Designing a Cohesive

Customer Experience

Elizabeth Rosenzweig – Bentley University

Scott Gunter – Usability Sciences

Today‟s Talk

Introduction

Touch points and the User Experience

Research

Virtual Ethnography

Some solutions

Setting the stage

Your company has continued to expanded its market presence by adding a…

Facebook page

Mobile enabled site

iPhone app

Android app

Weekly promotional emails,

etc.

Each of which received extensive user testing before deployment.

Touch points

Is the experience across each of these new

touch points consistent?

What about with the existing touch points (e.g.,

website, store, etc.)

Are the individual touch points working together

to enhance the customer's total experience?

What role does each touch point play in your

customer's journey?

I want to start by taking you

on a little journey…

“You recently moved into a new

apartment and would like to

purchase a reasonably priced

leather sofa.”

The first part of your journey begins with a visit to IKEA.com.

From the homepage you browse to leather sofas.

After looking through the list, one sofa catches your eye.

You spend a few minutes reviewing the details.

After visiting the site you decide that you are not ready to

purchase.

However, you do think it would be good to join their email list

just in case they send you a coupon or upcoming special on

sofas.

You provide the required information to sign-up.

You immediately receive a Welcome email.

A few days later you receive a promotional email.

A few days go by and while checking out the Big Design

Conference Facebook page you‟re curious if IKEA has a

Facebook page.

You search for IKEA only to find there are quite a few different

IKEA related pages. After a quick glance you decide to view

the one that has the most likes (thinking that was the main

one).

After a brief look, you “Like” the page before realizing you

need to get to work.

A few weeks pass and while out shopping you decide to visit

an IKEA store to look at their sofas in person.

Since you are not sure exactly where the store is located you

navigate to the IKEA mobile site for assistance (of course you

don‟t do this while driving).

You type “Dallas, TX” within the „Find an IKEA store” feature.

This presents you with the address of the closest store.

After clicking on the address it opens the native map app

which will allow you to receive directions.

Having successfully located the store, you park and then

proceed through the front door.

Once inside you spend the first 30 minutes trying to locate

the sofas (I mean enjoying the IKEA shopping experience).

After looking at several leather sofas you find the one you

want to purchase.

You then proceed to pick-up and purchase the sofa leaving

the store as a happy camper.

Website Email Facebook Mobile Store

Was the experience consistent across each touch point?

Was trust being built along the way?

Was the customer compelled to continue shopping?

Was the brand messaging consistent?

While intentions are good, far too often we focus on improving touch points individually

while missing an opportunity to step back and look at the relationship each have on the

customer's total experience.

Open Discussion

Tell us about a GREAT experience you‟ve

had interacting with multiple touch points

Tell us about a HORRIBLE experience

you‟ve had interacting with multiple touch

points

Multichannel Customer Experience

by Consultancy, November 2010

49% of company respondents say a joined-up

multichannel customer experience is very important to

their organization,

41% say multichannel UX is quite important.

68% recognize a strong link between long-term

business performance and customer experience.

Multichannel Customer

Experience cont‟d

69% of organizations are just beginning to develop a

UX strategy.

9% surveyed have no strategy for improving the

customer experience.

38% report that ownership of the multichannel

customer experience lies within a combination of

different departments.

Forrester Research

Global eBusiness And Channel Strategy Professional

Online Survey, Forrester Research Inc., November

2010

Retailers who had focused on multichannel integration

found:

an average of 48% increase in online sales

28% reduction in operating costs

25% increased profitability

Cross-Channel Experiences in Retailhttp://pervasiveia.com/blog/cross-channel-retailing

When asked, 83% of consumers prefer retailers

consistency across the different channels

Pervasive information architectures provide consistency

in all active communication channels for any given

company, product, or service.

The Cross-Channel Experience,

Slide Share Presentation

by Nick Finck

3 Types of Touch points

• Static Touch points

• Interactive Touch points

• Human Touch points

Cross Channel Touch Points

• Web

• Email

• Packaging

• Product

• Streaming media

• Mobile

• Retail

• Sales Support

• Environment

• Click-to-Chat

• Social Media

• Broadcast Media

3 Types of Touch Points• Static Touch points

• Online or on paper (newspaper, magazines) information only

• Interactive Touch points

• Often online, internet or mobile internet, allows for

interactions:• Search

• Find a product

• Ask about a product

• Find a store

• Etc.

• Human Touch points

• In person, usually at the store

Static Touch Point

Interactive Touch Point

Human Touch Point

How can “Out of the Box” thinking

help?

Virtual Ethnography

Brings together disparate elements to understand a

complex problem

Time, Space and Technology- where do they merge

Virtual Ethnography

by Christine Hine

Ongoing study of how people interact online, through

the social world of the internet

Time is viewed differently in a virtual world, it can slow

down or speed up with no relation to the laws of

physics

Space becomes an altered reality, whereas it must

adhere to the laws of physics in the physical world

Technology then evolves based on how people use it

Consider This

Space and Time create a context for interaction

Space, Time and Technology

Some Steps To A Solution Identify your core customer

Put the user at the center of the process:

Inventory your touch points

Identify attributes of each touch-point

Create journey maps

Evaluate touch points within journey map

More Solutions Research new ways to create and augment online

reality

Use tools of Virtual Ethnography to study online social

behavior

Observe the effects of Space and Time on touch points

Today‟s Talk New customer experience must integrate many touch

points

What are examples of different touch points

What is the latest thinking

What can you do to apply this to your work

About UsScott Gunter

COO at Usability Sciences

Over 15 years as usability / user experience researcher

Has led over 300 research projects on behalf of companies like Microsoft, J.C. Penney, Nokia, Kohl‟s, Oracle, and Nike.

Elizabeth Rosenzweig Principal Consultant, Adjunct Faculty, Bentley

University

Over 25 years experience in UX field

Founder and Director World Usability Day

4 Patents in UX Design