Keep The Noise Down

Buy Cheap, Pay Later (revisited)

Over four years ago I posted ‘Buy Cheap, Pay Later’, which warned of the perils of purchasing from discount retailers that sell cheap and support their low profit margin by a ‘sod you’ customer services policy. After 4 years of mostly positive online shopping experiences, it’s easy to get complacent and drift away from those online retailers with a reputation for premium customer service, being tempted away by the competitive pricing of a discount retailer. Even more so during these economic times.

And then comes the rude reminder as you fall foul of a discount retailers poor customer service! 

The villain this time is Camerabox, an online company set up in 2004, that sells cameras and equipment at competitive prices.  Their online experience is satisfactory, and the order fulfillment is efficient.  All appears well at first.  It's only when there is an issue and you need to contact their customer services team that the cracks appear and you discover that Camerabox doesn’t value their customers or understand the value of customer loyalty and retention through high-quality service. 

Operating on a low profit margin, it’s not surprising that some retailers such as Camerabox are reluctant to invest their profits in customer service. Unfortunately it’s also common during downturn management that some retailers skimp on staffing further impacting their ability to deliver a high level of customer service.

So should I really act surprised when I stray from those retailers that uphold a high-service level, and get burnt by a discount retailer without a reputation for customer experience?

Unfortunately, in most cases the answer is a resounding 'No'. The shocking customer service suffered at the hands of Camerabox is probably at the far end of the 'sod you' scale, but it's a fierce reminder of what buying cheap may cost you.

At the date of the original purchase the cost difference between the item purchased, an Olympus Mju Tough 8000 camera,  at John Lewis and Camerabox was about £30.  As an anecdote to buying cheap and paying later,  here’s a comparison of a recent customer services experience at John Lewis compared to that of Camerabox in resolving a product fault .

 

Response & Resolution Time

The John Lewis process was quick and painless.  From  the time I initially contacted them, a working replacement was with me within 9 working days. 

With Camerabox the story is very different.  When I returned the faulty camera, I was reassured by Gary Smart, Online Response Manager (ORM), that he would ensure a speedy resolution. Every time I contacted Gary Smart he reassured me with the same promise that he'd do everything he could to ensure the speedy resolution.  There was no evidence that he did little more than offer me lip service and he shouldn't make promises unless he intends to deliver upon them.

7 weeks later I received a refurbished replacement that had a further fault.  The camera was returrned a 2nd time. 

A further 9 weeks elapsed, without a single progress update.The only communication I received in this time was in response to a email I sent voicing my frustration at the poor customer service and how long this was taking to resolve. David Carter (Camerabox Returns Manager) again played lip service that he would look in this ongoing issue and be in touch as soon as possible.  I didn't hear back from David.

When the camera was eventually returned it included a note to say that the fault could not be identified.  It took Camerabox 9 weeks to come back with this response!

 

Inconvenience

John Lewis ensured that I suffered minimal inconvenience offering me several options and ensuring a fast resolution   

A different story with Camerabox.  The camera has been faulty from day 1, and spent 30% of the 12 months being investigated and attempting a resolution with Camerabox. In response to my complaint with regards to the ongoing issue, David Carter responded that they were acting within their SLA.  A strange response, that clearly highlights the concerns that they are certainly not a customer-centric retailer.

There was an even more alarming response from David Carter, in response to my request for a refund.  His response stated that they could not offer a refund as the item had just exceeded the 12 months warranty.

 ‘unfortunately due to the fact that your item is just over a year from your original date of order…’ 

However, this was untrue.  I kept the post office proof of when Camerabox received the camera which confirms that they received the camera 10 days before the 12 months had passed.   David Carter, had delayed his response 10 days, so that on the day he responded to me the 12 months had just passed!

 

Cost

The financial cost suffered through my John Lewis experience was negligible.

The costs suffered through Camerabox were significant;  two lots of carriage, to return the original item and the replacement item which was also faulty.  I had to purchase a cheap replacement camera for  £49.99 to cover the lengthy periods that the faulty camera has been in repair.  

Even more important than the financial cost has been the disappointment  of missing out on capturing priceless family moments by being without a working camera. 

 

Communication

John Lewis’s response to my initial query regarding a faulty item was apologetic for the inconvenience.

“I was sorry to hear of the problems that you have experienced with the xxxxx which you purchased..”

Compare this to Camerabox’s response from David Carter, Camerabox Returns Manager, which went on the offensive by raising the question of whether the item is covered under the warranty.

“Please send the item back to us; we will need to investigate to see whether there is a fault, or whether your item has suffered some form of accidental damage, which is not covered under warranty “

John Lewis’s subsequent email was a positive response to resolve this quickly, with a solution that best works for me, the customer.

 ‘I am quite happy to arrange to send you a quantity of xxxxx with my compliments, however this may only prove to be a short-lived solution. Alternatively, I can supply you with xxxxx in the hope that these would prove more satisfactory. if you feel that you have lost confidence in this product I shall be happy to take them back so that you could select an alternative xxxxx. In any event I would be prepared to reimburse you for any subsequent xxxxx fees incurred.’

This is in huge contrast to Camerabox. My first two emails were ignored.  David Carter eventually responded to my 3^rd email, and that wasn't until 2 weeks after they’d received the returned item.

Over the 12 months, I sent a total of 13 emails.On not one occasion did Camerabox proactively contact me.  Any communication was only in response to my emails, and were only to say 'we will look in to this...'

 

What all this worth it for a saving of £30?  Certainly not.

 

A study by Collect+ found that 58% of online shoppers will steer clear of a trader whose delivery or returns service falls short.  The findings also suggest that 30% of customers hold the retailer directly responsible for poor delivery or returns. Mark Lewis, Collect+ chief executive, said, “the hassle and cost of online returns has been the dark secret of retail for too long, with our research showing that shoppers are abandoning outlets that fail to get it right.

So ultimately the retailers loses out, but in the meantime many frustrated customers are caught out by buying cheap and paying later.  Paying more offers no guarantee of a better level of customer service, but often those online retailers that are known for providing a high-level of service don’t compete solely on price as they value the importance and investment in service excellence. 

So when you next make your purchase, consider the retailers service reputation and whether you are willing to take a gamble.  It’s been another costly reminder for me, and probably another 4 years before I stray away from those retailers I trust again!

 

Olympus Mju Tough 8000

Tesco introduces Lucky Dip for Online Shoppers

Tesco is engaging their customer through playful design.  Playfulness is often overlooked when crafting online experiences but online shoppers looking to purchase a Brabantia Ironing Table Cover from Tesco are being asked to place their purchase in the uncertain outcome of a Lucky Dip. The product page displays the following two designs but the customer is not able to select their preferred design.

 

When I queried this with Tesco Customer Services I received the following response:

“I was very sorry to hear that you were unable to select the red ornament design of the Brabantia Ironing Table Cover.  I can understand that this has been disappointing. I have checked this for you and regrettably this item is supplied in mixed boxes and it is not possible to select which design you would prefer to receive.  It will either be the red ornament or titan oval design.”

I therefore had 50/50 odds of receiving my preferred design.  I entered in to Tesco's playful spirit and took the gamble, purchasing the item online and arranging to collect in-store.

The final twist came when I collected the Ironing Table Cover, and  Tesco upped the element of surprise by giving me this subtle Lime Green Design!  Who needs choice?!!

 

London IA - Wednesday 11th November... don't miss out

The London IA event on the 11th November is not to be missed.  For newbies, this is a celebration of all-things IA (that is, Information Architecture).EMC Consulting is delighted to be hosting this event – so head over to our offices  (address below) for what promises to be a great event.

For those of you who unfortunately can’t make the event then follow what’s happening on Twitter - #londonIA  . And don’t forget to follow @london_ia to keep posted on future events and competitions.

When:  Wednesday, November 11th.  Doors open at 18:00 and it goes on until around 23:00. 

Where:  EMC Consulting, 36 Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 9EU

Who:

Max Gadney, Commissioning Executive in the BBC Vision Multi-Platform team
19:00 What’s the Point? IA with Purpose?

Richard Sedley, Director of the cScape Customer Engagement Unit (CEU)
20:00 Principles of Persuasion in On-site Behavior Change

Jason Mesut, Experience Director at The Team 
21:00 Play in User Experience

Oliver Reichenstein, runs Information Architects in Tokyo
22:00 Future of News

 

Thanks to Zebra People, for keeping attendees fed and watered (well, beers and wine that is)

 
Read more about the event at http://iapresentation.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/london-ia-november-11-mini-ia/

Sketching User Interfaces

So often criticised for its crimes against usability, Visio has been a loyal servant to me during the industrial years of the wireframe factory.  Yet this tool of choice for the past decade is now at risk of being retired as the shift from Web to Surface paradigm sees my toolkit evolve. With the rich interactions of natural user interfaces the good ole fashioned pencil and paper is back in vogue.  Sketching is the visualization tool do jour in this interaction paradigm.   

Yet pencil & paper has its challenges for the artistically challenged.  Years of keyboard abuse has seen my handwriting suffer and I never progressed beyond disproportioned stick men.  My hand drawn sketches are no Picasso so I need to discard those napkin sketches and find myself a tool that enables me to quickly scamp up the designs whilst keeping that rawness of a work-in-progress.

I am not advocating that we jump in to a design package and produce hi-fidelity designs but that we use simple tools to quickly and efficiently mock up hand-drawn line sketches such as this (below)

  

One of our User Experience Architects used Omnigraffle to create these digital sketches (above) for our Microsoft Surface Enterprise Search Application, using a stencil of shapes built from illustrations created by our design team.  I have built my own sketching toolkit from collections of stencils such as Konigi and Graffeltopia – great sources of free stencils for creating user interface specifications.

But are these complex diagramming applications the most efficient tools for sketching designs?  In my pursuit of the killer tool for visualizing the behaviour of an application I posted a tweet for designers to come forth with their digital sketch tool of choice. I received responses from the usual suspects in the #Surface community -  @joshblake, @stevedawson and @lhamilton.  My question was timely as these chaps were individually considering developing a UI prototyping tool for NUI’s.

Joshua (@joshblake) posed a question back to me - what features would I want from a UI prototyping tool?

I thought I’d open Joshua’s question up to a wider audience... what would you want from a digital sketch tool for the early stages of UI design? so please step forward and suggest a feature wishlist so we can see what existing UI prototyping tools (e.g. Denim, Balsamiq etc) meet our sketching needs and if they fall short then we can possibly see what these clever chaps can do about it.

Managing the Total Customer Experience

Empire Direct demonstrate how a solid online experience can be undermined by failure to address the total customer experience. Customers may come but get the experience wrong and they won’t come back. 

 

As part of my customer service frustration therapy here is how the story went ...

The colours on our CRT TV had seen better days so it was time to invest in an LCD TV. From reading the Which? report, asking friends, googling and local store visits I drew up a shortlist.  I used several price comparison engines and Empire Direct came up as the best all-in price in most cases.  This was handy as Empire Direct has a warehouse nearby.  Purchasing from an online retailer with physical stores gives me the added reassurance should I need to return a faulty item.

I decided to purchase the Panasonic Viera TX-32LXD70. Empire Direct offered a solid browsing and search experience.  I found the TV by typing ‘32LXD70’ in to the search box.  The product details was reasonably presented and easy to digest.  The product page linked to reevoo product reviews so I was able to make a more informed purchase decision.

This was the first time I had purchased from Empire Direct online so I scanned their policies.  If I need help I expect an immediate response so I only buy from sites with support phone numbers. Everything seemed in order and the site did a reasonable job of reassuring me and engendering trust.

The checkout process was straight forward. I placed the order and was happy enough with the online experience.

Next day my wife suggested we go for the smaller 26” version. This is when the problems began.  Customer Services is a key differentiator for me particularly with electrical goods.  In this case the reason for returning the TV was down to our indecisiveness but all the same the customer service that followed was shocking.

The headlines are that no-one answered their customer support number for 5 days and there was no multichannel integration! 

 

The customer support number was either engaged or would ring off before anyone answered - I tried nearly 2 dozen times before finally having success.  The 26" TV was out-of-stock online but available in their store just 1 mile down the road - however EmpireDirect would not allow me to exchange the TV in-store. The online customer support informed me “the online shop operates as an independent store and that items purchased online could not be returned in-store.” I could not even return the TV to the store while I wait for the 26" model to come in stock so I would have to wait 2-4 weeks with a large boxed TV cluttering up my hallway.  There are plenty more customer service niggles...

 

<deep breath>

The fact that I am extremely happy with the TV itself is not enough.  I have positive feelings about the TV and the Panasonic brand, but the fulfilment and disappointing customer services are my parting memory of Empire Direct.

Would I buy from them again? No. Well, maybe. I never say never but with a minor price differential I would buy from a company with better customer services. This experience is all too common where online retailers fail to appreciate that every single touch point in the total experience is an opportunity to strengthen or weaken their customer relationship.

<the end>

Listening to  Estudando O Pagode: Na Opereta Segregamulher E Amor

Four-oh-Four : give it the respect it deserves

The 404 error is the most notorious of all status codes.   Four-oh-Four has hit the mainstream, becoming part of our Internet vocabulary and even infiltrating our everyday language. It’s so popular that this status code has abandoned its mates (401, 403...) for international stardom, with galleries, forums and Facebook groups hosting heated debates as to which is the best 404 message.

So what is a 404 error?  It’s an important question as not everybody knows, something we often take for granted. Despite so many users being in the dark about 404’s many sites persist in displaying messages such as  "this is a 404 error message" to their users. 

This status code is a server response when a document or file is requested and can't be found on the web server. Yup, it's a techie term.  Yet we're happy to throw this jargon at unsuspecting users who have got lost through no fault of their own.  Motley Fool explain it in their 404 message: “That's 404: File not found for the technically inclined. For the not so technically inclined that means the link you clicked, or the URL you typed in to your browser, didn't work for some reason."

For some web sites the 404 error message can be the most visited page on your site! For most sites the 404 message will be the response to around 0.1-0.5% of server requests. Yet as Tayler points out in her post "my very first 404 page goes live!" this page often gets overlooked and users who get lost in a web site are left to find their own way out.  The way I view it is that when a user receives a 404 error they have one foot out of the door. The purpose of the 404 message screen is to bring the user back in to your web site before they walk away.  The important thing to remember is that a user arrived at your 404 page because they were looking for something. You need to help them find it

The default error message for most web servers when they get a request for a URL that they don't have is the "404 Not Found" error message.  Fortunately the 404 message can be customised. The design of your 404 message can be crafted to meet the needs of your brand and target audience but there are some basic principles that must be followed. 

Pages go missing for many reasons. The page may have been moved elsewhere, some external site has given an incorrect link, the page no longer exists, or the user makes a typing error. So be realistic, it's going to happen.  The failure to address to 404 error screen is usually down to stubbornness to acknowledge that your site will have errors.  No matter how rigorous you are there will always be errors.

So face the fact, your site will have errors and employ these basic principles when customising your 404 error:-

Do no redirect
Many sites still redirect to the home page. This will disorientate the user. The user deserves an explanation for why they have not reached their intended destination.

Use clear jargon-free language that non-technical folk will understand
Something the user looked for can't be found.  Tell them that.   Your user doesn't care that it's a 404 so why call it that.  Many savvy web users or 'geekier' types know what a 404 is, but equally many existing and new users don't.  I have carried out repeated user testing on 404 screens and the message is loud and clear - talk to users in clear English and reserve “404” for technical discussions only.

Don't blame the user
For example, "oops, you've messed up″ may seem fun and cheeky, but a lost user can rapidly become a disgruntled user so put your hands in the air, take the blame and help them on their way. For example “It’s not you. It’s me.”  Do not make the user feel that they have done something wrong!

Be informative and give an explanation for why they have received the 404 error message
Inform the user what has happened.  For example, the standard message "the page you requested not been found", or the quirkier "this page has gone missing" or "oops, we're sorry the page you requested can't be found”.

Offer a site map so users are able to easily continue their exploration
Provide either a site map or at the minimum links to your web sites most popular pages or sections.  Place obstacles in the way of the user finding what they are after and they are likely to go elsewhere. For example, see Conchango  or Samsung's 404 Error.

Provide a search engine 
For large sites it is recommended to offer search functionality. Remember the user was looking for something when they reached this page so for the same reason as providing a site map, help them find it. For example, Twitter.

Provide Contact details
If all else fails give your users a phone number or email address to get in touch.

Retain the overall look and feel of the site
The 404 experience is part of the users overall site experience. 

What if the 404 error message was the first page a user ever saw of your website?  For some it will be.  Give this message the attention it deserves and treat this page like any other page during a site design. 

It's good to see 404's start getting the respect they deserve.  They are often neglected or an afterthought in a site design.  When a user clicks a button or link they have expectations of the destination screen, so when an error occurs they receive an unexpected page. To avoid disorientating the user this page must be well designed.  As well as following the basic principles above it's important to make sure it's on brand.  I wouldn't expect humour on a Crown Prosecution Service 404 message, but would expect something playful from the likes of Flickr and Twitter.

There are plenty of sites and articles which discuss the heroes and villains of error messages so I won't attempt to reproduce them but point you at 404 Research Lab and Smashing Magazine’s 404 Error Pages: Reloaded.

I’m building a comprehensive set of 404 error’s  - worth bookmarking if 404’s excite you as I’ll be adding to this collection daily. Unfortunately the Flickr screengrab doesn’t do justice to Bluedaniel’s 404 error.  It may not follow my recommendations above but it can't be ignored for its creative and engaging take on the 404 message.

P.S. Conchango are recruiting! If any of my ramblings interest you and you are passionate about User Experience then we'd like to hear from you.  Why not contact me and let's have a chat?

 

 

Listening to: Bloody Mother F****ng A**hole EP by Martha Wainwright

Building customer trust should be taken seriously

A web site I once worked on has recently received a trust overhaul and is now lit up like a Christmas tree with all manner of sparkling trust-builders. Whilst the client must be applauded for their endeavour to reassure their customers and engender trust in their online store, simply littering their web site with a generous dollop of trust-builders shows a naivety and misunderstanding of how to build trust for their target audience.  

3rd party verification logos, customer service contact details, links to privacy statements, returns policies ... are just a few factors that build trustworthiness. Of course, customers also associate trust with the look and feel of the web site.  These and plenty more trust builders now adorn this site and at every step of the shopping experience you can feel these trust-builders breathing down your neck. This clumsy kitchen-sink approach might work for some audiences but the screen clutter creates noise and dilutes the impact of other trust-builders whose purpose at that moment is to allay any concerns and put the customers’ minds at ease.

Create a Trust Strategy Document

As part of the user centric design process I can't understate the value in creating a Trust Strategy Document. 

This is more than industry wisdom and includes trust design principles and guidelines written to meet the needs of your target audience.  This is more than just identifying what factors build trust and reassurance, but when to provide these reassurances, how to deliver them and where to position them.  Building trust is complex and is more than dropping a security seal on every page.  Trust cues vary for a brand and target audience, by industry, over time, and during different stages of their online shopping experience.

The art of serving these cues is like that of a great salesman.  He says the right things at the right time.

Why?

In the early days some customers were reluctant to shop online because of trust issues around the Internet and online transactions.  As the Internet has matured as an online market place the trust issues now faced are around which company to do business with online. It’s important that this is given the attention it deserves and how, when and where we communicate trustworthiness to our audience is carefully crafted.

Why? Well, if you lower a user’s trust in your store then the bottom line is your conversion rate will be hit.

P.S. Conchango are recruiting! If any of my ramblings interest you and you are passionate about User Experience then we'd like to hear from you.  Why not contact me and let's have a chat?

 

Listening to: Club Ska '67: Whine and Grine by Various Artists

Customers patience is running out with retailers who don't walk the walk

There is debate as to who coined the phrase buzzword bingo but Scott Adams undoubtedly took the game global in 1994 when Dilbert was given a buzzword bingo card on his way to a meeting with his boss. The same year that this cartoon was created, the Internet population opened up beyond researchers and academics as the Internet became available to the public.

1999 – 2000 saw the first generation of online stores as many established retailers took their business online, although it was after the dot com bust of 2001 that retailers started to truly embrace the Internet.

In the last 5 years of mainstream eCommerce our vocabulary has become richer to include terms such as Shopping Cart Abandonment, Purchase Momentum and Conversion Rate (to name but a few).  Retailers regularly display eCommerce tourettes, with repeated utterances of these eCommerce catchphrases. 

So as with any technological advancements, the eCommerce revolution brought a new set of buzzwords.

Wikipedia defines a buzzword as "typically intended to impress one's audience with the pretense of knowledge."  5 years is not long for a new business channel to emerge and mature but the underlying principles of commerce have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. These may be buzzwords for the digital space but they are not new to retail. 

Customers’ expect the online shopping experience to learn from these hundreds of years of retail experience and their patience is running out with those retailers that can't deliver a robust user experience based on these most basic of underlying principles - this pretense of knowledge has no value to the customer, retailers need to follow through with actions.

Take a simple task such as picking up and carrying items in a bricks n’ mortar store. The Piggly-Wiggly supermarket chain introduced the first ever Shopping Trolley back in 1937.  The trolley has evolved since the 30’s but the purpose has remained the same – to allow the customer to conveniently transport items with them as they move around the shop. 

Yet when stores went online these 70 years of shopping experience were forgotten! 

When a customer adds an item to their basket they are taken away from the product page and forced to view the basket.  Why shouldn’t the online customer keep the basket with them at all times, like they do offline? Forcing the user to view the Shopping basket every time a user clicks ‘add to basket’ is slowly being consigned to the web 1.0 history books, but why has it taken retailers so long to implement basic principles that are established in the offline world?

Time is running out for those retailers that continue to talk the talk but don't follow through with actions. Don't frustrate your customers by hiding behind these so-called buzzwords and apply your offline retail knowledge online.

 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

P.S. Conchango are recruiting! If any of my ramblings interest you and you are passionate about User Experience then we'd like to hear from you.  Why not contact me and let's have a chat?

 

Listening to: In Distance by Bitcrush.

Where is the goddamned phone number?

I walked in to an electrical store this weekend to purchase a Cambridge Audio Azur Receiver but couldn’t find what I was looking for.  There were no sales staff around whatsoever to ask whether they had the item in stock, although a sign read ‘leave us a message and we will try to get back to you within 48 hours’.

Sounds strange!

However this is the scenario still faced by many online shoppers.

Most customers expect an immediate response to product and service queries.  Answers may come from the help and product information displayed on your site but when it doesn't answer their query your customer needs to be able to talk to a Customer Services Representative. Customers also require the reassurance that should they need help there is someone to talk to.

By simply positioning your customer services phone number in a prominent location you can significantly increase customer confidence.  Some users I’ve done research with refuse to shop at any store without a direct line to the stores customer services.  So get your phone numbers up and make them easy to find.

Sounds obvious!

Yet many ecommerce sites still don’t provide a non-premium contact number or make it hard to find.  View your web site as a Virtual Customer Service Representative. The web site is there to help your customers find and purchase your products, as well as to give your customers the confidence to do business with you.  This Virtual Customer Services Representative should be as helpful as possible but when they cannot answer your customers query then there is no substitute for contact with the real thing. Offer your customers reassurance that if they had a problem there is a real person they can talk to.

When we built a content managed ecommerce site for one client I recommended that they place their Customer Support phone number in a generous font at the top centre of every single page. The eCommerce Director was concerned that this would increase the call volume.  I reassured him that there might be an initial 5-8% increase in callthrough rate after their site redesign as customers familiarise themselves with the new site but after that the number of calls would steadily fall below that of the call volume before the site launch. The client listened and the phone number took pride of place in the header (and footer) of every screen.

Post-launch a slightly disgruntled client informed me they had been swamped by calls and the increase was closer to 40%.  I had advised the client that the prominent positioning of a contact number is just a small element of a wider strategy to address customers support needs.  When I reviewed their site I discovered poor product descriptions and product imagery, confusing information around their delivery proposition, almost non-existent FAQs etc  The increase in callthrough was only partly due to the prominent number but more so because they were not addressing their customers’ needs. For example, they had increased their product catalogue ten-fold but not enriched the product data. Most customers tend not to call unless they have a reason - of course there are exceptions and there is no accounting for the actions of some folk who will phone no matter how clear and informative your site is.

You need to give your customers as few reasons as possible to phone.  Building the site experience around your customers needs will reduce callthrough and increase conversion rates. When you provide a contact phone number you must have the support strategy, infrastructure and agents in place to handle the calls, otherwise customers will suffer a negative experience of your customer service. One user went as far to say “I would phone the telephone number to speak to someone to get an idea of whether to do business with them or not.” 

I recently phoned Empire Direct 2 or 3 times a day for 5 consecutive days with a product query and did not get through one.  I finally gave up. If I had a problem with a faulty item I had purchased then I would not be able to resolve it if I couldn’t speak to anyone.  So I shopped elsewhere.

And let's not forget the infamous Kiddicare whose disregard for Customer Services is second to none.  If you are unfortunate to have to return an item to Kiddicare you are likely to find they don't respond by email and the only channel you can get a response from them on is their premium phone line. You'll soon find any savings are rapidly eroded as you are kept talking on their revenue generating premium line.

Webcredible carried out research last year to identify what builds customer trust in a website when buying online. From nearly 1200 responses 'contact phone number readily available' was the 4th most popular reason. Making the number available was rated more important than providing security assurances.

Customer services is regularly viewed by the business as an overhead but the costs can only be reduced by either investing in a user-centric site design and/ or by regularly updating your website to ensure all support content on your site is still relevant and adding stuff to address latest support enquiries. As customers are very cautious when buying online you must go the extra mile to reassure them and build that level of trust. The worst thing you can do is hold back or hide your contact numbers.

P.S. Conchango are recruiting! If any of my ramblings interest you and you are passionate about User Experience the  we'd like to hear from you.  Why not contact me and let's have a chat?

 

Listening to: Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend

that Warm Fuzzy Feeling

Total Customer Experience covers the entire end-to-end experience and not just user interface design. A retailer who understands that every single touch point is an opportunity to strengthen or weaken their customer relationship advances from a transactional model to an interaction model.  A few years back customers were shouting out for improvements to the end-to-end experience but no sooner has the retailer implemented a customer-centric fulfillment strategy, integrated an eService solution or set up regular communication during the order process that the customers' expectations have shifted up a gear.  

In a recent interview a customer, Kelly, told me "I expect more than a number of emails telling me the status of my order, good delivery and fancy packaging."  Kelly continued "I want more than a personalised experience. I want a humanised experience." She wasn't alone in expressing her need for that human element.  This message was delivered loud and clear by a number of the participants in this user research programme.

Is it that technology can alienate some customers, so humanising the user experience enables us to connect more emotionally?  Perhaps all the individual interactions through the end-to-end life cycle contribute towards our emotional feeling but these emotions are more likely to connect with a humanised experience. 

One participant, Jonah, felt this emotional connection was dependent on "there being evidence of a pulse beating behind the online store."

If your company sells a great product your customer might remember you, but the likelihood is they will remember the product.  If you give them a positive emotional feeling then they will remember you.

Another participant, Lucy, referred to these emotional connections as the wonderfully titled "warm fuzzy feelings".  

To illustrate this emotive connection here is my personal experience of this so-called warm fuzzy feeling.

I ordered the Black+BlumTime Square, a multifunctional memo board which features a blackboard, clock and magnet board. When I unpacked it from several layers of protective packaging I revealed some chalk scribbles on the blackboard.  It read 'hi Rich, enjoy'. The fact that someone had carefully unpacked the memo board, scribbled the personal message in chalk, and then meticulously re-packaged it so it still looked brand new gave me plenty of warmth and fuzz. This was a charming touch that gave me an instant emotional connection with the store.  I could provide further examples but it would be good to hear your experiences of what it took to emotionally connect you?

If humanising User Experience becomes a competitive necessity then retailers need to move beyond computer generated personalisation and add that human touch.  Experiences no longer would be cold digital experiences but offer a warmer humanized experience where the human elements feel more dominant than the technology.

P.S. Conchango are recruiting! If any of my ramblings interest you and you are passionate about User Experience the  we'd like to hear from you.  Why not contact me and let's have a chat?

 

Listening to: Kosmischer Pitch by Jan Jelinek