Creating the customer experience: web interfaces

and usability

MARK 430

Week 5

4 steps to successful marketing strategy

Understanding customer needs and online behaviour (market research, data mining, web analytics) (Weeks 1 - 4)

Formulate a strategy to fill needs (segmentation, targeting, positioning) (Weeks 4 - 5)

Implement effectively and efficiently (web usability, stickiness, advertising, search engine optimization, email marketing, pricing, distribution, product development) (Weeks 5-12)

Build trusting relationships with customers (Week 13)

Customer Experience and the web interface

During this class we will:

Introduce and define the concept of customer experience

Examine the three stages of the customer-experience hierarchy

Understand the seven elements of customer interface — the “7Cs”

Explore the significance of the user interface

Some terminology

Trust cues related to privacy and security related to the whole look and feel and functionality of the site

Stickiness getting visitors to come back getting them to stay longer

Usability user-focused design

Customer experience Once a firm has decided on the positioning of its product

offering, it must clearly articulate the customer experience that it wants to create.

Customer experience “refers to a target customer’s perception and interpretation of all

the stimuli encountered while interacting with a firm” (Mohammed et al pg. 130)

In an offline example - the customer experience in a Starbucks is not limited to the taste of the coffee

Online, the customer experience includes the entire range of a visitor’s perception of a website - from ease of use to the emotional reactions to a site’s content

It is the user’s interpretation of his or her complete encounter with the site

Elements of the customer experience

Functional perceptions

Sensory perceptions Sight Sound Touch Smell Taste

Cognitive and emotional elements

Stages of Customer Experience Over Time

Functional relationship with product website

Intimate relationship

Evangelist

TIME

Stages of Customer Experience - turn your customers into evangelists for your

product If a Firm Gets This Right …

This Is What the Customer Experiences

Stage One: Functionality

Usability and ease of navigation Speed Reliability Security Media accessibility

Site is easy to use Quick downloads Intuitive navigation Site reliability

Stage Two: Intimacy

Customization (tailoring and personalization)

Communication Consistency Trustworthiness Exceptional value Shift from consumption activity to

recreational activity

Personalization Increasing trust Repeated experiences of

exceptional value A sense of “being in the

know” Consistent experiences Significant benefits relative to

other offerings

Stage Three: Evangelism

Taking the message to the market

Active community membership The company cares about my

opinions Defender of the experience

Desire to take messages to the market

Community benefits

Stages of Customer Experience for Mountain Equipment Co-op

Generic Desired Customer

Experience What MEC.ca Delivers

Functionality Site is usable Easy navigation Quick download Speedy site Reliable

Content organized around user needs Easy-to-find gear and activity information Multiple views of products and services Website that rates high on efficiency and

fulfillment No crashes and limited downtime

Intimacy High trust Consistent experience Quick, effective communication High personalization Exceptional value Consistent with brand message

Authoritative content and information Easy access to customer service E-mail newsletter Product returns to store or by mail Member listings for GearSwap and outdoor

events Test your EcoFootprint

Evangelism Takes word to the market Defends the experience

Membership advantages Social and ecological awareness image In-store and local events Strong link between online and offline brand

Some things that really damage Customer Experience on a

commerce site

Badly implemented search Not telling people an item is out of stock until

late in the process Shipping cost not given until late in the

process Asking for personal information too early in

the process No contact information Can’t print properly

Crafting the customer interface

We are moving now to focus on customer / website interface issues - one element of the customer experience, but a very important one

The importance of the web interface

Internet technology has caused a shift in the way in which firms interact with their customers

Face-to-face encounters common in the retail environment have been replaced with screen-to-face interactions.

Interfaces include desktop PCs, laptops/notebooks, web kiosks, handhelds such as PDAs and cellphones

We will focus mostly on web interfaces

The 7Cs (design elements) of the Customer Interface

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Site’s layout and design: functional look and feel (the “how” of the site)

Text, pictures, sound and video that webpages contain (the “what” of the site)

The ways sites build relationships between users (message boards, reviews)

Site’s ability to self-tailor to different users or to allow users to personalize the site

The ways sites enable site-to-user communication or two-way communication

Degree site is linked to other sites

Site’s capabilities to enable commercial transactions (shopping cards. payment options, order confirmation etc)

Context

Content

Community

Customization

Communication

Connection

Commerce

Context (look and feel): the “How” of the site

2 main dimensions: Function and Aesthetics

Function - site layout and functionality Section breakdown - the way the site is organized into sub-

categories make them clear, and customer focused

Linking structures - navigation where am I? how do I get back to where I came from? (breadcrumbs)

Navigation tools - search functionality and methods, browse capability, site index/map

Use terminology the customer can understand Make sure your search tool works - configure it

Aesthetics - visual characteristics such as colours, graphics, fonts etc

Context - Some examples

Site’s layout and design: functional look and feel (the “how” of the site)

Functional design: Google.com - clean, simple, uncluttered

CEOExpress.com - lots of content, mainly from newsfeeds. Busy interface, but the site is designed to make information easy to retrieve

Aesthetic design Apple.com - lots of white space, limited amount of content presented.

Customer is encouraged to browse and explore. Fits with Apple’s reputation for good industrial design

Tiffany.com - elegant, visually appealing. Uses Flash for navigation so the experience is slower (like buying a diamond ring offline?)

The look and feel of the site should reflect the sensibilities of the customers being targeted

Content: the “What” of the site

Text, pictures, sound and video both the type of content, and the media with which it is

delivered The offering mix: products, information, services etc The appeal mix: promotional and communications

messages The media mix: the multimedia elements included on

the site Be careful with adding too many multimedia elements that

require plug-ins unless you have good market research that shows that your users expect it.

Content type: time sensitive information versus “evergreen” information Freshness keeps bringing customers back Archives provide a useful service to users Watch out for “What’s New” sections

Community Community: the way sites build relationships between

users. Strong community encourages people to return to the website again and again Community can create attractive content (for free!) Web communities can make the user feel that they are

valued by the firm Community can satisfy needs not otherwise able to be

satisfied individually (eg. finding people)

Common tools are message boards, customer reviews, chat with special guests, corporate blogs, members areas

Other examples: Lands’ End “Shop with a Friend”,

Customization Customization is the site’s ability to self-tailor

to different users The way customization can be achieved is divided

roughly into 2 types (although many sites use both) Personalization - preferences actively selected

by the user

Tailoring by site - automatically generated customization based on a user’s previous behaviour, and the actions of other similar users

Personalization Personalization is usually used to refer to customization

of a site by the user him or herself. Promotes stickiness and customer loyalty Once a user has selected preferences, they must be

saved and can then be accessed by use of registration/log in.

Examples of personalization: E-mail accounts or storage space Content and layout configurations - mytelus.com Software agents - can be configured to notify a user when an

item is in stock, or to act as an alert service Cookies are often used in tandem with personalization,

but they can identify only the machine on which the cookie is stored, not the individual person. Hence the need for log-in.

Tailoring by site The second type involves automatically

generated customization based on a user’s previous behaviour, and the actions of other similar users

Interface software dynamically publishes different versions of the site in order to better address users’ interests, habits, and needs. The technologies to achieve this include cookies,

and recommendation engines that use collaborative filtering. This is all completely automated, but can be improved by using active user input.

Personalization/customization using a combination of tools

Amazon.com provides a very good example of this combination of methods to customize the user experience using collaborative filtering and a recommendation engine

Lands’ End - My Model (allows you to configure a model to your body type and appearance and try on clothes) and My Personal Shopper (uses “Conjoint analysis” - presents alternatives for selection)

Communication

Communication refers to a firm’s dialogue with its customers Dialogue can be one-way (broadcast) or two-way

(interactive) Broadcast communication

Mass mailings (opt in only!) E-mail newsletter Content update notifications

Interactive e-commerce dialog using email to exchange information re

orders etc Customer service - email or live chat User input - content, reviews, feedback etc

Connection: how does a firm connect to other businesses?

Links to other sites

Outsourced content - eg. news feeds, stock quotes, weather etc

Affiliated sites - complementary products/services etc

Dimensions of Commerce Commerce refers to those aspects of the user

interface that support the various aspects of trading transactions Registration Shopping cart Security Credit card approval One-Click Shopping (Amazon patented feature) Orders through affiliate programs Configuration and comparison mechanisms Order tracking Delivery options

Fit and Reinforcement of 7Cs to create synergy. How well do they work together?

ContextContext ContentContent CommunityCommunity CustomizationCustomization CommunicationCommunication ConnectionConnection CommerceCommerce

Business Model and Marketing Strategy

Business Model and Marketing Strategy

Reinforcement depends on consistencybetween the 7Cs

Fit: Does each of the 7Cs individually support the Business Model and Strategy?

Based on Mohammed 2003

In the lab next week

We will be applying the 7Cs of the customer interface to websites to help us to analyze what works in a web interface, and what needs fixing