***********************

This past May at e-Metrics we released an exciting new product called CS SessionReplay. In the most basic sense, CS SessionReplay makes movies of a customer’s site visit (as long as they respond to your satisfaction survey!) that you can watch and observe. It truly is the ultimate usability study – on demand, perpetual and directly linked to critical data such as satisfaction scores, custom question responses and future behaviors. You can look at those key audiences at any time and truly “sit on their shoulder” and see what they see.

We were thrilled at the time to bring such a compelling solution into the market place, and we all expected great things. However, if I’d tried to guess the full power of the tool in advance, I would have really underestimated it. Customers do interesting and unpredictable things on websites, and being able to get insight into their actual experience on the site is fascinating and serves up great and tangible opportunities for improvement.

On occasion, watching movies of user sessions reinforces what you expected. For example, a visitor gives very low scores to the search function on the website, then when you watch their session, you can see they had trouble with it. That makes sense but provides a great “real life” example to back up the hard data when making the case that search needs to be improved. It can also provide guidance for small site tweaks that you might have otherwise missed. In addition many times you can confirm that the changes you made to improve the users experience actually take hold, look at their scores and watch them use the improvement as you had hoped – confirmation that your focus and spending were on target.

In other cases it is amazing to see where people move between options and how they use your site, not in a usability lab, but in practice. Couple this with open ended comments, and it is really pretty eye opening. I recently looked at some open ended comments expressing concern about the availability and clarity of shipping information. When you review the site it lists two different options, within a matter of an inch the site listed two links “shipping info” and “freight fees”. In reviewing the movie the user moves their mouse in between the two, uncertain where to go. Once they clicked on one they went in a circle to get back to the original as it did not have the information they were looking for. This pointed out a somewhat obvious and potential opportunity for improvement – the customer was confused and indicated as much in their scores, comments and actions. The “total package” of information at your finger tips.

It is somewhat like seeing a concert “in the round”, you get to see all aspects of the customer, their actions, their attitudes and intentions as well as their direct comments leading to a comprehensive view of the customer. It truly is making the dream of a “full view” of the customer something more than a dream but an actual reality. As the old adage says “a picture is worth 1,000 words” but in this case I have truly come to believe that it is more of a picture and a 1,000 words creating a deep, full 3-D style view of your customer. Nothing could be better in helping to build and protect that most precious of all assets, your customers!

What mix of techniques do you use to improve usability?

We brought him on board for a few reasons. Our retail business is growing so much, that we really needed someone to ensure that the quality of our products and services remained as high as it has been, even as we grow. And I don't think you'll find someone with more expertise, thought leadership, and the respect of the retail community than Kevin. Because he comes from a retail background and had so much success transforming the online businesses of Borders and Tower, he's going to bring a unique perspective that will really help our product, delivery, and marketing teams create and implement solutions that retailers really need.

Kevin is blogging at Retail: Shaken Not Stirred--so go check it out and leave him a comment. Hes also on Twitter @kevinertell.

Yet, there are many challenges, starting with 2 of the "Big Three" dealing with bankruptcy.  And the ripple effect as a result of those challenges.  And the challenges the State is facing are far and wide.

I was fortunate enough this morning to get invited to a breakfast in Ann Arbor with Rick Snyder and about 80 other people.  Rick is exploring a run for the Governor of Michigan.  Now, I have always refrained from talking politics on this blog, but this is more about the future of Michigan then about politics.  And it has a "customer" angle as well.

Rick is a very impressive guy who has had great success in his career and is not a career politician.  His experience is impressive and in many ways seems to be a great fit for turning the State of Michigan back into a thriving State.  That is not going to be accomplished with the typical 30 second sound bite about taxes, but with a vision, a plan and action.  That is what Rick is bringing to the table along with great track record of success.

Rick also talked about the need for a customer centric government.  And I couldn't agree with that more.   Business will succeed if they satisfy their customers and have fiscal responsibility.  This applies to State Governments as well.  The State needs to meet the needs of its citizens and show fiscal responsibility.  Michigan needs a customer centric leader!! 

• 15% of visitors have a smartphone
• 10% of visitors have used their phone to check prices
• 6% of visitors have used their phone to look at product reviews
• 11% of visitors have used their phone to send a picture of a product to someone

So, how important is it for retailers to have a good mobile solution?  Well, the largest online retailer, Amazon, has a pretty good iPhone app that allows you to check prices, look at product reviews and purchase!  If you are a retailer, most likely Amazon is a competitor. You need to have a competing mobile solution for your customers. 

If I am a retailer, I sure don't want my potential customers walking down my aisles using the Amazon iPhone app. And not to have an option to use my iPhone (or mobile optimized) app.

It is time for retailers to deploy high quality solutions to the mobile platforms.  And the key to success will not only be a great mobile (and iPhone) application but also great integration across the channels, making it easier for consumers to move from web to store to mobile.

Why the name eVolve?  Well, to be successful we need to evolve our use of web analytics.  Many things around us are evolving, and at a faster rate then we have seen in the past.  The "internet economy" is evolving, from a rising tide that was lifting all "internet" boats to a fiercely competitive environment that has to fight and win to survive.

Consumers have evolved.  Thanks to the internet, there are more choices.  We are no longer restricted by location. 

The switching costs are lower.  We can  be in multiple places at the same time, by simply opening up another browser tab/window.  Our costs to switch are near zero thanks to the internet.

And now consumers have become more knowledgeable.  And with knowledge comes power.  The consumer is now in charge. 

And our web analytics solutions need to evolve.  We need to integrate our data, and become smarter.

To win we must compete and win.  Those that satisfy their customers/prospects will win.

CS SessionReplay is a brand new technology that lets you record and watch actual site visitor sessions in our Online Portal, enabling you to extend the benefits of your ACSI-driven satisfaction analysis of key visitor segments down to the individual respondent level. In other words, let satisfaction data and open-ended comments show you which sessions will be useful and relevant, and then watch what your users are actually doing on your site, including their mouse clicks and movements, page scrolling, form entry, and all interactivity with a website (all while adhering to the strictest privacy and security standards). It even skips over idle time so that you're just watching the good parts, just like TiVo for your website!

Here's a link to watch a video showing you how it works. Caution: it starts playing as soon as you click the link, so turn your volume down if you don't want to blast everyone away! It's about a minute long. CS SessionReplay Video. (Look closely and you may just see Jim Sterne and Eric Peterson!)

The clients that are already using it are finding it's a great way to get usability insights without the cost or artificial environment of a usability lab. The addition of CS SessionReplay to existing customer satisfaction analytics and usability services allows ForeSee Results to provide a single, unified platform which links recordings of visitor sessions, customer satisfaction scores and impacts, comments and feedback about a site, and third-party data--all in one place--which is good news for companies who want to simplify without losing functionality or analytics capabilities.

We bought the technology from Nitobi last year and have been working furiously to integrate it with our platform and get it ready for prime time. It finally is, and we couldn't be prouder. Great job to everyone on our technology team and product team, who did an amazing job creating a valuable solution for companies struggling in a recession.

Tomorrow morning at eMetrics we will be announcing a new product from ForeSee Results that builds on our exisitng product and the American Customer Satisfaction Index technology. 

A lot of great effort by our team at ForeSee Results has gone into the product, and it will take the web metrics ecosystem to the next level!  Details tomorrow.

Quick Summary:
Overall satisfaction with e-gov sites is 73.6 (on a scale of 1-100) down from 74.1 last quarter. This follows 3 quarters of increases. 

Why?  One reason is expectations are much higher now then in the past.  With President Obama's internet savvy campaign and internet savvy staff, the expectations are for better, more usable and more functional e-gov sites.   Well, it has been 100 days, which is a lifetime in an internet company, but a relatively short time for Government.  The future looks bright but we are not there yet.

Get the full commentary here.

Now, these are self reported numbers, it is only one quarter and only 80 retailers responded to the survey.  That all being said, this is very encouraging news for the online retail industry.