As our 1st Q&A with industry professionals I’m delighted to publish this article with Craig Sullivan, ex Product Manager in Digital and Usability at LOVEFiLM.
Craig is a User Experience champion who provides the insight and connection between organisations, people, products and their customers. He has worked on large scale UX, optimisation and product launches, helping grow companies with designs that delight the customers and drive commercial success. He is currently working on a number of page and funnel conversion projects and is always interested helping businesses solve tough problems. You can read more or contact him through his profile on Linkedin.
Paul Rouke: I know you have spent time doing User Experience (UX) work for Lovefilm.com, a site I regularly use and enjoy from a usability perspective. How was user-centered design embraced within LOVEFiLM, and what are some of the big ROI success stories?
Well, LOVEFiLM as a company puts a lot of work into analytics, insight, research and customer focus for operations and product design. They are a rarity in being able to manage a balance between phenomenal growth and keeping the VOC (voice of customer) at the heart of all they do.
UCD is probably too narrow a term to cover all the customer facing techniques they use but it’s at the heart of their product design from conception to launch. The user experience of the service as a whole involves optimising every touch point, online and offline, with customers or potential customers.
LOVEFiLM has recently featured in The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100, number 2 with the fastest growth.The big ROI success story is in terms of supporting the growth of the site whilst delivering an excellent and improving user experience. I’ve personally driven hundreds of changes that ranged from just delighting customers all the way through to large percentage lifts in conversion rates.
Paul Rouke: In your experience at LOVEFiLM and with other retailers, how have user reviews and ratings affected conversion rates? Do you have any recommendations for retailers considering implementing this type of customer insights, from the likes of Bazaarvoice and Reevoo?
It’s difficult to pick one review site that has enough of an industry spread to make an impact as an independent. If you’re into your customers though, you need to hear what they are saying and there are sources I’ve used to monitor brand mentions in press, forums, blogs and social networks.
I’ve also grabbed feedback from customer trial groups and panels during product development. Regular independent surveys ensure that LF and their competitors are benchmarked on key service elements. This helps identify exactly which bits of a great service really drives the word of mouth and NPS (Net Promoter Score).
The one aspect of reviews I need to mention though is the sheer volume of ratings and reviews on the LF website – these help people to find films they want to watch. I regularly use IMDB and LOVEFiLM to research films I’m interested in, as well as find stuff that I may not have heard of.
Paul Rouke: I understand you’ve worked at John Lewis as a usability and e-commerce consultant. How much was user-centered design part of their processes, and what were the biggest usability barriers that you had to tackle?
I was involved for several years with the John Lewis Partnership and their sites just improve with age. At the start of their e-commerce curve they were really blazing a trail with usability/user experience, web analytics, browser testing, performance & load testing, conversion optimisation, site monitoring, search analysis, email compatibility etc.
This is stuff that companies use commonly today but few organizations were doing this 8 years ago and JL still do all of these and more. Working there as a freelancer, I could see that they really understand and look after their partners (the employees) and customers – something which really comes out if you work there or shop with them.
The biggest hurdle when promoting usability was to get people to understand how it could not only improve the commercial success of a product but also save development time. Manufacturers have long ago grasped these principles, as they can’t afford to launch a new car, just because people over 5’8 won’t fit. Building websites without customers is expensive because you are launching sub optimal stuff all the time.
We had a usability roadshow that went out and sold the concept and the results to many divisions and departments in JL. Showing people a passionate and simple explanation of the techniques and results had a long lasting impact. I was contacted the other day by someone who worked with me at JL and then made UX a big part of their career –you have no idea how chuffed I was.
Paul Rouke: As you know I used to work at Shop Direct Group, another major player in blue chip retailing. How well do you feel John Lewis compare to other blue chip retailers such as Shop Direct Group, Next and House of Fraser when it comes to usability and customer experience?
Maybe I’m biased but John Lewis, Waitrose and Ocado all have services that are simply brilliant. There is a level at which the sites work and what the physical service is like that gives me a good feeling every time I use them. Whether I’m hunting for something in a department store, having groceries delivered or reading an email – they are all good experiences. There are some physical stores or online retailers who’ve made me feel like I’m inconveniencing them when I’m asking for help – I don’t get this impression with these folks.
There are too many online companies with stuff that doesn’t work at crucial influencing points in the relationship. This could be a nightmare form for an insurance quote, a poor checkout process, emails that won’t display correctly, slow or unsolved customer contact, a site that takes an age to load, search and navigation that doesn’t match ‘your words’ for things or landing pages that aren’t ‘what you came for’. All of these can have enormous commercial impact, depending on your business model.
The good news is that there is an opportunity, particularly with the downturn, to differentiate yourself and make your online spend work smarter. The answer here is to get under the skin of your customers and find priority areas where it works for both of you. A small amount of time fixing an application form or a checkout process gets you more money from the traffic you already have. Right now it’s not about pushing the spending slider to get more out the other end – it’s working to optimise what you’ve got.
Paul Rouke: Internet Retailing has launched their ‘Inspiration Index’, which covers 6 dimensions, 2 of which are ‘customer experience’ and ‘moments of brilliance and delight’. Which online retailers would you include as inspiring you the most?
Well, apart from JL, I would list the following sites as having utility or customer experience that rocks:
www.zoopla.com – A property site for renting, buying, researching and being nosy about what other people paid for theirs. It’s such a clean and usable design, it manages to do everything you want without complexity and very swiftly. I expect this site to win more awards and grow their customer base hugely – good user experience underpins this.www.amazon.co.uk – I’ve used them for years and I’ve had no incentive to use anyone else for a lot of purchases. I find the stuff, it comes, I hardly ever need to contact anyone, it’s cheap and just works. The design hasn’t changed radically, the reviews are really helpful and the faceted search (narrowing/expanding) is really useful.
www.Directgov.co.uk – I know it’s not a retail site but deserves a mention here for freeing us online junkies up from visiting places in the RW (Real World). I renewed our car tax the other day in about 4 minutes and it was much better than previous experiences (don’t ask me about TV licensing grrr….). Directgov are doing a lot of user experience work involving UCD, testing and analytical insight and this seems to be percolating through in online products.
www.imdb.com – The best place for film info, pictures, quotes and to resolve arguments. Whether you are building a library, expanding your knowledge or looking to rent or buy, I still find more here on this site. The design is sometimes criticised but this isn’t what I want it for.
Paul Rouke: We have been running a poll on our usability blog asking for visitors to name the high street retailers you would least like to see go bust (hypothetically speaking of course!) in the current recession. Having worked with a variety of high street retailers yourself, who would you vote for?!
I’d hate to see anything happen to Waitrose (for loads of things), Aldi (for nice stuff at a good price) and Maplins. I have a magnetic attraction that works at long distance to pull me towards gadget or electronics shops. I found myself stopping outside Maplins the other week and thinking that there wasn’t ANYTHING I really needed in there (blank DVDs? Er, batteries? Hmmm, let me think…)
I racked my brain and then reasoned out that I was thinking that MAYBE just MAYBE they had something I might need, if only I knew it was there. Then, feeling satisfied I’d sussed myself out, spent the next 30 minutes finding things I never knew I needed and looking at everything, just to be absolutely sure.
I did plan on including the full Q&A on this one article, but with another 9 questions remaining I think a 2nd post is in order in the next week or so! The 2nd part will feature questions and answers on some of the following topics:
- multivariate and split testing, the benefits and the business pitch
- some feedback on Avinash Kaushik’s book Web Analytics – An Hour A Dayweb
- segments, funnels and goals in Google Analytics
- financial companies who are adopting a user-centric approach online
- multi-faceted navigation, how not to undo good intelligence with a poor user interface
Hopefully this 1st part has been as interesting to read as it was for me to carry out and I’ll look forward to publishing the 2nd half of the session next week.
