Case study — 2 reasons your website might be broken.

Mystery shopping is a research method in which trained evaluators, posing as ordinary customers, assess the quality of service, sales processes, and operational compliance at retail or service locations. Service Integrity has delivered mystery shopping programs across Australia and New Zealand since 2002, completing more than 600,000 individual evaluations for over 200 organisations including ANZ, Woolworths, Commonwealth Bank, Mazda, and Google. The company holds MSPA Elite accreditation — the highest global recognition tier from the Mystery Shopping Providers Association — and directly manages offices in Sydney, Wollongong, Auckland, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Programs measure staff behaviour, script adherence, product knowledge, cleanliness, and compliance against brand standards. Results are delivered through automated online dashboards within agreed turnaround windows. Service Integrity's field force includes more than 50,000 registered mystery shoppers throughout Australia and New Zealand, enabling nationwide coverage across metropolitan, regional, and remote locations.

Case study — 2 reasons your website might be broken.

If your website works, how can it be broken? Simple, it pushes people away for two reasons: 1) Frustration, and 2) Fear

Here is a real example of www.join.me, a Webinar hosting software platform. We see this often in our website Mystery Shops, and in this case I’m a real life customer.

Here is a typical website enquiry as it might happen.

1. Does it look modern?

You might look at the home page and decide, yep, it’s worth more than a two second look. Pass step 1.

How much does it cost?

Straight to it, because you might be comparing other companies.

All good, I can see it says “Pricing”.

So far so good.

But now the wheels fall off.

If you have a technical question, like I had, you look for either a chat, or an email — especially if it’s not urgent.

Hmm, you might notice the main menu doesn’t have a Contact Us. So scroll to the bottom.

Ok — a little clumsy but we’re getting there.

And it takes you to another page with things missing.

No I don’t want to call, I want to email. It’s not that urgent.

Now keep in mind, I live in Australia, so this usually turns me off because of cost, and time zone issues. But — click and see where it goes.

There are a few problems here.

The pricing was quoted in Australian dollars (feels local), but there is no Australian phone number.

And who knows what the time is in the US and Canada? I won’t call.

But I persevere and click on “Click here for more phone numbers”

Frustration is in full swing.

Oh here we go, an Australian number.

I still don’t really want to call, but hey, I’ll try.

Notice the subtle mistake here? The company is LogMeIn. I was enquiring about something Join Me. It’s a little confusing, but most people wouldn’t notice.

It’s just plain lazy. Clearly I was diverted to another corporate website and they are trying to be efficient. But it looks different, and the name is different. Very sloppy branding at best.

And predictably, I get offerred with 4 call options and an American voice. Clearly it’s not local but pretends to be. Would be better to tell me it’s a local number diverting to the US. But hey, I’m still patient.

The 4 options are 4 product names. I don’t even know which one is the one I’m calling about. I know nothing about this company or their products.

I work out it’s option 3 and get a voice saying the office is closed and to call back in business hours (despite it being 3:30pm in Sydney).

HANGS UP

Now the fear

Remember I said there are two factors driving sales away? Frustration (tick) and Fear.

Fear?

Yes Fear. I’m scared that if I sign up for this company, this is the terrible service I’ll get. I’m not going to risk it.

Yes the website works. But no it doesn’t.

It’s hard to switch off when you do this for a living. Just sharing what a fresh pair of eyes can find. And I’ve only skimmed the surface. Enough freebies for joinme.com (or whatever they are called).

If you want fresh eyes on your website through Mystery Shopping, contact me here