The booking process was pretty simple, and pretty much matched the process for booking a flight. The best part, however, was when we arrived at the ferry terminal in Dover. This is a classic case of a “moment of truth” – the customer is under stress, and the way customers are dealt with at times like this makes or breaks a customer experience.

We pulled straight off the motorway, through a well-organised and signposted road system. A good example of how the customer experience before the customer arrives into a company’s property is important. The Port Authority of Dover and the Highways Agency played their part in making this a good customer experience.

Next came the really clever bit. I’d like you to imagine the most efficient possible way you could process people onto a ferry, and I bet that the way P&O do it exceeds this.

We came to an arrangement of check-in booths with barriers, like motorway toll booths, and as we pulled up to the barrier, the man in the booth said “Mr Raistrick, how many people are travelling with you today?”. I was shocked and delighted. This was like arriving at the Ritz.

A camera at the gate, connected to a car number plate recognition system had matched the plate to the booking record, and appeared on the screen in the booth within a few seconds. This is the most important aspect of the multichannel customer experience – touchpoints between channels, and what makes or breaks this is whether the channel you’re using (in this case face to face) knows about the last channel you used to interact with the company (in this case web).

We were processed extremely rapidly, which was good for us, and good for P&O – a great example of how customer experience and cost-saving can go hand-in-hand. We were then given a lane number, which we hung on our reversing mirror, and drove through a well-organised system of hundreds of lanes, until we found ours.  A man checked the number on the mirror as we drove onto the ferry, increasing their efficiency and reducing delays.

Once on the ferry, the first thing which improved the customer experience was the usability of the navigation. We were on deck 5, and took the orange stairs, a fantastic cross-referencing system to allow us to find our car again.

The food and seating on ferry were, I must admit, nowhere near as good as what I’ve experienced on other ferries recently in Scotland, the Baltic and New Zealand, but then again, it was a lot cheaper too, so I didn’t necessarily expect this. A good example of how a company’s customer experience strategy can focus effort on those “moments of truth”, whilst not needing to improve the entire Customer Experience to maximise the RoI of Customer Experience investment.

Whilst on holiday, we decided to move our return date forward a day, so I logged onto the website, because this is much cheaper and easier than calling when you’re abroad. This was one moment of truth where I was disappointed – there was no way to change it online, and no information on how to do it either. I was wasting time – I wanted to be visiting castles, and here I was fishing around a website (or “some stupid website” as I no doubt referred to it at the time). At least the website had a phone number, so I called up, and they charged a nominal £10 fee to move the day. Stress over.

Customer service is often neglected as it is not seen as ‘critical path’, or is managed by a different team with a different budget. However, it is a key part of the customer experience, and relatively cheap improvements could make a lot of difference (and, in this case, reduce costs too, as channel shift from phone to web usually does).

When we returned from our holiday in Belgium, feeling suntanned (yes, suntanned!) and full of chocolate, we arrived at the port a bit early. Having driven quite a way, we were not in the mood for any hassle, but the same efficient booth greeted us, and we were booked onto the next available ferry hassle-free. The airlines could learn a thing or two from this high level of consistency between the way the customer is processed in different countries.

Not having to take the plane was a breath of fresh air. I didn’t have to stand in a line, take my shoes off, remove my laptop, deny myself access to liquids, have my retina scanned, or have my luggage rummaged. The airlines have no control over this, but it’s an important lesson in how third parties can make or break a customer experience. ‘Verified by Visa’ take note.

Although not perfect, my experience with P&O helped us to have the most relaxing holiday we’ve had in ages. A superb cross-channel customer experience.

These days we live in an experience economy. Many organisations look to compete through some kind of service or product differentiated strategy rather than purely compete on price. But these days it’s a complex landscape, organisations have to work across multiple channels and deliver a joined up experience, across the web, the call centre, stores and other touch points. Consumers are no longer tolerant of organisations that don’t recognise them across these various touch points and are better equipped than ever before to drop something about it when things aren’t right.

So how are businesses coping with the need to deliver a multi-channel, integrated customer experience? Well the evidence from a recent report from Foviance in association with Econsultancy here in the UK, suggests that whilst organisations recognise that is something they need to do, they are a long way from delivering on that need. The report based on a survey of over 500 businesses highlighted that the majority of organisations do recognise the link between business performance and customer experience but are struggling to develop a strategy for multi-channel customer experience management and then delivering on that strategy. One of the key issues is that nobody owns the problem, with many organisations lacking an individual or a department to take responsibility for the customer experience within the business. Everyone is too busy focused on doing their own thing.

The sheer complexity of managing a cross-channel customer experience is also a major problem but that complexity is often exacerbated by the fact that there is no clear strategy. Over two thirds of the organisations that took part in the survey said that they were just in the process of beginning to develop their strategy for managing the customer experience across channels. This included some pretty big organisations.

One of the key factors that was cited in the survey that was getting in the way of organisations from improving their multi-channel customer experience was the difficulty in tying together the various difference sources of customer data. About a third of companies said that this lack of the single customer view was a major barrier preventing them from making progress in this area. Developing a joined up customer experience requires joined up data and one of the biggest challenges facing many organisations today is finding ways off connecting their online and their offline data.

In many cases companies now have their web data almost under control and the next phase of their analytical development is to combine that data with other data they hold in the organisation. This is not a trivial issues and it’s important that organisations develop a coherent data strategy to take them to the next level. This strategy needs to address questions such as “How can I track the customer experience across multiple touchpoints?”, “What data do I need to collect?” ,“What technology do I need” and perhaps one of the most important questions is “What resources and skills do I need?”

Having continuous feedback through customer feedback and surveys was seen as being vitally important. This was seen as being one of the key ways to generate quality customer insight and to help them improve their service levels. At the same time, the trouble is that a lot of businesses don’t have in place the right kind of structures to derive actionable insight. Often I’ve seen examples of rich data being left to wither on the vine because no one had the time or the responsibility to look at what their data was telling them and therefore what they should do about it.

Data and insight is one of greatest enablers to developing an improved customer experience. Organisations that invest in managing this across channels will be well placed for success.

Download a free copy of the report

Customer preference for multi-channel customer experience is transforming big business in the UK

British businesses struggle in quest for “holy grail of single customer view”, as the number of brand touch-points on a customer’s journey continue to grow

More than two-thirds (69%) of UK businesses are just beginning to develop a multi-channel customer experience strategy, despite the increasing number of online and offline touch-points in a customer journey, according to research published today by Econsultancy and Foviance.

The new study finds that only 22% of companies have a well-developed multi-channel customer experience strategy in place, while nearly one in 10 companies (9%) admit to having no strategy in place at all. Organisational structure is cited as the greatest obstacle to change.

Companies recognise the importance of a multi-channel customer experience but are typically failing to adopt a strategy or framework to enable a single customer view. Survey respondents were asked how close their own organisations are to having a single view of the customer. A mere 32% of companies questioned claimed to have the integrated systems and processes required to give customers a joined-up experience.

This is despite the fact that almost half of company respondents (49%) say that a multi-channel customer experience is “very important” to their organisation, and a further 41% say it is “quite important”. More than two thirds of companies (68%) recognise a strong link between long-term business performance and customer experience, the research found.

The ‘Multi-channel Customer Experience Report’, published by Econsultancy in association with customer experience consultancy Foviance, is based on a survey of more than 500 companies and agencies. The research found that nine different online and offline touch points are relevant for at least half of the companies surveyed.

Linus Gregoriadis, research director at Econsultancy, comments: “It is clear that while the vast majority of companies understand the impact on business performance, very few organisations have integrated, cross-channel processes and systems in place, or a strategy to help them to achieve this.”

Paul Blunden, CEO of Foviance, adds: “The rise of social networks has put the power with customers and it has never been more important for organisations to create an environment where customers notice a positive difference. Customers are no longer prepared to accept that businesses are still learning and view their multi-channel interactions through a single lens, sharing their experiences widely and candidly.”

Gregoriadis added: “An increasing number of online and offline customer touch points are making it even more difficult for organisations to ensure a consistent cross-channel customer experience based on the holy grail of a single customer view.

“Companies are typically trying to integrate systems and adopt a customer-centric approach, but haven’t yet reached the stage where they have properly managed to harness these different processes in a way which allows for seamless cross-channel engagement.”

Respondents were asked to indicate the most significant barriers which prevent them from improving the multi-channel customer experience.

• The greatest barrier is organisational structure, which is one of the three greatest barriers for 41% of respondents.
• The next most significant issue is complexity of customer experience, cited as a major barrier by 38% of respondents.

According to the report, many organisations are lacking an individual or department to take responsibility for the customer experience within the business. For some companies, the problem is compounded by a lack of budget. 

• More than a third of companies surveyed (38%) say that ownership of the multi-channel customer experience lies with a mixture of different departments, and less than a third of companies (31%) have a budget which is dedicated to improving the customer experience. 
• More than a quarter of companies (28%) say there is no budget at allfor improving the customer experience, while a further 41% say that they use budget which was assigned for other things.

REPORT URL
http://www.foviance.com/what-we-think/multi-channel-customer-experience-report

Photos from Foviance report launch event at The Hospital Club
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30246835@N08/sets/72157625317585590/

Noted behavioural psychologist specialising in this field available for comment. Bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catriona_Campbell

Notes to Editors
Press contacts
Wendy McAuliffe
wendy@populatedigital.com
07900 886791

Charlotte Wilberforce
charlotte.wilberforce@foviance.com
+44 (0)8450 546 500

About Foviance

Foviance is a leading cross-channel customer experience consultancy that helps some of the world’s best known global brands to deliver better customer experiences that drive improvements in customer satisfaction for increased customer loyalty and better financial performance.

Founded in 2000 and with a heritage in usability research and data analytics, Foviance delivers research and analytics-based consultancy to its clients about the effectiveness of their individual channels, such as mobile, web and call centre and how they combine in a cross-channel environment. For many clients, insight is provided not only in their home market, but also internationally through Foviance extensive alliance network.

Foviance engages with its customers wherever they are in their product lifecycle, and provides insight so they understand how to improve, create and deliver excellent customer experiences.

Foviance boasts 43 of the UK FTSE 100 companies among its client roster, including Barclays, BSkyB, and Sainsbury’s. In addition Foviance works with International brands such as AstraZeneca, Dell and Nokia. Foviance has offices in London and Shanghai.
For further information:
Tel:+44 (0)8450 546 500, e-mail: info@foviance.com, web: www.foviance.com

About EconsultancyEconsultancy is the leading source of independent advice and insight on digital marketing and e-commerce. Our reports, events, online resources and training programmes help a community of over 85,000 registered marketers make better decisions, build business cases, find the best suppliers, look smart in meetings and accelerate their careers.
Join Econsultancy today to learn what’s happening in digital marketing – and what works.
Call us to find out more on +44 (0)20 7269 1450 or contact us online.
http://econsultancy.com

Behavioural experts in the field of Customer Experience, Foviance, analyse today’s consumers, who all expect businesses to have joined up channels. But they just aren’t providing the capability. In fact 69% of UK businesses say they are just beginning to develop their strategy.

Companies recognise the importance of the multi-channel customer experience but are typically failing to adopt a strategy or framework to enable a single customer view.

To download the whitepaper a valid e-mail address is required, however Foviance will not contact you unless you specifically request it.

It’s still possible to let our views be known manually through a letter or even face-to-face if we so desire. Most of us are perhaps more familiar with expressing opinions via electronic channels, such as telephone, fax, e-mail, forums or blogs. But now more people than ever before are also venting their spleens on digital or mobile platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, TripAdvisor –even FourSquare, Google Maps, and in the future on emerging applications such as augmented reality.

What all of this means is that not only are there now more ways to complain than ever before, many of these methods have evolved from private interactions to belligerently public participatory ones. The very act of complaining has transitioned from a closed private space to a much more open and public one, often involving not only direct participants, but also interested voyeurs who invite themselves to throw their hat into the ring on any topic they choose.

This move away from a reliance on individuals to a reliance on technology reflects the increasing convenience and ease with which modern communications, and therefore complaints, can be made. These relatively recent social and voyeuristic tendencies of complaining are made all the more easy by the lack of geographic or time barriers to posting or responding to complaints. Complaining 2.0 can quickly take on a life of its own at the hands of those people who have no connection to the complaint at all other than morbid curiosity or passing interest. Any one of us could fire up a browser right now and comment or provide feedback about someone else’s complaint and start making waves in the public domain.

Perhaps the real game-changer has been the development and increasing ubiquity of the smartphone and the explosion of apps. Complaining may have progressed but it certainly isn’t standing still – where the development of technology platforms was catalytic in shifting complaint behaviour, app development is now picking up the critical baton. This shift in technology has rapidly facilitated a move to a more accessible and broadcast oriented medium. Time has also been truncated even further through the use of apps, to such a degree that it’s now possible to complain while the cause of the complaint is still taking place. The act of complaining no longer requires any form of direct human contact, further underlining the evolution over time from complaints being vocal experiences to becoming virtual ones.

In conclusion then, technology may have changed, the ways in which we can complain may have changed, even the proximity of the complaint to its occurrence and resolution has changed. But what hasn’t changed, is that people are free to complain on whatever channels they choose and are available to them whenever their ire rises. It’s easier to complain than ever before. Are you as a business ready for that?

This article was written as part of our September Newsletter

Throughout the lifespan of the order, from the placement to the point where the Internet is up and running, O2 has developed a multi-channel approach to keep customers informed of the status of their order. Instead of only providing an online order tracking feature, O2 sends out SMS and emails letting customers know, for example, that “the order has been successfully placed” or that “the appointment with the phone engineer has been confirmed”. Fundamentally, this pro-active tactic is laudable and complies with the customer experience code of practice. However, I believe they got it wrong on a couple of aspects.

First of all, emails and SMS contain the same information. As a user, and when it comes to order statuses, I would tend to prefer having too much rather than nothing, but I don’t need duplicate information particularly if the information is factual (“Good news: your Direct Debit is being set up”) and doesn’t require any action. Ideally each channel should be used to convey different types of information. For instance, I would expect to receive SMS notifications about important dates (e.g. “We expect your line to be activated on the xx”). Via email I would like to receive information summary emails with a link to the order tracking feature. But in no instance do I want to receive an email solely telling me that my direct debit is being set up.

Another issue that stems from this practice is the way communication is spread out in time. On the day that I placed the order I received no less than five emails and five text messages. Five emails a day are reasonably easy to handle despite them bulking up my inbox and the risk of triggering the spam filter. However, receiving SMS in such a short period of time from a corporation becomes increasingly annoying, especially if the relevance of the information is subject to discussion. This ends up discrediting the whole approach as customers are inundated with information in a short time, which can be frustrating and can therefore produce the opposite of the sought effect. Equally, communication from O2 will be very sparse after day two of the order process: notifications are therefore concentrated at the beginning of the order lifespan and become almost inexistent until the activation date of the order. This calls the whole strategy into question; why not send an email on the second day after placing the order summarising all the information instead of dispatching granular pieces of information via two different channels?

O2’s strategy is definitely heading the right way and this approach has clearly no other purpose than to benefit the user. However, some aspects of it need to be reviewed and optimised in order to offer a clear added-value. When multi-channel strategies are considered, requirements gathering methodologies change. Surely O2 ran focus groups to explore their idea; yet did they also conduct ethnographic studies (e.g. diary study) to trial the concept? This is not an isolated case – far from it. I have seen plethora of companies offering inadequate multi-channel experiences or showing blatant disconnections between their channels. It’s about time things change. Going multi-channel is not an easy task but is definitely worth it and will soon become a more powerful differentiator than price is.

This post was written by Xavier Klingenfus

Figures corroborate this: predictions see app market turnover rocketing to a whopping $17.5 billion in 2012, against $6 billion this year. The number of app downloads should also reach new highs with an estimated $50 billion in 2012 against $7 billion this year. But interestingly, it seems that apps haven’t reached their full potential yet. What the stats also tell us is that gaming and social networking dominate the app market whereas retail apps trail at the rear of the wagon. However, despite mobile retail apps trailing slightly right now, they have a huge power to unleash.

It’s small wonder that retail apps are lagging behind. The whole app concept is fairly recent and most of us are not yet fully ready to embrace mobile shopping: security and payments on handheld devices remain a concern, we’re not yet so keen on purchasing on the go, and we want to feel we’re making informed mature decisions. In the end, why would we use a small device when we’ve got laptops and computers available most of the day? This trend, though, is about to change.

A recent study conducted by miBuys indicated that 85 percent of surveyed women used the mobile internet daily, and 95 percent of them browsed the mobile web at home when they could potentially access computers. Also, 67 percent were interested in receiving mobile vouchers or coupons, whilst 57 percent had already clicked on mobile advertising. Another study from Deloitte revealed that one-in-five consumers plan to mobile shop in the future, 25 percent of whom intend to make a purchase through their phone. The explosion of mobile commerce is therefore scheduled – now how can big e-commerce firms ensure they make the most of mobile apps?

The power of retail apps is two fold: not only do they boost online sales; they also leverage offline sales. In the former case, the added value of apps is clearer. Online revenue is not only limited to the download cost of the app but is also generated by in-app content. Apps can indeed be used as a portal to access product listings or ad hoc services, which can ultimately lead to online transactions. The Ocado app is an interesting success story. Available on multiple platforms including iPhone and Android, the free-to-download app yielded a turnover of more than £15 million in Q1 2010 (five percent of Ocado’s total sales), by enabling users to go food shopping on their phones. Another example is the Sky Sports Live Football app. The app gives football results in real time as games are being played, for free. But if they register within the app for an extra £4 a month service, users can get video clips of the goals on their phone.

The offline value of mobile apps is less obvious yet it is still there. Apps can boost offline sales by acting as a promotional medium. One way to exploit this opportunity is to create a catalogue app, just like Ikea recently did. The app allows users to browse the latest Ikea store catalogue. One of its main strengths is that the catalogue is offline and can therefore be accessed regardless of network signal. Another option is to create an app that sends periodical push alerts to users (e.g. about new clothes collections, promotional vouchers and so on). Desktop websites would then finish the job started by the apps and convert visitors into buyers. US venture company Shopkick is taking mobile retail to a new level by merging mobile and offline shopping. Its app, to be released at some point this summer, will work across a certain number of stores (including Macy’s and Best Buy for a start) and will provide augmented product information. While strolling down the aisles of brick-and-mortar stores, users will be able to use the cameras on their phones to scan items in order to get additional information (such as reviews).

So the power of retail apps is still to be realised. If well thought and well designed, this channel can become another consistent stream of online revenue. If you’re considering designing an app for your e-business, here are a few tips to ensure you make the most of it:

• Know you audience – What type of phones are your customers using? If they use smartphones, think ‘apps’. If they use more primitive phones, think ‘mobile friendly website’
• Track your traffic – Knowing the share of your visitors that access your site via their phones will help you plan your online strategy
• Establish you goal(s) – Do you want to use your app as a sales channel, showcase window or interactive in-store guide?
• Engage with your customers – Apps are different from the traditional web, demanding new marketing strategies
• Make payments easy – Should you decide to implement a checkout process in your app, make sure it is quick, user-friendly and secure. Think Google Checkout, PayPal or similar
• Most importantly, make sure your app is usable – Don’t skip user testing while arguing your app won’t generate enough revenue to justify user-centred research.

This post was written by Xavier Klingenfus

This article was written as part of the Foviance July/August Newsletter

So when I think about my world of marketing, brand and user experience, I often look at him and consider that he is somewhat absolved from the matter, almost that he is not capable of being understood as an individual or won over as a customer on the grounds of such squandering.

All this changed in the past week when I saw him placing his bets on his new iPhone. I have spent many years listening to him pass through the layers of telephone security necessary before he can place his next winner at Windsor, Ascot or Wolverhampton. So to see him with an iPhone was somewhat of a surprise – almost as if someone from the back-roads of Dudley shouldn’t be seen using such shiny new technology!

So far I have used plain English speaking, guessing that not all of you will understand ‘Yam Yam’, the language of the Black Country. But knowing there are only few bookmakers who have launched an iPhone application I asked him who he was betting with, and he told me. “Why is that?” I asked. I asked the question because I knew that for many years he’d used a different bookmaker who he’d always raved about and to whom he is very well known through its call centre. Both bookmakers already offer good iPhone applications.

I found his response somewhat interesting and thought that it really demonstrated how, if an organisation considers user experience as truly cross-channel, it can really begin to gain competitive advantage and win customers.

He said: “I’ve recently started a new job which keeps me out of the office or on the road half of the time. This means that after doing my homework on any given day’s races, I am ready to place my bets from around midday, where I’ll either be sitting in front of my PC or on the mobile in the car.” “OK”, I said, “but why are you not using your usual bookmaker that also has a good iPhone app?” Because, he said “ just recently I’ve started playing poker too, and this new bookmaker is the only company that will allow me to switch funds between sports and poker easily on the mobile. I can bet in the day on the horses on the PC or on the iPhone, use my winnings on poker at home in the evening and in the morning I will have the same funds accessible on my iPhone to bet on sports again. What’s more, if I win on either I can walk into the bookies and collect the cash over the counter and have it in my hand. I can’t do that with my old bookmaker.”

That last line really struck a chord, “a penny dropping” moment as I heard it described this week. Invariably the projects in which Foviance has traditionally been involved in tend to be in silos, and I believe this is commonplace amongst the majority of our gaming clients where the different businesses think and operate as such. What we are finding more and more however with people like Luke and other customers, is that they become loyal to a particular operator not just because they have the best sports book or the best casino, but because the experience of using the different betting methods and administrating their funds is seamless, particularly across multiple channels.

Being able to move money between different betting accounts, having single sign-in security, talking on the telephone about an individual’s account rather than just sports book or just casino, collecting money from the High Street – these are all important to any player or punter. Brands getting this right can make the difference between having loyal customers with healthy cross fertilisation across games, or a few customers using a single game now and again.

This article was writtern as part of the Foviance July/August Newsletter

JUMP 2010 will focus on how we can make our marketing more effective by having a joined up approach.

Foviance’s Paul Blunden will be presenting research findings on the Multi-channel user experience.

Web analytics is the measurement discipline that underpins the success of all the world’s top web sites, including those popular in the UK. The professionals driving these metrics work together with marketing and online channel experts to improve the quality and effectiveness of the UK’s website portfolio. Many of them already belong to the Web Analytics Association with numbers increasing all the time as the WAA pushes ahead with its global network program.

Aurélie Pols, Globalisation Chair to the WAA and Principal Partner in Europe for Web Analytics Demystified, a global consulting firm focussing on web analytics and digital measurement, commented, “Matthew has a tough year ahead of him but has the drive to help promote web analytics in the UK and be part of a European effort to globalise the WAA. I’m looking forward to support him to also foster collaboration with other digital associations” She also noted that, “The UK has one of the most enthusiastic groups of Web Analytics Professionals with “Web Analytics Wednesdays”© regularly attracting over 100 people learning and networking together”

CEO of Foviance Paul Blunden said, “We at Foviance are delighted that Matthew is able to assist the WAA and congratulate him on taking on this additional role. Foviance has always recognised web analytics as a core part of helping to deliver a clear cross-channel customer experience and we have encouraged the team of skilled web analysts here to become members of their industry’s professional body. Foviance has a long tradition of being at the forefront of thought leadership within web analytics with our Director of Analytics Consulting, Neil Mason being for many years involved with the WAA’s main board.”

About the Web Analytics Association:

Founded by web analytics industry leaders in 2004, the mission of the WAA is to lead and support the online marketing analytics profession by educating, creating community, developing standards and best practices that facilitate best use of data, technology and processes. The organization has more than 1,500 members worldwide, representing forty countries and a broad spectrum of expertise. In addition to serving as a forum for members to discuss a wide range of issues related to the web analytics profession, the association works to build and elevate the profession through advocacy and education, and serves as the industry’s unbiased reference for standards and practices.

About Foviance

Foviance is a leading customer experience consultancy that helps some of the world’s best known global brands to deliver better customer experiences that drive improvements in customer satisfaction for increased customer loyalty and better financial performance.

Founded in 2000 and with a heritage in usability research and data analytics, Foviance delivers research and analytics-based consultancy to its clients about the effectiveness of their individual channels, such as mobile, web and call centre and how they combine in a cross-channel environment. For many clients, insight is provided not only in their home market, but also internationally through Foviance extensive alliance network. Foviance engages with its customers wherever they are in their product lifecycle, and provides insight so they understand how to improve, create and deliver excellent customer experiences. Foviance boasts 43 of the UK FTSE 100 companies among its client roster, including Barclays, BSkyB, and Sainsbury’s. In addition Foviance works with International brands such as AstraZeneca, Dell and Nokia. Foviance has offices in London and Shanghai. For further information please visit: www.foviance.com

Press contacts:

WAA Media Contact:
Carla Vicens, blast! PR
carla@blastpr.com

Foviance:
info@foviance.com