Telecom websites: Helping
customers help themselves
March 09, 2011
Mark Crowley, Scott Smith,
Gerry McGovern
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
www.customercarewords.com
Places
Populated
Area
Cities
Large Metro
Area
Capital Cities
Of Canada
Not Find An
Answer
Idiot
Base
Infinity &
Beyond
Unimportant
Information
UFAQS
Get Answers
Slower
Slow Links
u
w
v
x
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
5
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
6
© 2010 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
7
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
8
Telecom websites: Helping
customers help themselves
Webinar
Mark Crowley
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
www.customercarewords.com
Two problems appear on many Telco sites
Both cause customers to think too much and work too
hard to complete tasks
1. There is too much choice
2. Bad headings, categories and links hinder task flow
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
10
Issue 1: Too much choice is a bad thing
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
www.customercarewords.com
Where does the customer start?
4
1
5
2
6
3
7
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
12
Fewer choices, but another system?
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
13
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
14
Need to step back and consider what
customers need
… and how those needs align with company’s goals
for site
Customers are task-driven so find the ‘top tasks’ and
support them
Adding systems is not the answer
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
15
Clear task-focused categories are a
good start
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
16
Three tasks starting right on the main page
1
2
3
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
17
Issue 2:
Lack of clear headings or categories, clutter
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
www.customercarewords.com
Confusing headings, categories
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
19
No obvious prioritization of content
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
20
Hard to read
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
21
Clutter inhibits task progress
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
22
Categories, language, lack of clutter
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
23
Case Study: Telenor, Norway
Netlife Research
Oslo, Norway
http://netliferesearch.com/
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
www.customercarewords.com
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
25
Telenor site project – 87% reduction of
pages
Total pages reduced from 4,000 to 500
Emails to customer service down by 40% (key channel)
Customer satisfaction ratings substantially higher
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
26
Telenor site project – 87% reduction of
pages
Staff understand pages better, can refer customers
Fewer choices for customers, easier to find answers
Less content to maintain
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
27
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
28
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd
10 April 2015
29
Take My Account. Please!
Webinar
Scott Smith
Neo Insight Inc.
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
www.customercarewords.com
These Google results show that My Account
is a top task for many service providers
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
31
As users get accustomed
to managing bank
accounts and bill-paying
online, perhaps they are
getting comfortable
with managing other
accounts online
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
32
The number of searches for “my account” has
surpassed the number of searches for “log on”.
Log in
My Account
Log on
However, in 2010 “sign in” outpaced all these
search-terms.
Sign in
Log in
My Account
Log on
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
33
Improve the My Account experience

Let your customer sign in right away

Let customers use web behaviour patterns

Don’t take users out of their account

Fix the usability of your bill

Measure task-completion
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
34
Let your customer sign in right away
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
www.customercarewords.com
Don’t make regular customers click through four pages just to
view their bill – or make the user guess where to even start
Comment: The user is then taken to a separate site –
requiring big real estate just to get to the main site.
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
36
Get people to their Account from
your main navigational menu
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
37
Don’t hide the very links your customer is
scanning for – in this case My account and My
online invoice are hidden under a roll-over
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
Even utility links can be
hard to notice if they are
isolated and off to the right
10 April 2015
38
Let customers sign in directly
from the home page
But don’t make users on other
pages hunt for a sign in area, or
guess about your cute jargon
for their account
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
39
Let web visitors sign in from any
page, as these global navigational
bars do - when a customer clicks
Sign In”, input fields appear
without re-loading the page
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
40
Or let users choose what page in their account to arrive
at – such as Billing, Activity, or Orders
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
41
Let customers use web behaviour patterns
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
www.customercarewords.com
People scan when they arrive
People who visit your website
move very quickly to
spot key words
From Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
43
People scan for links
Make the link to a customer’s order a
prominent link – as in this order-confirmation
email - and take your customer directly into
their account
Make order status easy to share
with clients or colleagues
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
44
People compare links
Don’t make users
spend time comparing
similar choices
Don’t make users click
again just to “Go here”
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
Don’t take away utility links
once the user logs in
10 April 2015
45
People want a summary first
Don’t just upload the detailed monthly bill
– the way your bill goes into detail on
paper may be slow for users to scan on the
web – such as charges and credits on the
paper bill
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
46
People trust people
Go to your customers’ people if
you want them to come to you
Get Facebook friends to
Billing & Payments, and
Account
Let Facebook
friends top up
their account
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
47
Don’t take the user out of their account
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
48
www.customercarewords.com
Only show account-relevant
navigational choices once
the user signs in
http://blog.case.edu/gps10/2007/03/10/get_your_act_together_comcast
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
49
Don’t show generic navigational menus un-related to the
customer’s account until they are finished with their task
Otherwise you will take them to generic content that may
not be related to their task, or to customers at all
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
50
Focus on the user’s essential tasks
like mobile apps have to – e.g.
view bill, or usage, or features
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
51
It’s all about focusing on
top tasks
Making the top task
easy to do
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
Minimizing noise –
letting people drill
down to See details
10 April 2015
52
Fix the usability of the bill
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
www.customercarewords.com
53
It seems like a good idea to
explain your bill – and even
show an ad
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
But people expect
ads on the web to
be targeted
10 April 2015
54
Explaining your
bill is a good
thing … BUT…
Will people spend
more time on the
web trying to
read something
that is hard to
read on paper?
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
55
If your bill
is hard to read
putting it on the web
is not going to make
things better
Fix your usability
problems
Don’t try to train
customers to cope
with them
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
56
Measure task-completion
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
www.customercarewords.com
57
In Task Identification voting, these rank highly:
<company> is my best choice
<company> is easy to reach
Which describes
your experience
with us?
Best choice
Easy to reach
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
Great for sales!
Great customer service!
10 April 2015
58
Which describes
your experience
with us?
Best choice
But … NOT great if
customers cannot
complete their task
Easy to reach
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
59
We ask if people completed
the task they came to do
Which describes
your experience
with us?
Best choice
Did you complete the
task you came to do?
People’s priorities are different if
they did not complete their task:
Completed
Did not complete
They are less likely to say you are
their …best choice
…. and …
Easy to reach
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
Completed
Did not complete
They are more likely to prioritize
that you are …easy to reach
10 April 2015
60
Which describes
your experience
with us?
Did you complete the
task you came to do?
Best choice
Completed
Easy to reach
Completed
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
Did not complete
Customers who cannot
complete their task on your
website are more likely to:
a) Choose a competitor
b) Phone your call centre
Did not complete
10 April 2015
61
Improve the My Account experience

Let your customer sign in right away

Let customers use web behaviour patterns

Don’t take users out of their account

Fix the usability of your bill

Measure task-completion
© 2011 - Customer Carewords Ltd.
10 April 2015
62
Gerry McGovern
Thank you!
gerry@customercarewords.com
Mark Crowley
mark@customercarewords.com
Scott Smith
scott@customercarewords.com
www.neoinsight.com
www.customerrespect.com
Copyright ©2011 Customer Carewords Ltd.
63
www.customercarewords.com