds want to know.

I have removed my pop-up subscription page from most pages on my site, just in case my POF was too high. Since doing this, I’ve had people email me and thank me for removing my pop-up pages, so at least I have at least pacified some people.

Thanks,
Mark

“In order to be real it doesn’t need to be measurable.” I agree with that totally.

I also don’t like to be spoon-fed solutions – as you mention, I have a working brain.

If Holly’s intention was to get me thinking, she certainly did that without a doubt. I’m not sure I buy the angle of “enough respect to allow the reader to come up with their own answers” but, OK.

The potential solutions presented here are good IF YOU KNOW you’re ticking people off. However, Holly’s post specifically mentions: “Not only do you not realize what you did to turn her off, you don’t even know an amazing woman looked at your profile and left.”

That’s the challenge I have with her angle…if you don’t know, how can you measure? You can’t. And, it’s OK to say that and then say “but here’s what you CAN do when you DO know”.

But, hiding behind “the reader figuring things out for themselves” doesn’t fly with me.

Present a challenge, present possible solutions – otherwise it’s just whining.

Very interesting article. I am surprised John found the LiveChat woman intrusive. In the electronic medium, it is so much easier to ignore the extra elements like the LC buttons and the navigation items and focus on the content.

In any case, I would appreciate if you cover a few ways to identify the POF factors in a sequel to your article. Asking a question and not answering that somewhere in your copy can actually increase the POF value

I suggest that site owners run a split test with and without the LC buttons and see which one is converting better. A small feedback box asking the readers if they found any bugs or annoying elements can do the trick too. If incentivized, it can work wonders.