Archive for the ‘CX’ Category

Usabilty, money well spent

January 31, 2008

The average business metrics improvement after a usability redesign is now 83%. Whilst this is substantially less than 6 years ago, the ROI remains high because usability is still cheap to deliver relative to the gains.

Typical business metrics include: Conversion rates, such as sales or lead generation : Traffic numbers, such as page view statistics : User performance, such as the time needed to perform key tasks : Target feature usage, such as the number of users who click a link to crucial information

The reason why ROI has reduced in the last 6 years is because there are fewer horrible websites around now than there were back then. But we all know many sites need to improve – if you have a say in how your business spends it’s web budget you really should think seriously about a usability-led design project.

I’ve taken these statistics from a report by one of the heroes of web design. Jakob Neilsen has influenced design improvements to webites the world over, directly and indirectly through the influence of his books, I still go back to one of his older but very usable books, Designing Web Usability, and his website www.useit.com is a great source for web design insight.

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This is the customer experience (CX) era

January 10, 2008

My first blog of ‘08 is inspired by a series of conversations in the first week or so of the year – where for various reasons and in different situations people keep reminding me it’s the experience that counts…

 A senior exec in a big UK company said to me just yesterday that he was rather tired of vendors and consultants hitting him with poorly thought through notions in the guise of CRM, on the back of that wave of CRM systems investments. His challenge back to them seems to be – what can you offer me that actually will have a positive impact on my customers’ experience and therefore on my P&L? What a great question to hit suppliers with.

A mate of mine Chris Boyd has bombarded me (and everyone else he meets) again with the stories of why some new products and services succeed when some others don’t – in his words the money comes in when the experience drives the design and development.

A smart exec I know has thrown himself fully into his start-up to provide an innovative new service for website interaction analysis – some of his example findings reminded me that the stark reality is users look away when the experience is too hard to use.

A pundit reeling from his week in Vegas at CES has come away convinced that senior execs at the movie & TV firms and the consumer electronics companies have finally clicked that the consumer experience has to be compelling. I hope he’s right because in the world of home entertainment if something is to be “cool” it actually has to be intuitive, easy and fun.

Only 3 out of these 4 quoted the influence and success of Apple’s iPod, which is 25% less than usual but for very good reason. These conversations have been fascinating for me because I’ve been convinced of this truth for a long time, and I think many of us know it to be true but we drift away from it when the pressure is on. Well 2008 is predicted to be a tough year by many people, and no doubt for many business leaders the pressure will be on. S

o how many of us will stand by what we know to be true when things get tough – will you remember, it’s the customer experience era?

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Say it again, this is the customer experience era

July 30, 2010

I’m saying it again after saying it with the conviction of a New Year revelation (no it wasn’t a revolution) recently. And this time it’s about the banking experience; I can’t help believing many customers express unhappiness with the experience but generally don’t vote with their feet. But I’m told that inertia is breaking down – its seems that banking customers are more agile in their financial affairs than ever before – and it seems they are moving around when they see good new products!

But are they getting a good experience?

I think I should aim to find out this year and I made a startthe other day – an interesting conversation with someone who has already done more than most to challenge the banking status quo…

I was lucky enough to spend some time this week with James Alexander, ex Zopa and Egg, now at Green Thing. James is not only a very bright star but also a very nice guy so it was a pleasure to hear his views on the relationship of consumers with their banks – and his conviction that success comes from starting with customer and experience – or in his words “the increasing demand from customers for transparency and the need to feel connected with their financial actions”.

Here is a man well qualified to offer his views for consideration after his achievements at the forefront of Social Lending and I was fascinated to hear him talk about consumers having an “acute demand for something different and something better”. It echoes the other conversations I’ve been having that inspired me to declare at the start of 2008 my view that this is the customer experience era.

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