Building the Best Customer Experience
Look at Your Website Usability Live
DMA07
Aaron Kahlow, Managing Partner for BusinessOnline Board of Directors for Business Marketers Association 180 Internet Marketing seminars Worked with leading brands like: Chevron, Cisco, KimberlyClark, Tyco… BusinessOnline -Web Site Services: Build, Optimize and Improve Web Sites Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Web Site Usability and Customer Experience Optimization (CEO) Web Design and Development Website Strategic Planning
Who I Am
Who are You?
Responsibility: Primary Online Primary Offline with Online tossed in Interest in Learning More? Search Usability Social Media What is your single biggest Online Marketing or Website challenge for 07’?
What We Will Cover
Understand the Foundation of a Good Website
Define your web site challenges
Look at
your web site Live
Search + Usability = Highest Yield
Part 2: Understanding Your Web Site
Stop & Think About Marketing Efforts …
Search Engines Email Marketing Catalogs Association Meetings Direct Mail
Portal & Destination Sites Banner Advertisements Blogs & Community Sites
The Web
Trade Shows
Magazines
Distributor Shows
Newspapers
Challenges with Website
Offline & Online Challenges
Online Challenges
SEO Trepidation Usability Mindset Analytics Alignment
Offline Challenges
Corporate Structure Alignment with Traditional Media
Serving the Customer: Usability
Introduction to Web Site Usability
What is Usability? How does it affect your web site, your brand, your sales? Common Myths of Usability
I know my customer better than anyone Surveys are Usability Studies and Suffice Success vs. Satisfaction Example
Minimum standard, best practices and learned conventions…
Minimum Standards: Best Practices:
Very few justifiable reasons not to comply.
Tested practices that have proven to have a positive effect on the user experience Not hard fast rules
Learned Conventions:
May not be more intuitive, BUT users already know how to use; therefore, is easier to use. Preconceived expectations Complying with minimum standards, best practices and learned conventions allow you to focus on the bigger picture challenges rather than wasting time on what is known.
Opposing Objectives
Business Objectives
– – We want to get users to visit my site on a regular basis We need to offer multiple content types and features to sell to clients (white papers, news, ask the expert, etc) We want users to register so we can leverage their information for sales We want to display content to show to everyone regardless if it is relevant or not. (News on home page) We want to be viewed as the source for standards in our industry
Visitor Objectives
– – – – – – – I don’t want my decisions manipulated (now or later) I want control over my experience I don’t want to be distracted with cluttered pages or too many like options I only want to see content that apply to my industry or my needs I want to reach information in as few steps as possible I want to be able to easily find the same information another day (mental model) I want to know what exactly I can and can not do on this site right away without having to waste time exploring or being distracted by marketing ploys.
– –
–
Design to meet the visitors objectives first!
How do my Customers Look at my Web Site
How customers view your site
On a single track mission Find what they want, THEN peruse or browse No Patience (remember college … long road trip) Scan not Read
Design: Understand how users read the page
•A common
misperception is that people read a web page the same way they read a paper, from left to right tracking research has shown that users read the page: Center-Left-Right
•Extensive eye-
Eye Tracking Example..
Sample Eye Tracker
*Research from The Usability Company
Eye Tracker Results SIMPLIFIED
Where you are losing your Customers
Purpose Driven Design
Assumptions:
• • • • • • • •
Visitors go to websites for a reason (they have a purpose) The quicker visitors reach their goal, the happier they will be The happier visitors are, the more likely it is that they will return
Benefits: Increases the Scent (trail to destination) Eliminates visitor guesswork Helps visitor rapidly determine what the site has to offer Helps visitor quickly find what he is looking for
Keys to Success: Action links identifying visitor’s purpose Create a mental model of the site so visitors can find what they are looking for and quickly orient themselves within the site’s structure
Let’s go LIVE !
Let’s Go LIVE! Instructions
Volunteers to have site Audited ? How it Works:
Volunteer tells us what primary offering is Volunteer tells us who primary audience is I type in URL YOU look at site and do two things:
1) Tell me what ever comes to mind (NO FILTER) 2) Tell me where you’d go first to find that offering
I will give 60 second overview of site Usability and Interpret results.
What Can You Do?
Think Usability Sooner Than Later
High
Design Flexibility
Discovery
• Requirements Definition • Competitive Analysis • User Centered Analysis • Persona Development
Elaboration
• System Flow • Information Architecture • Card Sorting
Site Launch Construction
• Design • Coding • Documentation • Beta Test
Maintenance Low
Time
Segment Personas
Primary Persona Secondary Persona
Business Objectives
Tip 1: Build Online Persona
Try to understand
Motivations Goals Needs Decision Making factors People / influencers Expectations Preferences Demographics information Brand Attitudes
Sample Persona
Background with site: Diane has visited the site a few times but only when her friends send her links to their slideshows. When she is on the site, she is more of a general consumer with little to no emotional investment in her need for expressing herself freely. She looks at other people’s slideshows and bounces from one slideshow to the next. She is an observer who browses, searches, comments (gives feedback), and fuels her friends’ desires in providing more creative content such as the slideshows. Analysis: A typical bouncer would have the personality of a moviegoer in which the consumption of a “good” movie is more important than the movie theatre she frequents to accomplish the task of movie watching, which is probably why she has no real brand loyalty to any particular product or application. Needs: • • • • Wants to know what is popular / “cool” Easy to view slideshows / movies Gives opinions / comments Likes being heard
Diane Age: 22 Job: College Student working towards degree in Marketing Technical Expertise: 4/5 Hours Spent on Internet / week: 8- 10
Business Opportunity: Since Diane is already on the site, we want to keep her on there longer. Maybe creating a rating system consisting of 10 stars so that she can rate the individual slideshows. Then based on how she rates the types of slideshows, we can present newest slideshows that would be relevant to her the next time she logs onto the site.
Tip 2: Build Strong Navigation / Thru Information Architecture
Information Architecture
Labels
Organization
Navigation
The Bridge between Usability & Website (not design)
User with Expectations How do we display the information so that it satisfies the user’s expectations? Display that info
Organization is based on users’ previous experience / expectation of how it should be organized. IA strives to bridge this gap Best practices and learned conventions come from this
Display information so that it makes sense
How do you ensure that the user understands the information?
Universal Set of Behaviors
Audience Specific Behaviors
Bottom Line
..even small increases in conversion can generate substantial revenue
Current Business
• 10,000 users per year • 3% submit RFQ (300 RFQs per year) • 30% close rate • Average sale price of $10,000 • Revenue = $900,000 SAME • 4% submit RFQ (400 RFQs per year) • 30% close rate • Average sale price of $10,000 • Revenue = $1,200,000 • 1.0% gain in RFQ = $300K in additional revenue
Improve Usability
(1% gain in RFQs)
Summary
Usability is Ease of Use Why Usability?
Competitive advantage Site created only with business objectives in mind Increase Conversions & ROI
Foundation: Follow learned conventions & best practices Refine Personas Don’t need Designer, Need an Information Architecture Users first, Monetize second
Cannot forget Social Media
Customers DO NOT WANT experiences managed; want to manage themselves … now call CRM to CMR
Who is the Social Customer
Active & Passive Loyal vs. Advocate Consumer or Contributor
Who’s The Social Customer
What do they Say? I want to have a say I want to know when something is wrong I want to help shape things I find useful Don’t want to talk to salesperson Want to buy things on my schedule I want to tell you when you are screwing up I want to do business with Transparent Companies
* Chris Carfi Blog
Breakdown of Social Customers
Monthly Actions Creators Blog Publish Web Page Visit Boards/Chat Visit Rating sites Gen Y 18 - 26 15% 22% 32% 17% 4% 37% 29% 27% 32% 9% Gen X 27 -40 4% 12% 21% 16% 3% 12% 22% 14% 25% 6% Boomer 41 - 50 2% 7% 14% 12% 2% 6% 13% 9% 18% 5% Boomer + 51 - 61 1% 6% 10% 10% 1% 4% 12% 7% 12% 4%
Critics
Collectors Use RSS Use Social Sites Use Photo Sharing Coach Potatoes Read Blogs Watch Video Listen to Podcast
* Source: Forrester Benchmark Survey
Time Spent in Week
Corporate Social Media
Blogs Forums Communities Video Sharing Wiki’s
Ultimate Manifestation of Usability
For the User by the user Telegraph to Telephone (full duplex) Success already (LinkedIn, ItToolbox) Try it and see…
Why Now? The Perfect Storm
Web 2.0 Technologies Broadband Proliferation Online Adoption
Why does it Matter?
The conversation is happening; either you are a part of it or not (raising children) 30% who read blog/post more likely to purchase 80% who contribute more likely to purchase*
CoreMetrics, Web 2.0 Study
Take Away …
1. 3. Want PPT? Online Marketing Summit www.OnlineMarketingSummit.com Marketers Beta Social Network Application Top 10 Site Usability Assessment
5. 7.
Write what you want on Back of Business Card
Aaron@BusinessOL.com