How wingstreet got rid of walls

Posted on November 25th, 2008

I think this is one of those great little achievements that goes un-noticed and that far more companies should be adopting. Like most computer savvy people I enjoy ordering online, most times it beats dealing with people :) or people having to deal with me! When I first saw you could buy “super tasty” wings online I thought – this is going to be great …

Boy was I wrong. I went onto their website, which is part of Pizzahut. I clicked the sign-up button entered a bunch of information and then tried to create my login … and tried … and tried. The password requirements are more ridiculous than my banks. Not only that but they wanted a bunch of those secret question/answer items completed. For wings …. right. No thanks. It is bad enough they didn’t just adopt an open id system but now I’m supposed to jump through hoops.

I didn’t go back to the site for probably close to 6 months, that amounts to a lot of lost business just from one person. Just because they had thrown up walls I wasn’t prepared to take down. So, what did I find upon my return – well the crazy password requirements are still there except that now, you can order as a guest without ever creating an account.

Finally! They do have good wings :) – I don’t order as often as I would if I was able to create an account and simply click to order, see: Papa Johns … anyway – it is a big step forward for these guys. The lesson is simple, if you make it hard or even moderately hard to use your website, a lot of people will just go away.

I really like the idea of open id – use it. thanks :)

Tags: walls
Filed under General | No Comments »