When the Internet first burst on the scene we all had visions of glorious overnight success in which money would rain down from heaven. As we are all painfully aware, that didn’t happen.

The good news: The Internet is definitely here to stay and will play an increasingly large role in our lives in years to come. While the 2002 Off-Line Holiday shopping season was one of the worst in history yet, the 2002 Online Holiday sales were up 29% for the period November 1 – December 20 to $12.6 Billion.
The bad news: In-spite of the growth and increased sophistication, there is still a huge amount of anticipated ROI being left on the table by site-owners.

Between 50 and 75% of on-line transactions are abandoned. If frustrated, site visitors either go to a competitive web site for their transaction or forego it altogether. A 2001 study by Arthur Andersen showed that “more than 83% of Internet users are likely to leave a web site if they feel they have to make too many clicks to find what they’re looking for.”

Many companies have attempted to manage their Internet businesses with site log analysis and stress testing tools. And, many have performed some usability research, though it is usually after a site has been developed and money already invested.

While these tools are important aides in the management of web sites, many of these site owners are missing the broader picture: Analysis efforts are most effective when part of a fully integrated research and development program.

Critical to understand is this: From a development and customer satisfaction point-of-view, web sites are just different “products” in spite of the fact that many people perceive them as being a different “medium”. As such, a company’s web site needs to follow the same rules of traditional user satisfaction studies – just like that for breakfast cereals, frozen vegetables or laundry detergents.

It’s a Communication Vehicle… It’s a Product… It’s Both

Unlike other communication channels such as radio, TV or print, web sites are directly controlled by each company and directly impact customers’ experience with a company’s product(s). As such, your users must be satisfied with their experience of it – or they won’t use it or possibly your products.

Every marketer knows that customer satisfaction is the key to long-term success.

• For consumer goods, a coupon in the Sunday newspapers can encourage trial of a new product, but the product quality is what sells future purchases of the product.
   
• Retailers know that a customer will not return to their store if they did not have a satisfactory experience – finding the product(s) they need with an acceptable level of service.
   
• Direct Marketers are not driven by how much customers spend during the first purchase, but by how much they will continue to spend during their “lifetime” with a company based on positive customer experiences.

Similarly, web site owners must reframe their perspective on their sites to realize that it is a product that must be developed and managed just like any other in order to, maximize ROI.

What to do about it

Site owners must return to the basic principles of market research and new product/concept testing. Specific research elements to be incorporated include:

1. Identify the objectives for the web site. What customer need(s) does it/will it satisfy?
   

   While this does not involve outside research, it is a vital first step to take for any and all new products, including Web Sites. One of the toughest challenges for site owners is to determine who is going to use the site and for what.

2. Run Brand Equity and Consumer Needs Research – Run qualitative or laboratory studies to gather consumer feedback on early web site design concepts and the fit between the concepts and the site objectives/corporate brand equity.
    
3. Gather quantitative feedback to design concepts – Once concept options have been developed, use quantitative studies (either on-line or off-line) to help identify the leading choices in a statistically significant way. Gathering feedback from a larger sample will make you more confident of your decisions.
    
4. Perform detailed review of live site, both qualitative and quantitative feedback – once the new site is fully functional and near launch, run a series of qualitative and quantitative studies to gather detailed information about the site’s subtleties as well as to get statistically reliable feedback on the core functionality and site’s look and feel.
    
5. Track Competitive Sites –Perform Quantitative research on a regular basis to ensure your place in the market is secure. New on-line tools allow you to run head-to-head comparisons of designated tasks at your and competitive web sites.
    
6. Monitor Your Site Continuously – As your web site continues to change and grow re-run usability testing to be certain that the changes have enhanced the users’ experience.

The critical thing to keep in mind is to start research as early in the development process as possible. Studies have shown time and again that monies invested at the early stages of site or software development have a huge ROI while monies spent later in the process have a much lower ROI due to mistakes in development that must be re-worked. Worst case: no money invested in research can result in poor sites, unhappy users and operational inefficiencies.

Budgeting

Many companies have cut back budgets, especially in the areas of research and development. But, if you have money allocated to web site development and maintenance, then you have money for usability research. Jakob Nielsen, a leading usability expert, recommends 10% of site development budgets be allocated to usability testing. This investment will garner, on average, a 135% increase in site usability.

Conclusion

In order to be successful, site owners must treat their web sites like their brands, constantly measuring customer perception and satisfaction, benchmarking vs. the competition, and investing in research efforts to ensure that development efforts are effective.

- Sarah Hiner, Marketing Consultant, RelevantView

(originally published in The Connecticut Tech Tribune)

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