Is Your Business Name Costing You Money Or Losing You Customers?
It’s natural to gravitate towards choosing a descriptive name for your business, but be careful, because there are lots of pitfalls in choosing this direction. This type of business name is by far the most common because it describes what your company does.
The challenge is, if you’re trying to come up with a new business name in the 21st century, it’s not as easy as it once was. You need the URL, the social media properties, a trademark and ideally a page one ranking on Google. If you want to be more than a local mom and pop shop, these are the requirements today.
Since it’s extremely difficult to get all of these assets for your business name, business owners tend to cut corners and get clever with spellings and punctuations, but this can lead you down a dangerous path for your business.
Just recently, a client of mine wanted me to review her investor pitch on a platform called Speak Eazy. This company promises to offer a life-like experience when presenting online with the usage of virtual audiences. In theory, it’s supposed to be a great way to practice and get feedback before a big presentation.
When I first received the link from my client, I didn’t pay attention to the special spelling, using the letter “z,” because like everyone else, I’m busy. At first, when I logged in on my iPhone and later on my iPad the play button had a cross through it and wouldn’t play. So, I reached back out to my client’s assistant to get different login details. Since my team had also reviewed it I thought maybe there was a maximum usage of views or a similar issue.
When I got a new username to try, I tried to find the company’s login area online. I did a search in google for “Speak Easy” and scrolled through pages on Google none of which were the platform I was looking for. I re-did my search with different criteria, but still I couldn’t find it. Twenty frustrating minutes later, I reached out to my assistant to ask for the link for this platform.
She texted back: “www.speakeazy.io”.
I tried logging in on Safari, and when that didn’t work, I tried Chrome. Finally, I was able to view the presentation after about an hour of my time just trying to get into the account in the first place. I hadn’t even viewed the presentation yet.
My next challenge was to try to figure out how this platform worked.
Not only is the name of this brand problematic, but even more troubling for the brand is that it isn’t delivering on it’s promise. With a name like Speak Eazy you’d expect an easy platform, right? Unfortunately, the user experience is far from what you’d expect. The buttons are too small. The icons aren’t obvious, which makes for a complicated user experience. That’s damaging, because when your promise is all about one thing and you don’t deliver on it, customer’s aren’t going to give you another chance.
Bottom line, confused customers don’t buy.
Please don’t make these simple mistakes that could so easily have been avoided. Starting and growing a business is hard enough without the added complications of a business name your customers can’t find and a user experience that doesn’t deliver on it’s promise.