I want you to cast your mind back for a moment... Do you remember  the last time you were waiting for a lift? Perhaps you were in a multi-storey car park, a shopping mall, or a hotel.

Either you, or someone waiting with probably pressed the button to call the lift more than just once.... Remember?  If it isn't apparent that the lift is moving towards your floor, the button is normally pressed repeatedly by someone until the lift arrives.

True?

I thought you would agree.

I guess this is because it's just 'natural behaviour' If the lift doesn't respond immediately, then press the button again. Maybe it "didn't get the message" the first time?

The same kind of behaviour also exists on the Internet. - If a visitor to your website clicks a button link... and nothing happens... the visitor will probably click the link again - just to make sure they really clicked it the first time... and the website "got the message."

In most cases this won't cause you or your website a problem. However there is one time that it will cause you a problem. If the button link being clicked is the one connected to your online ordering system (and hooked-up in real time to your credit card processing merchant account).

Each time the button is pressed, a new credit card charge could be initiated. - resulting in customers being charged multiple times, for either one purchase, or duplicate purchases that they do not require.

The good news is that there is a really simple (free) way to reduce the chances of this happening quite considerably. And it only takes a few minutes to put into place.

Simply add the following text immediately below the submit button on your order form.

"Please Note: It can take up to one minute to process credit card information and obtain approval from your bank. Do not press the submit button multiple times. Doing so may cause double billing."

Adding a polite message like this, cost you nothing and can save you the unwanted hassles of refunding double charges back to your customers and answering customer support emails - not to mention saving credit card processing charges!