The Experience Design Scout

Bruce over at Customer Experience Matters just wrote an excellent post about Listening. Right after I read that post I had an interesting online chat experience with a rep from Barclays. Was he really listening to my question about withdrawal penalties regarding their savings account? 

Good conversation starts with listening to customers.

From: Tim at EDS

To: US – Webdesign usa.canon.com – All, US – Product Managers – All

CC: 

Subject: a quick customer experience review

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Hi all,

Did you know that amazon.com has 813 customer reviews about your PowerShot SD1000 camera? And did you know these can be used as additional insight for some of your design decisions when improving your online experience, which, by the looks of it, seems necessary? Relative to insight from surveys, field research, and testing, they are actually very cheap as well. On your behalf I first went through these comments to see what consumers care about when buying this type of camera. After that I went to your website to see how well it allows customers to find the right product. Customers seem to like:

1. the price. “Given the size and price of this digital camera, it takes amazingly good pictures.”
2. the brightness and quality of the LCD screen. “LCD Screen is really top-notch, accurate color display, fast refresh rate, and the resolution is higher than most other digital cameras of it’s class”.
3. the size. “fits perfectly in a tight jeans pocket.”
4. the battery life. “The battery lasts forever too!”

…and they dislike:

1. the small size of memory card. “The only complaint, if you can call it that, is that the memory card it comes with is pretty much useless!”
2. the low-light shooting/ tiny flash. “As others have indicated the flash is a bit weak for indoor pictures that are over around 12-15 feet.”
3. the poor optical zoom. “I wish it had higher optical zoom.”
4. the camera’s menu. “The icons are not very intuitive. I still don’t know what many of them are…”
5. the video format. “Third, the movie mode uses a raw format, and a 10-seconds clip gets 20Mb in size. This is ridiculous!”

To summarize, 1) price, 2) size, 3) optical zoom, 4) quality of LCD screen, 5) flash strength, and 6) battery life seem important camera characteristics that consumers consider when choosing a camera.

The problem is that your website doesn’t talk the same language, and doesn’t actually help customers find the right product. Even worse, it is almost like your site behaves similar to unfriendly, bored staff in a store who can’t be bothered to help customers. Here’s why.

• The welcome is not very ‘warm’. On the main camera page product photos are small and don’t help me understand the differences between the cameras (see picture). It is not clear to me either how big the cameras are – they all look the same -, or what the optical zoom options are. I can only read more about a camera by selecting based on price. Oh I see, you’re fingerpointing to use the comparison tool and recommendation engine…
• Shy geeks help me compare. The comparison tool doesn’t include three of six product features that people express as important, namely price, size, and battery life (see picture). And for the three that are included - flash strength, quality of LCD, and optical zoom – the descriptions are hard to understand as if I’m overhearing a conversation between two geeks talking to each other: Evaluative*, center weighted average Spot**… And on memory cards they say: SD/SDHC Memory Card, MultiMediaCard, MMC Plus Card, HC MMC Plus Card. Why can’t you tell me how many pictures I can take in normal mode? And as the text legibility is poor, it feels like you are mumbling.
• The product advisor has the flu and needs a doctor. Simply put, the recommendation engine is suggesting products that don’t exist. In a store the conversion between advisor and client would go something like this (see picture): “Hello sir, I’m the Camera Advisor from Canon, what type of camera are you looking for? We have SLR, compact film, and compact digital cameras”. > Hmm, I’m not sure what the difference is but I heard good things about compact film so I choose this for now. “Great – we have 35mm cameras and APS cameras. Which one do you want?” > Ok, I go for APS. “Great – we have them in 2x Mid range zoom, or in 1x Fixed Focal Length. Which one do you prefer?” > I think I want the 2x Mid Range zoom. “No, these we don’t have, try something else.”

Just to summarize, your website definitely has some good elements, but overall we can’t really call it a good experience. The experience would improve a lot if you understand who your target customers are, know what their goals and needs are, and be able design an experience accordingly.

Hope this helps,

T @ EDS

I’m following the ‘credit crisis’ with my CXP hat on, and specifically look at how banks:

• try to keep their customers calm,
• explain what is happening in simple language,
• make it easy for worried customers to talk to someone at the bank.

Because it is hard to find out what instructions employees are getting to comfort customers, or what mail is being sent to customers, I went to the homepages of the top 20 banks in the UK and checked the experience customers are receiving. You can find the screen captures here:

 
From poor to great:

Really bad: icesave (in light of their collapse you’d expect more integrity)

Poor: Barclays, Alliance&Leicester, RBS, citibank, egg, NatWest, Yorkshire Bank, The co-operative bank, smile, Clydesdale Bank, and HSBC. Collectively they are letting down around 50% of UK’s consumers by not giving (quick access to) any information.

Mediocre: Nationwide (two line message that the FSA changed the Compensation Scheme), Lloyds TSB (clear section on the homepage, customer-speak, but language is not specific to the situation), ING Direct (good visual emphasis, but people are redirected to the Dutch Central Bank’s website for more information. Doesn’t show a lot of commitment) and Abbey (hidden links to the right pages with compensation information, and difficult language, but a phone number is presented in context).

Good: First Direct (good use of language, special credit crunch podcast, and invitation to call when customers want) and Halifax/Bank of Scotland (somewhat hidden in ‘Common Enquiries’ section, but good, clear Q&A section on a separate page) and Bradford & Bingley (in a comparable situation as icesave, but much richer information including a CEO message).

Great: No one.

Remarkably, none of the banks is explaining the entire situation and what the source of the problems is. Financial consumers want transparency (PDF, 162Kb), but like in many other situations don’t get this from the banks.

A customer experience partly depends on the expectations the firm is setting about doing business with them. Low expectations + great experience = surprised. High expectations + poor experience = disappointed. One way firms set expectations is by creating a set of customer promises. For example, Budget operates with their ‘Reservation Promises’,  the Co-operative bank has a ‘Five Star Promise’, and JetBlue ’Bill of Rights’.

Recently I came across two sets of ‘7 Guarantees’ from two completely different (Dutch) firms — one is an insurer (Unive) and the other one is a grocer (Jumbo). The difference is huge.

The Seven Guarantees of Unive:

1. Low premium. ‘We regularly decrease our premiums. In the last two years this happened six times.’
2. Best price/quality ratio. ‘We also raise the quality of our insurance products. Research has shown that at Unive you get the most out of your insurance’.
3. Fast settlement of repair work. ‘In the event of damage, Unive offers excellent and quick settlement in Holland and abroad, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week’. 
4. Competent advice. ‘With 150 offices across the country personal and clear advice is always closeby’.
5. 15% discount on the complete package. ‘At Unive you can have all your insurances at one place — easy, clear and beneficial: you get 15% discount on our Advantage Plan.’
6. Most-respected insurer. According to research we are the most-respected insurer in the Netherlands. For years we are reliable’. 
7. Easy termination service. ‘Do you have insurances somewhere else? We make it easy to switch to us with the Unive Cancellation Service.’

The Seven Guarantees of Jumbo:

1. Euros cheaper. When a customer finds a product that is permanently cheaper at a different grocer, you get it for free.
2. Fresh is really fresh. When you find a product with today or tomorrow as expiration date, you can take the product – with the right expiration date – home for free.
3. Quick shopping. If you are the fourth person in the cashier’s queue, you get all your shopping for free.
4. Service with a smile. Can’t find a product? Staff walks with you until it’s found.
5. For all your products.  If a product is missing, Jumbo will order it for you and replenishes it within 2 weeks.
6. Your wishes are key. Every complaint, tip or idea is a chance to win 1 minute free shopping.
7. Not happy? Money back. When a customer is not happy about a product, the Service Desk will replace it with a new product and you get your money back.

To which firm would you bring your money? Unive is using vague, uninspiring language with their Seven Guarantees. Replace Unive with a different insurer and most of these guarantees still work. None of their Guarantees is tangible. They don’t give consumers an idea what happens when we don’t get quick service or competent advice. Jumbo on the other hand gives simple promises that resonate with customers. They are also very credible because the firm tells customers what they need to do in the event of a broken promise. You can’t fake authenticity.

Unive should look at – the troubled – Fortis who puts money where their mouth is. First of all they publish their Service Guarantees online. Secondly, they are simple to understand and made credible by telling what customers get when a bad experience occurs. In the case of Fortis, when you lost your credit card and you haven’t received a new one within 24 hours, Fortis will put 5 Euros on your account. Can’t reach the Claim Service? 5 Euros.  

Source: http://www.projectcartoon.com