Becky Carroll’s book, The Hidden Power of Your Customers, is not another “customer service” book. Becky reminds us that “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” – that businesses should not let the allure of new customers keep them from fully realizing the power of existing customers and clients. Current customers … Read more
According to Forrester, 86% of companies say customer experience is a top strategic priority; 76% seek to differentiate based on customer experience; 46% have a company-wide program for improving customer experience currently in place and another 30% are actively considering it. What is the right customer experience strategy for your company? Again, according to Forrester, … Read more
I don’t need to tell you that industry research studies have found that the average company provides a customer experience that’s mediocre at best and infuriating at worst. We have all been on the receiving end of mediocre experience or worse. Now days, we all know that designing interactions to meet or exceed expectations will … Read more
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the “ability to access” and possible benefit of some system or entity. Accessibility is often used to focus on people with disabilities or special … Read more
When doing customer reviews, you want to do a lot of listening and very little talking. The secret is to get them to talk – and that is where you use tricks like: Ask open-ended questions to get more information Summarize what they said to clarify your understanding Ask closed-ended questions to move along Try … Read more
Satisfaction/Value – this charts what customers’ ranked as most valued and most dissatisfied. Items that are most valued and most dissatisfied are where we should concentrate our time fixing. On the contrary, items that our customers don’t value but are satisfied with we should stop spending time on. Items that our customers don’t value and … Read more
Overview Skinit is the global leader in consumer electronic device personalization. In 2007 Skinit was preparing to enhance the previously successful Photo Uploader, a web-based application that allows consumers to upload their own photos and manipulate designs for their personal electronic devices. Darryl Kuhn, Skinit CTO, reached out to me to help with the redesign … Read more
In pursuit of new business, a small consulting firm was frequently asked if they had a website. Based on the demand-side information and needs of the business, the three missions of the website were to: Establish company credibility Be an easy-to-use networking tool Provide those working at the company with an easy-to-access, anywhere sales presentation … Read more
Businesses frequently want an evaluation of their websites—mostly to know how they compare to the competition. Based on our experience, most businesses are disappointed with their website’s ability to convert visitors to loyal customers. In fact, many people say they aren’t really sure what their website does for them. To assess and enhance website effectiveness, … Read more
The level of user experience effort that is practical for a given release depends, to some extent, on the type of release—that is, whether it is a major release, a minor release, or an update. Table 1 provides a summary of guidelines for the UX effort that is recommended for each type of release. Table … Read more
You need to decide how much user research, design, and usability testing you can afford. This depends on your competitive market, business objectives, and release cycles. During the early phases of a product development lifecycle, activities include conducting market, customer, and competitive user research. User research may include surveys, focus groups, interviews, and contextual inquiries. … Read more
During User Experience (UX) design, develop diagrams of various users’ workflows, noting where they are similar or different. Next, based on your findings, group your customer and user types by similar roles, and create profiles or personas that synthesize users’ skills, patterns, and goals to better understand their needs. Companies in mature markets may not … Read more