Web Analytics

This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com on 09/10/09 and is republished here with permission.

 In the UK, Econsultancy has released their latest overview of the Web Analytics market and there are some interesting findings and trends that I’m sure are being replicated in other parts of the world. It also highlights though that in some areas that there is still a lot of progress to be made. Read more…

Many multi-channel businesses are now convinced that making an investment in tailoring their customer experience strategy is time, effort and money well spent. They’ve seen for themselves that improving the experience of customers has a demonstrable impact on engagement, as well as commercial activity if that is part of the goal. So what should be the next step for these businesses? Should they simply maintain the measurement, analysis and improvement of experience for the broadest possible range of customers? Or is there potential for some of those businesses in focusing their efforts on their most strategically important customers?It would be naïve to believe that some companies aren’t already identifying segments of their customer base that represent the largest proportion of commercial profit, in some form or another. It’s a relatively simple process to isolate and track customers by certain criteria – their postcodes perhaps, their membership of a loyalty scheme, their past purchase record, or a particular behaviour they display during their interactions. These triggers could be used to deliver an enhanced, or at least different, customer experience. Perhaps they should be guided towards particular offers or incentives that have been selected to appeal to their profile? Or maybe their interactions should be monitored so that they can be contacted by virtual or human agents if their purchasing journey is aborted for any reason? These are intriguing possibilities with plenty of potential.
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This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com on 24/09/09 and is republished here with permission.

In the course of our work we see many implementations of many different web analytics systems. However, despite the fact that most companies now have an analytics system or indeed are on their third or fourth different technology I remain surprised sometimes by the poor quality of the data that are being reported from these systems. If you are only using the system to report very top line numbers then it’s easier not to worry too much about the quality of the data as it’s hidden from view. Read more…

We recently met up with David, head of customer experience and security at Barclays, to chat about his job and customer experience at Barclays.

So David, head of customer experience and security, what exactly are the responsibilities of your role?
In simple terms it’s all about making sure that everything that the team here does is customer centric, and that we are involved at the design stage of any changes that are made. We are there to ensure that that the customer viewpoint is always taken into account, and we do that by maintaining a regular dialogue with our customers and our helpdesks.  We also conduct usability sessions, double-checking that what we’re doing is truly fit for purpose. One thing I enjoy doing is sitting in with our online banking helpdesk, which can be very revealing. When our customers are in difficulty, they phone us, so I sit down with our advisors once a month and try to understand their issues. As you probably know we record these calls. Using this information and a number of other feedback mechanisms, we work to identify bottlenecks, champion changes, and drive out the real issues. The ‘security’ part of my job title involves mitigating the risks for online banking. Our team has been instrumental in leading the development of things like ‘PINsentry’. We then communicate these changes and instruments to our customers. It’s perhaps an unusual blend of responsibilities, but for me it works very well. By wearing both hats I get to witness the extremes of both security and usability, so that I can genuinely understand what customers will use and how secure they feel.

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You might well have come across multivariate testing techniques before in your explorations into customer experience measurement, but for the uninitiated, here is a brief definition that puts the methodology into context.

Multivariate testing, or MVT, is an experimentation process by which a series of possible design variables are tested at once to see what effect, if any, they have on website performance. It’s a complex form of split, or A/B testing, employing algorithm-based software and constant monitoring of web analytics data. Small changes are made to single variables (such as the position of a menu, the colour of a background) and the impact of each change is measured. From series of changes, optimum design configurations can be narrowed down as a result of measurable evidence. With MVT it is also possible to experiment with structural, business rule and database driven elements, as well as cosmetic changes. We can even employ advanced rule-based targeting capabilities, including targeting by geographic location, traffic source (such as search engine versus email campaigns), cookies, and more.

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Here at Foviance we’re always looking to strike new partnerships with innovative technology providers that are able to bring new ideas and perspectives to online customer experience. Tealeaf is very much a company that fits that billing.

Tealeaf’s aim is to enable businesses with busy online channels to see and understand their customers’ actual online experiences, analyse their motivations and gain greater insight in to why those customers do what they do while engaging with the site. We’ve been aware of Tealeaf’s talents for some time, and were keen to embark on any project that allowed us to add mutual value to customer experience management and measurement.

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This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com and is republished here with permission.

Despite the tough trading conditions a trend that I have observed here in the UK and I expect, is that organisations are continuing to build out their web analytics capabilities and grow their teams. A number of clients I work with are looking to bring on new people and the job market for web analysts remains reasonable healthy. In some cases this means that companies are looking to appoint their first person into a new role, but increasingly some organisations are looking to to expand the team to 2, 3 or more people. Read more…

This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com and is republished here with permission. 

The past few weeks I have been looking at the need for organisations to focus more heavily on the user experience and to more rigouroulsy understand what their customers want online and how best to deliver that to them. Good customer insight is core to that process and insight comes from a range of systems, methodologies and techniques. Last time  I looked at the use of quantitative approaches to customer insight and this week I want to look at some of the more qualitative approaches. Read more…