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The
Insighter View all articles on our new site |
Neo Insight's e-newsletter
on Usability topics and techniques. In this issue
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We have seen companies and government departments move away from thinking of themselves as information-providers, to thinking of themselves more as service-providers. They view the Web as a channel for service provision, rather than a repository for information. Service organizations of every kind (profit-oriented or otherwise) need to have very clear business goals - definitions of the intended impact of their services - with performance targets for achieving those goals. Business goals always require changes to take place out there in the 'real' world - for example, people adopting a more healthy life-style, people buying your products. It is these changes in the world - often changes in behaviour - that need to be measured to understand the impact of a service. Service usage depends on understanding and managing for your customers' behaviour. What makes people come to your website and buy your product, or decide to change some aspect of their lifestyle? People who use services come with very clear goals; they don't drift onto the web accidentally, or with vague intentions. The web is an extremely task-focused environment for service interactions; 'browsing' in no way captures the impatient, give-it-to-me-now demands we make of websites. Task-focused web content is therefore not just a "nice to have", it is a 'must-provide'. Website management needs to become management of your customers' tasks. People buying a product must carry out specific tasks; they need to find out how a product meets their needs, to compare it with other products, to read case studies and to see reviews, maybe even to try out one or more products. People thinking about making a change in their lifestyle have similar tasks; discovering what options they might consider, evaluating how easy or difficult each will be and how they will fit into their activities, hearing others' experiences and opinions, etc. These are the kinds of tasks you need to support. You must ensure that your website's visitors carry out these tasks successfully and efficiently. The step towards a service orientation is a positive one. But even service thinking can be internally-focused. The challenge is to focus not on the service as such, but on its outcomes, on its performance against targets, and on the customer behaviour - especially on-task behaviour - that drives both service usage and the outcomes. To focus your task management strategy, discover the 'long neck' of your customer tasks - the small handful of frequent, priority customer tasks - and, through measurement of behaviour and continual improvement, ensure your organization excels at supporting those tasks. Are you running an Intranet for thousands of people in a large organization? Hear Gerry McGovern share his discoveries on how you can increase productivity and reduce costs by identifying and better managing your employees' top tasks. This FREE Customer Carewords webinar takes place on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 10-11am EDT. 1. Register 2. Receive confirmation email 3. Join the webinar - click the link and dial the number To attend the webinar, you will need:
PLEASE NOTE: If this is your first GoToWebinar, please ensure that you have admin rights to install the free GoToMeeting plugin. You may need to set this up with your IT department.
At Gerry McGovern's Masterclass in Ottawa, May 5-6, 2008, attendees were asked to come up with the top messages that senior managers should hear. Having done this, Gerry grouped the messages. Here's the end result - the top messages to senior managers. Through an informal voting process (you had to be there!), attendees also picked the top 3. You might indeed communicate them to your senior managers. Or maybe to your staff or colleagues. You might use them as the agenda of a web strategy meeting: "Let's talk about how well we are doing on each of these factors". Or you might use them to derive your website performance measures, or to prioritize your project activities and resources. Use them as you see fit! Top 3 messages to senior managers
The full list of messages for senior managers: Task focus
Content management
Management and strategy
Customer Focus
Search management
Quote of the month“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. ” Jerome K Jerome, Three men in a boat If you have any comments on The Insighter, or ideas on usability topics you'd like to hear about, send us an email with your comments. We invite everyone to subscribe to the Insighter, our monthly e-newsletter. If you wish to unsubscribe, just send us an unsubscribe email. |
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