Hearing your site search sucks is just what you need to make it better

“Our site search sucks”

Run a web site?

Then you probably have been given this very insightful “feedback”.

I always respond with a “show me what you expected to see”.

This approach has a few benefits:

1️⃣ Proved that we are open to criticism and are willing to work with you to make it better
2️⃣ Gave us an opportunity to see how someone else used the site in real time
3️⃣ Created another internal champion assuming we could fix their problem

#3 would then lead to an ask of the person bringing us the issue.

“Would you be willing to help us test new features as we roll them out?”

Why is this so important?

People love to buy into what they are a part of building.

Or more succinctly

People buy what they build.

Turns out that people think
- homemade food tastes better
- will keep their IKEA furniture longer
- and are more forgiving of a site experience when they influenced it directly.

By asking for their involvement after fixing the issue we now have someone that would proactively help customers and employees use our site and continue to bring us ideas on how to make it better.

Never miss an opportunity to involve someone in what you are building after you have helped them fix a problem with what is being built.

So, while it never feels good to have someone tell you that what you built sucks, it is often a fast path to making it better.

Be honest, you thought this was going to be a site search post, not a practical application of Robert Cialdini in leading ecommerce, right?

Side note specific to site search.

It is rarely the site search itself that "sucks".  It is usually the lack of good information site search has about your products or how your underlying product data is structured.