Aardvark Book
The web is an everyday part of our environment. It empowers us and frustrates us; it simplifies and complicates our lives; it separates us and brings us together.
But even though the majority of us now interact with websites nearly every day it’s easy to forget that websites are made by people, and that someone, somewhere should get the credit when a website works well for us – or get the blame when it doesn’t.
This is a collection of articles about online customer experience (and some other related stuff), written by us at Aardvark Media. We wrote these for a book we published, some of the the content refers to events that now seem history, but we think that they still have a relevance and interest. We hope you think so too.
We’re not printing any new copies of our book but have made the articles available as PDF’s for anyone to download. We still have a few hard copies of the book available, if you’d like us to mail you a copy please contact us.
Articles
What Makes Good ‘Customer Experience’
Explore the five planes to consider when developing a website centred on delivering a good customer experience.
Our Top Ten Essentials For A Great Online Customer Experience
Our top ten essentials to help you deliver a better experience online.
Customer Experience Management – The Big Picture
Discover the five steps to successful customer experience management.
Creating a World-Class Customer Experience
A guest article from the Ex Chairman of The Institute of Customer Service. The customer experience = expectations + transaction + outcomes.
Are We Being Served?
Are things getting worse for customer service now that everything is done online?
Go On – Delight Your Customers
It’s no longer enough to just give good customer service. To guarantee customer satisfaction and loyalty you need to exceed expectations and provide ‘customer delight’.
Brands – How To Stop Losing Loyal Online Customers
Research shows that nearly half of all UK online consumers have changed their mind about a brand as a result of using the internet. With products and services being peer reviewed, Googled and indexed by price comparison services, how much does online branding matter and if it does, what needs to be done to effect its successful communication?
Designing For Customers
A while back, a detrimental story arose about the website of a popular cinema chain. Apparently the site and its imperfections so infuriated one cinemagoer that he built his own ‘accessible’ version that met World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) guidelines. Although his was an extreme response, the disgruntlement, disenchantment and sheer frustration felt by many website customers is very common.
Good Customer Service Means Letting Customers Speak To You
A while back we bought a PC from an online retailer; unfortunately they delivered the wrong product. As we needed to return it and get the right one quickly, we paid a visit to their website to find out how to speak to their customer services team. It would be fair to expect this to be a simple process of going to a ‘Contact Us’ page and looking for their address and telephone details, perhaps supported by a FAQ or contact form.
Handling Unhappy (and happy) Online Customers
Some time back, research from Accenture identified that 36% of adults in the USA want to contribute to user generated content websites (UGC). Although UGC is generally perceived as posting content on community sites such as YouTube or MySpace, the research implies that customers are increasingly likely to rate and discuss their experiences of companies online. This affect is now recognised as increasingly critical to the decision making process of customers when evaluating a company / brand /product versus its competitors.
Online Customers Are Changing Everything – Even Search
A few years back, Yahoo made two notable acquisitions. The first was Flickr, the rapidly growing photo-sharing site, the second was Del.icio.us, the social bookmarking company whose traffic trebled in the month prior to the acquisition. Yahoo paid over $40 million in total for the companies, both of which were less than three years old and showing minimal revenues. What both companies shared is a vision of the web founded on user generated content and Yahoo’s purchase indicates that they plan to leverage this passion to deliver a new generation of search based not on algorithms but on human tagging.
Smoothing The On-Ramp – The Importance Of Open ID
One of the greatest turn-offs for customers arriving at a website for the first time is the signup form. Not only are we required to re-submit our personal details for each and every website but we also have to come up with a new password for each one. If you’re like us you probably end up using one of several key passwords that you’ve applied for multiple sites. It’s a pain and it’s the one of the biggest barriers to overcome in the customer conversion funnel.
How To Improve Online Conversion
Achieving this means optimising your conversion ratio; ensuring that visitors go further than your home page and answer your ‘call to action’. To improve your online conversion there are five customer-focused questions that need to be resolved.
How UGC Saved The Day – A Cautionary Tale
We were thinking of buying some armchairs for our office to provide a breakout zone. Chris, our founder, particularly likes furniture design from the 1950s and had been looking online for chairs based on the designs of Florence Knoll, who (in case you didn’t know) designed the seminal 65A armchair in 1958.
Accessible Doesn’t Mean Boring
Nothing beats the creative frisson of excitement as you review concepts, brainstorm and plan strategic derring-do. But you can see people switching off as soon as you mention accessibility. To put it bluntly, for years accessibility been perceived as a necessity brought down from a higher-than-thou authority to ensure you can’t have as much fun as you’d like.
Future Thinking: The Era Of The Two Way Business
In the past businesses used to just sell stuff. Although the customer was always right this only applied on the shop floor or in the returned goods department. Now, the internet makes it easier for buyers and sellers to talk to each other. So smart companies are beginning to listen to their customers, using them to help develop products and trying to tie them into long-term relationships.
News
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La Tasca Loyalty Scheme With Torex Till Integration Goes Live
January 24, 2012We’re loving the great new La Tasca loyalty card. Unlike other Loyalty schemes which...more »
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Novus UX Improvements Lead To 50% Increase In Christmas Enquiries
January 17, 2012In August 2011 we worked with the digital marketing team at Novus to implement...more »
Blog
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Dialogue Can Be Your Competitive Advantage
January 24, 2012In the digital world, of agencies, briefs and strategies there is always much talk...more »
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Why Are Restaurant Websites So Awful?
August 12, 2011Earlier this year we got a call from pre-revolutionary Egypt, or bearing in mind...more »