My cell phone provider lost a sale yesterday because they gave me too many choices (and not enough information at their store). Luckily for them, I’m not about to switch cell phone providers, but it is an example of how providing your customers choices without information about why they’d choose one over the other can be a problem. In my case, I’d come in to the store sure that I wanted one particular cell phone. I’d done the research and knew the one I wanted. But when I got there, a new model had just come out that I didn’t know about. Unfortunately the “salesman” didn’t really know the difference between the two models either, so I was confused about which to pick. I decided I should delay my purchase and do some research on my own.
As it turns out, there’s really not enough compelling about the new model to spend the significantly higher price for it in my mind. So, I’ll be going back to the store later this week to get the model I’d originally planned to get. But sometimes, as a business, we’re not lucky enough to get that customer to come back. They may see a better deal somewhere else, or realize they don’t need the item they were going to purchase.