Design

Sarah Worsham / Oct 21, 2008

Customer-Centric Design – Your Customers Care, so Should You

customerralphbijker We’ve mentioned customer-centric design in several of our recent branding and customer service posts. Using customer-centric design on your site is extremely important to your customers. Why? Because they only care about what is important to them – getting whatever information, services, or products they came to your site for. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll simply go elsewhere.

So what is customer-centric design anyway?

Customer-centric design is design centered around what the customer wants (as opposed to what the company wants). To do this, you have to always keep in mind why the customer came to your site and make it as easy as possible for them to accomplish their goals.

Ok play nice with customers, but what about my goals?

Your goals are probably concerned with increasing sales and leads (if not, they really should be). Here’s the best part. Customer-centric design actually makes it easier to accomplish your goals. Customers who can find what they’re looking for are much more likely to make a purchase or return later for more information and services. Most importantly, they’re likely to recommend you to their friends and colleagues, which is one of the most powerful ways to increase sales.

I getcha, now what?

Take a look at your site from your customer’s point of view. What are the most important functions (for them, not you)? Are they easy to find from anywhere on the site? When a customer is in the middle of a process (finding support information, making a purchase, etc.), are there places for improvement by making things more clear and removing unnecssary steps or clicks? Put yourself in your customer’s shoes.

Solicit feedback

Sometimes only your customers really know what they want. So ask them. It’s an easy and cheap way to get good feedback and by listening to your customers, you can increase customer satisfaction and brand awareness.

How have you used customer-centric design to help your customers?

(photo by ralphbijker @ Flickr CC)

Technorati Tags: customer-centric, design, customer-centric design, usability, customer service, brand, brand management

Sarah Worsham / Sep 22, 2008

Internet Business Strategy – What is the Current Situation?

situationargenberg Before beginning to strategize, you need to create goals for your business. In order to create goals you need a solid grasp of your current situation on the Internet (your current web presence). To get an idea of your current internet situation take a look at:

Website – Ideally your website is the hub of your Internet presence with customer-centric design and content.

Analytics – How well is your website performing? Basic statistics such as page views, visits and uniques are useful. But more importantly, how many leads and conversions are you getting? Where is your traffic coming from? How useable is your website? Are people getting frustrated?
Usability – Can visitors find what they are looking for on your website? Is it easy to use? What could be improved?
Content – Great content provides your customers with the information they need to succeed. Creating content should be a continual process. What content do your customers want to see? What expertise can you provide?
Design – Your website needs to be easy to use (usability), but also should be eye-catching and professional. Are the fonts need to be easy to read and does the layout should draw visitors into your message?

Community & Brand Reputation– Your customers are talking about you both online and offline. Find where your customers are and join the conversation to get key insights into improving your business.

Blog – If you have a blog, what feedback have your readers given you? What are other bloggers saying? Who has linked to your blog and what have they said?
Forum / Discussion Boards – If you don’t have discussion boards on your website, find places where your customers frequent. Listen to concerns and join the conversation with suggestions for improvement.
Social Networks – Your customers are probably on social networks already (if they aren’t they probably will be soon). Find social networks where your customers frequent and see what they are saying. Join the social networks to give them an opportunity to connect.
Reviews – Have there been any reviews of your products and services? What can be improved?

Search Engines – Many potential customers will find your website through search engines so it is important to understand how search engines currently crawl and index your site.

Keywords – What keywords do the search engines see on your site? Where does your site rank for various keywords? It can be helpful to pick the top 100 to monitor at first. There are a number of free tools available to help (Google Webmaster tools, Rank Checker for Firefox, SEO Quake for Firefox and Internet Explorer).
Indexed Pages – How many pages on your website (and blog) do the search engines include in their indices? (SEO Quake and Website Grader can help).
Incoming Links – How many other sites are linking to your website? What are they linking to? What are they saying? (SEO Quake and Website Grader).
Outgoing Links – What other websites are you linking to? (Google Webmaster tools, SEO Quake).
Cache – What pages are the search engines displaying in their results? What do they have saved that may be old content? (Google Webmaster Tools).

Marketing – What is your company trying to say to customers and potential customers? What are the current marketing messages your company is using? What is the status of any advertising or sales campaigns? What is the return on investment (ROI) of any campaigns?

Advertising – It is important to understand how any advertising is impacting your bottom line and helping to reach your goals. Besides budgets, clicks, and impressions, it is important to measure leads, conversions, or sales – what return you are getting on your investment (ROI).
Competitors – Who are your competitors? What are their web presences? What marketing and advertising are they doing? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What opportunities and threats exist?

There is quite a bit of information to gather, but once you have it you’ll be able to get a good overview of what your current Internet presence is. You should be able to find opportunities to improve and be able to formulate some business goals. As you can see, Internet business strategy merges into traditional business strategy by using the Internet to collect information and feedback and to further business goals. Next we’ll talk about vision and goals.

(photo by argenberg @ Flickr CC)

Technorati Tags: internet business strategy, internet strategy, internet strategic planning, internet strategic plan, internet strategy consulting, internet business consulting

Sarah Worsham / Aug 20, 2008

B2B Website

If you are a business-to-business (B2B) company, your website audience is quite a bit different than a company who targets consumers (B2C). To get the most of your business website, you’ll need to account for these differences in both your design and content.

Intent

Website visitors to a B2B website are people from other companies who are also trying to do business. Their intent with visiting your site is to help them make money – by purchasing your products or services, gathering information, etc. The B2B audience is usually online from their workplace, so time is valuable.

Small, targeted audience

The audience for B2B sites is usually much smaller than B2C, but is much more targeted. Keep your targeted audience in mind when designing the site and writing content. You have an opportunity to reach just the audience that you want – your customers.

Behavior

Because they are using your website for business decisions, the B2B audience will be focused on finding the information they need to make those decisions. If they can’t easily find it, they’ll quickly move elsewhere. However, B2B visitors are also looking to build relationships with companies and people they can trust. If you provide valuable information, products and services, there is an opportunity for long-term partnerships.

Expertise

Your B2B visitors are experts in their field and expect the same expertise in potential partners and vendors. They probably know your products or services better than you, so website content and layout needs to focus on this sophisticated audience.

Buying Process

The buying process in B2B is much longer and more involved than in B2C. B2B customers are making rational purchase decisions based on business value. They want products that will help their business be successful. B2C customers make emotional purchase decisions based on personal value. Information about your products and services needs to focus on business value and information necessary to make a rational purchase decision.

Value of Sale

Purchases made by B2B customers are typically much larger than B2C customers, so there is a great deal of value in the sale to your company. It is worthwhile to put the time and effort into providing your customers exactly what they need to succeed – they will reward you with sales.

Listen

Because your B2B customers are experts in their fields, they are a valuable resource to your company. Listen to what they have to say about your products, services and website. Since they are looking for long-term relationships, they are often more likely to spend the time to help you improve. Your B2B website should include opportunities to interact with your customers and for them to interact with each other. You’ll find valueable information that usually comes with the high costs of a customer research firm.

If you have a B2B website, how do you use your website to reach your B2B audience?

For more information:

Technorati Tags: B2B, b2b website, business to business, b2b web design, internet consulting, internet business strategy

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