10 Usability Essentials for Business Websites, Greg Muller, Global Reviews

10 Essentials for Your Business Website

BTalk’s Phil Dobbie and Greg Muller, Global Reviews

Phil DobbieBNET.com

• Ask questions.• Share your thoughts.• Make this an interactive session.

Welcome to First Friday

About Greg

• Started in information design & performance support in 1995

• First website project in 1996• Founded iFocus in 2000• Formed Australia’s largest

independently-owned digital agency in 2008

• Joined Global Reviews in 2010 as CEO

• 100s of design and usability projects delivered

About Global Reviews

• Founded 2000• Operating in Australia, New

Zealand and UK• Specialist in Customer

Experience Research• Covering key touch points

– Web– Mobile– Telephone – Email– Branches– Live Chat

• Focus on delivering improved sales conversion and loyalty

(c) 2011 Global Reviews

Customer Experience = Sales

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

16.0%

18.0%

20.0%

22.0%

50.0%

55.0%

60.0%

65.0%

70.0%

75.0%

80.0%

85.0%

Direct Sales ROI - Experience Drives Sales!(6 monthly results)

Sales % Customer Experience

Sale

s %

Customer Experience


How in touch are you with how your website is performing?

Webinar Poll

Demystifying usability


There are lots of ways to get customers to your site but you can’t force them to act

Image source:http://thinknice.com/interesting-halloween-costumes/


What usability is NOT

A cleaner design

Comparison tools

Easy-to-read content

Shopping carts

Secure pages

FAQs

Dro

pd

ow

n n

avig

atio

nWireframes

Brand alignment

Interface scripting methods


Nice design – poor performer

“the woman in the middle is a bit corny”


The 10 Essentials for a Business Website

Usability is about...

• Knowing your customer• Understanding the purchase process• Removing barriers• Giving a reason to move forward/act

11 (c) 2011 Global Reviews www.globalreviews.com


The ‘essential’ list

1. Know your customer2. Focus on your sales funnel and understand where

you’re weak3. Establish credibility quick and build trust4. Provide clear sign-posting and calls to action5. Cater for returning prospects6. Provide support during a process7. Make customers feel secure8. Create easy bridges to sale9. Deliver a personalised experience10.Research, test, measure, optimise...


1. Know your customer


When was the last time you asked your customer about their experience with you?

Were they satisfied with it?


What are your options?

Market research

Analytics

BehaviouralAnalysis

Customer profiles

User Testing


Usability testing - Self-service methods


More sophisticated tools...


Analytics

• What’s happening on your site• Funnel analysis• Goal tracking• User profiling


2. Focus on your sales funnel and know where you’re weak


The purchase funnel

Expose Persuade Facilitate Support

Discover Consider Act RelateThe

customer wants to

External Online

World

Your Website

Secure & Public areas of

Your Website

So you are trying to


Attraction drivers: The role of search

Top 3 ranking Providers

shortlisted in Top 3 search results

75%

Selected a provider

found on a search engine

54%

User mindset:

No preferred brand in

mind before researching

64%Stage 11:Stage 1: Stage III: Stage IIII:

Provider 14% Provider 19%Provider 1 5%

Money supermarket 4%

Compare the market 4%

Compare private health 7%

Money supermarket

17%

Money hero 4%

Best medical cover 5%

Critical Research Path:

Google 54%

Google 17%Bing 3%

Bing 6%


Clear messages & value in search listings


Comparison sites influenced decisions

in Health Insurance (equal 1st Medibank)1st

in Car Insurance (AAMI 1st)2nd

in Travel (hotels)1st

in Retail Deposits1st

Only 1% went to Budget Direct at the start of the task

Only 2% went to HCF at the start of the task

0% went to the Marque Hotel at the start of the task

9% went to Bank West at the start of the task


Consider

When they get to your site...

Introducing the options

Initial engagement

Evaluating products

Deciding to purchase

ACT

Application form

Channel selection

Next steps


3. Establish credibility quick and build trust


Credibility and engendering trust

Build trust & confidence with awards

‘Why choose us’ info

Communicates Identity and provides relatable messages

Clean, professional design


We can learn a lot from online florists


Immediate benefit

Customer references An offer relevant for the moment

Security message

Good categorisation

FAQs

Most customers find comparisons useful & trustworthy

Extremely Useful, 61%

Very Use-ful, 27%

Somewhat Useful; 10%

Not Useful; 2%

How useful would it be to com-pare mobile PLANS across dif-

ferent mobile phone companies?

Definitely Trust; 9%

Probably Trust, 42%

Somewhat Trust, 38%

Would not trust at all; 11%

Would you still trust the results if provided by a company also

included in the results?

Source: Global Reviews Survey Telecommunications Industry April 2010


4. Provide clear sign-posting and calls to action


Clear signposts to content

Multiple signposts related to savings accounts and content


Well written copy is key to differentiating

These 4 options are clearly differentiated


Poor scan-ability – missing fields

Heat map shows the first clicks by all users

Majority of users begin the process and missed the disclosure question which creates an error – not a great start.


5. Cater for returning prospects


Customer Behaviour: Returning prospects

Customers spend an average of…

3.4 hours

6.3 Daysover

How well does your site facilitate the repeat visitor to “pick up where they left off”?

considering options from…

4.6 banks

3.4 products

To select

Source: Google Behavioural Study Savings Accounts, n=200, Aug 2010


Offer a smooth transition from comparison sites

Many decided on the HCF productusing a comparison site. From this point 87% would wantto read more about the policyon the provider site

How do I find this productfrom the HCF home page?

Most users would repeat the quote process and some experienced problems-Different product or pricing-Frustration repeating the same task

Offer immediate access to products on your website for customers who know what they want(c) 2011 Global Reviews

Winning customers


6. Provide support during a process


Only 6% continued to application

Participants thought that the first page of the online

application was a membership registration


56% failed to complete this registration

87% of users who entered the this page received an error message

This description does not explain all of the restrictions

Too complicated!

35% abandoned the task here

Ideally, let the user enter any format – at the least indicate the required format up front Offer specific help to solve the problem


A much better exampleFields are in order as they should be completed making it easy to follow, step by step

Fields & titles easily connected and grouped to allow user to focus on each step through the page.

“I was actually surprised with how brief the quote process was.”


7. Make customers feel secure


A long page of text is not the answer!


Ease concern through the process


Users don’t like to supply personal details

Users especially didn’t take to the verification of their mobile number via SMS.

“Too much personal information required for a simple quote. ”

“This is only a quote and either an email address OR phone number would be sufficient for policy reply”


8. Create easy bridges to sale


Losing customers


Don’t make a customer work for it

?(c) 2011 Global Reviews

41% did not click “buy” on this page

Customers did not realise that after clicking “buy” they would be able to select a plan


Remove perception of difficulty

Quote appears to be 1 page. Appears short and quick to complete

Captures agreement to terms of use (or disclosure policy) as part of the process, rather than a separate question.

3 simple steps


9. Deliver a personalised experience



Era of personalisation

• Are you one of those who thinks they need to design for everyone?

• We all respond quite differently• Customise the experience• Personalised, targeted messages


Learn from behaviour, customise messages


Making people feel like you’re talking to them


10. Research, test, measure, optimise...



Define your research program

1. Conduct research with your audience2. Test key website functions3. Watch and measure through statistics4. Plan changes you’re going to make

Then is starts all over again.


Customer surveys are valuable

I don’t feel comfortable giving my personal details online [answer condition = personal]

I think that applying online would take too long

I’m worried that I might make a mistake if I apply online

I feel that is it a complicated task and would prefer to have help when needed

Other. Please specify:

It wasn’t an option

I have questions that I need to ask before applying and I need to speak with someone

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

24%

76%

Q19. If this were a real life situation, why would you phone the private health insurance provider to apply (Select one)


Create performance dashboards


A summary of the 10 essentials



The ‘essential’ list

1. Know your customer2. Focus on your sales funnel and understand where

you’re weak3. Establish credibility quick and build trust4. Provide clear sign-posting and calls to action5. Cater for returning prospects6. Provide support during a process7. Make customers feel secure8. Create easy bridges to sale9. Deliver a personalised experience10.Research, test, measure, optimise...



Final things to remember

• Don’t go about it alone• Keep a focus on the customer• It s an iterative process and there is no destination• You can measure it, so measure it• Should not be compromised - for anything!


Thank you

Greg MullerChief Executive Officer, Global Reviews

Phone: +61 3 9694 2000Mobile: +61 419 844 486Web: www.globalreviews.com Email: [email protected] Twitter: @gmull, @globalreviews

http://www.globalreviews.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://twitter.com/globalreviews




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10 Usability Essentials for Business Websites, Greg Muller, Global Reviews