CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
The experience customers have online is vastly improved in recent years, but
it still is not good enough.
Some two-thirds of consumers who said they visited an online store intending
to make a purchase left the site because the retailer did not provide enough
information upon which to make a decision.
Engagement is everything a merchant does to get and keep customer attention.
In the uncertain economy of 2008, customer engagement may prove to be the
key to retail success. Our five principles are tried and true approaches
that can help you produce a fresh, engaging experience.
THE FIVE PRINCIPLES
#1: Every Interaction Should Take Your Customer a Step Closer to His Goal
There are two key reasons to streamline your customer’s path to his goal.
First, every additional step is an opportunity to abandon the interaction.
Second, a streamlined process is actually attractive, making your company more
desirable because you save your customer’s time and energy.
You should make sure you understand your customers’ goals and contexts,
so that you can identify what the streamlined paths are. Focus on reducing
the steps the customer is required to take to reach his goal. A design or offer
that adds a step should be heavily debated, and its effects monitored.
See the Table for a list of site features that support this principle.
#2: Customer Experience Should Be Orchestrated From End-to-End
Customers may start their experience at your home page, but, more likely, they
started from Google, an email, thumbing through your catalog or looking at
your ad in the newspaper. You should orchestrate and manage the experience
from each of these starting points. Your Internet search results and ads
should be optimized to search words customers use on your site and link to
customized landing or product pages. If your newspaper ad says “city
shoes” then make sure that search phrase produces results on your site
search. Retail and online stores should reflect the same campaigns and make
it clear which offers are store- or Web-only.
#3: Make Sure Customers Are Successful
You must help customers make the right decision, and you must ensure they buy
all the things they need. Your customer may not be an expert in what he is
buying: support him with guides and product finders. Help him feel confident,
and get practical information, by providing customer ratings reviews. Make
it easy to compare products. Always offer the accessories your customer may
need and explain why he needs them.
#4: Search Is the Foundation for Ecommerce – Get It Right
Your searching customer is really looking for the one perfect answer. Your
challenge is to find it for him, despite foggy questions like “underwear” at
Jockey.com. The best sites offer a clear set of choices to broaden, narrow,
and steer the search in a different direction. Make reviews searchable, because
there is information in reviews that exists nowhere else. Refinement choices
should change after each refinement. Finally, track the percent of customers
having unsuccessful search experiences. These are customers you didn’t
engage.
#5: Enlist Customers to Help You Segment and Personalize
Personalization is a goal with one remaining obstacle: customer information.
I think the solution is to enlist customers help. You could show them segments
and ask them to choose, or if that makes you cringe, give them opportunities
to provide smidgeons of information. If what they get in return is highly
relevant search results and useful offers, they will be motivated. Have the
call center collect observations: barking dog, crying baby, “my son’ back
from soccer practice.” Or pick some segment-focused products, and use
customers’ interests to make a segment assignment: if he looks at the
iphone, he’s a trendy guy.
CONCLUSION
Every point of the interaction must be productive, leading the customer a step
closer to success. This much seems obvious. But what is not so obvious, perhaps,
is how to go about creating and delivering the good content, good guidance,
and smooth path to completion that connects the customer with the products
she needs. Apply our five principles to create the experience that will get
more people buying online, buying more products, and buying more often. Use
the Table to identify features that support customer engagement.
Site Features Supporting Customer Engagement
(Please download the formatted PDF to see the table at http://dx.doi.org/10.1571/psgp02-28-08cc.)
Table. The five principles of engagement are supported by key site features.
These features can be viewed at many websites: we offer a few examples here.