Question

Topic: Customer Behavior

How Many Clicks Is Too Many?

Posted by Anonymous on 4/23/2004 at 4:08 PM ET 50 Points
I responded to an email invite to a web cast offered by one of the "leading" trade associations for our industry. I was interested to find out how much the registration cost was, since the email didn't say "free" I knew there had to be a charge.

It took three clicks to get from the email to the page where the pricing was listed.

When it comes to listing pricing, how many clicks is too many? Is it better to put those details up front or require the prospect to drill down for it?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Pepper Blue on 4/23/2004 at 5:08 PM Accepted
    Hi cookie,

    I agree with you.

    My philosophy is to make it as friction-free as possible. Even one click is one too many to have to find a price for something like that, unless there is a valid reason to make a potential customer go through the process, and I can't think of one off hand.

    It really irritates people to have do this and is exactly why pages, shopping carts, and signup forms are abandoned.
  • Posted by Blaine Wilkerson on 4/23/2004 at 5:49 PM Accepted
    JB beat me to it. It certainly depends on your product. Sometimes, it is necessary to give some justification before springing the damage.

    Good Luck!
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 4/23/2004 at 10:11 PM Accepted
    The research from uie.com (User Interface Engineering, run by genius Jared Spool) says that as long as the "scent of information" is strong, web visitors will keep on clicking to get to the answer they seek.

    I don't have a quick link to a report [yet], but I'll keep digging for the source. I remember how interesting and relevant it was when I read it about 3 years ago!!

    Shelley
  • Posted on 4/24/2004 at 1:30 PM Accepted
    Syran hit on it.

    Sometimes it's east to get caught up in trying to administer a campaign based on some benchmark for numbers of clicks. There's certainly enough data out there to suggest that too many clicks is a bad thing. But 'too many' totally depends on the audience, message, and vehicle.

    It depends on what value each click is building for a user. I'll click on a site 100 times if, at each interaction, I am more and more engaged.

    One other point: when you ask the user to dig and dig, that last click better meet or exceed his/her expectations.
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 4/24/2004 at 5:20 PM Accepted
    Well, I couldn't find the exact article online regarding the "scent of information," but I came close:

    https://www.uie.com/articles/getting_confidence/

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