Repair | Show or Hide Price?
I hear this topic come up all the time…
Is it better to show price or hide price on your website?
I think it is important to look at this from a few different angles.
Most people will not spend all day looking for the lowest possible price, an hour or two sure but eventually we just want to know we are getting reliability and value for our investment. When we are ready to choose we want to pick a provider that is more than a website interaction. We want the human element.
We have all price shopped before and the companies that answer fast and friendly tend to win our business right?
Our customers don’t understand the terms OLED and Incell or Refurb and OEM.They are sure of one thing though, they have a problem and they need it fixed.
Your website can be amazing, your offer can be competitive but if you do not gather a customers info when they visit your site you have a very low chance of converting them after they click away. You loose the opportunity to let them hear your voice or continue any kind of conversation.
Now every organization is different, some of us don’t want to make phone calls, we just want them to line up outside the store or schedule on our calendar using cutthroat pricing. In this case, you can still benefit from hiding your prices (and then sending them later in the quote process)
*We have some pretty neat features to automate this*
What do other established service industries do?
If we look at other similar industries what do we see?
I think auto and phone service sectors are very similar.
For most of us they are the two most important products we own.
So… lets talk about transmission repair. The price is going to vary, most customers aren’t going to care if the transmission is a pull, a rebuild or an untouched OEM from the dealer and we already know the dealership is going to cost the most. I think you will have a really hard time finding a mechanic that is going to show prices online for the various options in this area. Vehicles, like phones are very complex and consumers want to ask or be asked specific questions and be given certain assurances during their transmission repair shopping journey.
This is a lot like the LCD and OLED situation. If they see your OLED price online and some marketplace guy is offering $150 less for an LCD or Incell repair it is not very likely they are going to to contact or recommend you.
From what I have seen over the years warm customer service wins over hard bargains and volume flash sales in almost every demographic.
Are you getting a chance to talk to your customer?
Imagine a customer walking into your store, not saying hi, in fact they are totally ignoring you, looking around. Then just walking out.
This is what is happening when you show the price before collecting customer info.
You cannot sell yourself or your business if you operate on price alone.
The real opportunity is not going to be online but in person.
Are you or your stores able answer customer questions in real time?
If the answer is yes then your best point of contact is going to be the human interaction. This can be a phone call, whatsapp/messenger or live chat on your site. If your customers are able to do this in the moment with you and your competitor is relying on a walk in you are going to win the online battle. Google knows who the customer picks, that is going to help you with SEO as well.
If you let the consumer decide on price alone you will never get a chance to talk to 80% of them, this includes paid traffic too. They show up, they are on your site because they are ready to make this device decrack and they for one reason or another do not book an appointment (now don’t get me started on appointments). You have no idea who they are and if you aren’t checking analytics you don’t even know they were there.
If you show price what is stopping the guy down the street from underselling you by $10? Why help him to define your markets rates? That isn’t the worst part though..
“Perhaps the reason price is all your customers care about is because you haven’t given them anything else to care about.”
– Seth Godin, best selling author and marketing guru
Now this all makes sense but not every shoe will always fit well. As a consumer we want to know price, quickly. This is why it is important to test and see what works best for your organization and that is why we have developed a three prong approach.
If you would like to learn more about our platforms and how we can help to optimize your customer journey please schedule a quick call with the link below.