It isn’t a new concept, it isn’t technical and it might not seem groundbreaking but working collaboratively is one of the most important elements of our conversion rate optimisation programmes.

Collaboration is defined as the act of working with another or others on a joint project. This probably sounds like most of the projects that you might work on, but the quality and the investment made in working together can reap amazing results.

Working collaboratively can improve and support knowledge sharing, learning and consensus building. It can also help to obtain greater resources, recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources.

But at what cost? It can also have negative impacts. Collaboration can eat up resources and in the worst cases, result in design by committee and conflict. Below are three reasons we think it’s worth the effort.

Collaboration & CRO

Academic and business writer Robert J. Thomas¹, suggests that collaboration is most successful when working on problems that:

1. Don’t have an obvious solution — the problem addressed is not a routine one
2. Lack structure — there isn’t always a familiar process to follow
3. Require collective volition — some sort of sharing is needed but cannot be mandated

(Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/the_three_essential_ingredient.html)

So what do these mean for CRO?

1. There’s no simple answer, if there was, they’d be doing it.

In many ways these criteria apply to the problems that need to be improved in order to run a successful CRO programme. For most companies embarking on a CRO programme for the first time, there aren’t going to be obvious solutions, otherwise you might have made the improvements already. For CRO to work really well we collect internal insights, dig deep into the data and carry out fresh user research. The skills required to do each of these tasks means that a team of people is almost always the best way.

2. There are endless ideas and limited resource to build and test them

Any CRO programme should be well planned with targets, milestones and a testing road map, but the reality is that CRO has such a wide scope that sometimes you need to re-prioritise as issues arise. From major conversion blockers to ‘just do it’ tweaks and everything in between data analysis and research will throw up all sorts of issues. CRO will typically involves a range people from different areas of the ecommerce team with different plans and priorities. By working collaboratively it is possible to focus effort and attention on the right work at the right time on the issues that will bring the greatest reward.

3. Who is responsible for sales? UXers? CROs? Developers? Designers? Merchandisers?

A successful optimisation programme will require buy-in from the whole team and involve everyone. It won’t always be clear at the start what type of areas of the site will need to be optimised and who has ownership of that area. We regularly engage with a wide range of specialists such as merchandisers, the customer services team and developers. Investing in working collaboratively allows you to spend time with the right people at the right time and get their buy-in as you go, rather than storing up objections until the end.

By working collaboratively we believe that you will see the best return on your conversion rate optimisation efforts.

I am very privileged to have been invited by Dr Dave Chaffey to start providing expert commentary pieces for his online portal Smart Insights.

Dave Chaffey

Dave has been recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of

“50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have shaped the future of Marketing“

Dave has also been recognized by the Department of Trade and Industry, NOP World and E-consultancy as one of the

“Top 100 hundred people commended by the industry as key influencers and drivers, who have driven the development and growth of e-commerce in the UK over the last ten years“.

Smart Insights

The Smart Insights blog is edited by digital marketing expert Dave Chaffey with the help of other experienced digital marketers to help marketeers succeed online through getting more value from their investments in digital marketing.

My Role For Smart Insights

I am delighted to have joined a small team of industry experts who provide regular best practice articles and tips for visitors to the Smart Insights website, with my focus being on usability and conversion optimization.

My First Article – Increasing New Customer Conversion Rates

I’m delighted to announce that my first article has gone live titled ‘Increasing new customer conversion rate’. Below are some details of what you can expect to read within the full, comprehensive article.

• Background – why new customer conversions are so important for retailers
• How new customer checkout experiences have evolved
• Why you shouldn’t force 1st time customers to register to place their order
• Consumer pre-conceptions about registration
• Best practice recommendations for new customer checkout
• Quick tips for improving checkout for all retailers
• Which checkout solutions are recommended

My article is wrapped up by asking the question – How do you encourage new customers to buy? It includes the following questions to retailers, and please feel free to provide comments on the Smart Insights post.

• what options do you provide new customers on your checkout?
• what benefits or incentives do you use to encourage new visitors to make their purchase?
• how important is getting new customers to register/sign-up with you?
• are you looking to build an online community with your customers?
• what are your preconceptions when you are asked to register with a retailer?

View the full article Increasing new customer conversion rate

I’ve recently provided some tips and advice on e-commerce conversion optimisation for an article in Drapers magazine, entitled ‘Lead them into temptation‘ (note: Drapers subscription required).

Drapers Online Editor Keely Stocker planned and wrote the article, and I was asked to provide input on the following:

• What should retailers be looking at when analysing conversion?
• What are the most important elements retailers should be looking at enhancing in order to improve conversion?
• What are the most common mistakes made when it comes to the conversion process?

I must admit I went to town on providing a wide range of tips and advice to Keely, without realising the size of the article, but at least I gave her enough to work with!

To view the full article you do need to be subscriber to Drapers, and you can subscribe online.

Finally thanks to my friend and fashion expert Leon-Bailey Green for recommending Keely asks me to provide my input into this article. I recommend taking a look at Leon’s online fashion agency too…

Whether its referred to as user research, customer research, field studies, qualititive research or one of the other terms used, finding out the wants and needs of people who use websites, intranets and software is a crucial part of designing usable solutions which deliver return-on-investment.

Here I want to share with you 5 tips when conducting this type of one-to-one research:

1) Give the person you are speaking to the confidence that their input is truly valued

Many people, especially those who have never taken part in this type of research before, think that there input won’t be valuable, for any number of reasons. This could include:

• they don’t use the website or system often
• they have never done this type of activity before
• they have never been asked for their opinion before
• they don’t feel their role is very important, so why would their opinions be important

We tend to give people cofidence in these situations by:

• explaining to them the approach that the user research is taking
• re-iterate during the meeting how valuable their views and insights are
• explain that this isn’t just a one-off experience and that gaining input from people such as themselves is a fundamental part to the website or intranet improvement process going forward
• ask whether they would like to be involved in further elements of the research and design process

It can be quite remarkable experiencing a persons confidence grow, from at the start where they are very apprehensive and introverted to becoming very passionate and open to sharing their views.

2) Give the person your full attention – keep your head up!

Rather than try and carry out the face-to-face meeting as well as making notes throughout on the key points being made, simply voice record the meeting (asking permission first of course) to allow you to give the person your full attention.

Benefits of voice recording the meeting include:

• the conversation is much more natural
• it ensures you will never miss a vital piece of feedback whilst you are making a note of a previous comment
• you are paying much more attention to what the person is saying, which in turns helps you think of which questions and prompts should follow next
• the person feels fully engaged rather than looking at the top of your head for parts of the meeting
• if you to choose to quote the person in the research report and findings work you do after, you ensure the quote is 100% accurate and note based on your notes

A few things to consider on voice recording meetings:

• if like us, due to the sheet amount of valuable insights and comments that each meeting contains, you choose to get full transcriptions of each meeting, this is a very time consuming exercise and one which we definetly recommend you outsource
• you may also be thinking of video recording the meetings, especially if (as I will come on to later) you also use these meetings to carry out user testing. You need to be aware that this will usually highten the sense of apprehension for the person which can affect their confidence in fully engaging with the process

3) Ask open, probing questions

Being asked to share your views on a particular website or company intranet is very much a one-off scenario (unless of course you are adopting a true user-centered design approach and will be engaging with that person throughout the design and development process). However familiar with a system the person is, it takes certain types of questions to get people to open up and share the types of insights that will be of most value in your research.

Typical questions we might ask include:

• Can you describe the reasons why you typically [add in different user scenarios]?
• Can you explain the approach you tend to take when [add in different user scenarios]?
• What improvements do you think would make your job/experience easier and more effective?
• At [add in various areas of the website or intranet], what information are you looking for and why?
• Can you explain a situation where you haven’t been able to find what you are looking for, and what have been your next steps?

It is vital that your questionning doesn’t lead the person down a particular route on purpose – the more natural and open ended you make the questionning the more likely you are of gaining really valuable insights.

4) Bring the user research to life by incorporating user testing

Providing the research you are doing is for an existing website or company intranet, bring a greater degree of engagement and value to the research by incorporating user testing into the meeting.

Website testing or system testing, not user testing
Its vital to stress at this point that when you explain about this to the person, you are clear that you are wanting to test the usability and effectiveness of the website or system, not their capabilities or ability to remember where certain information is.

Key points when incorporating testing to user research:

• avoid the temptation to use a lab testing environment – let the user work in their own comfortable surroundings, whether this is at home or at their desk at work
• don’t let the person blame themself if they are having trouble with a particular task for a scenario
• plan ahead with typical scenarios, and be as descriptive as possible
• ensure that the scenarios you are asking them to experience have some correlation to their potential wants and needs
• explain about the importance of them adopting the think out load approach, which you need for both your own benefit during the meeting but more importantly for when the voice recording is transcribed
• once it is clear they are unable to complete a task at a certain point, prompt them in the right direction and then let them continue on with their think out loud approach

5) Don’t rely on first impressions

Quite often the person that you are speaking to immediately makes it clear that they know their input won’t be very useful. This can be for a number of reasons:

• they only ever use a very small element of the website or intranet, and that can be explained in a matter of seconds
• they hardly ever use the website or intranet
• they are against change within their organisation and so they aren’t wanting to disrupt anything
• they dismiss the very fact that you are asking for their feedback, and are apprehensive that what they say will make any difference or actually be used to actually make improvements

This where the first four tips all come in to play – by giving confidence to the person, providing your full attention, asking probing questions and bringing the session to life by letting them use the website/intranet for themself, you will often find that the people who on first impressions seem to be offering the least amount of valuable feedback actually turn out the complete opposite.

Summary

User research is a highly valuable way of gaining end user insights, but it isn’t something that comes easily. There are many elements to carrying out successful user research and I hope these tips will come in useful for people who are already carrying this type of research, or who are considering it.

Further reading

You may also like to take a look at some of these related articles and presentations.

• article – top 8 business benefits of user testing
• presentation slides – 3 tips to improving online performance (step 1 is on gorilla user testing)
• video interviews – Royal Mail interviewing me on tips for good usability
• article – using the power of crowds to test your call to actions

This is an un-answered question for many businesses, and one we always look to answer as part of on-going conversion optimisation services.

In a recent phase 1 project with translation services company The Translation People, through the use of advanced segments in Google Analytics we were very quickly able to to identify that only 10% of their existing site visitors were likely to convert.

I have provided a more in-depth look at this specific scenario on an advanced segmentation article I have published on Econsultancy.

If I had to sum up this post with one line of business advice it would be this:

never consider making commercial decisions when you look at your web analytic stats before you apply some segmentation to remove visitors never likely to convert.

**UPDATED**
The User Experience Buyer’s Guide 2009 is now available for download on the Econsultancy website.

For clarification this is the same at the Usability Buyers Guide, with just a different name..

As a usability training partner for e-consultancy since the start of 2009, we were delighted to be included in their Usability Buyers Guide 2009. The buyers guide, which will focus on the UK market, will be promoted to Econsultancy’s 80,000+ registered users and beyond and is expected to be available on their site in June 2009.

To get an idea of the extensive buyers guides that Econsultancy provide you can see details of the 2008 Usability Buyer’s Guide, including an option to download a sample of the full guide.

Further details of our work and involvement with Econsultancy can be seen on the following links:

• Training Course – Usability and Best Practice for Online Retailers
• Expert Blog Post – Amazon Relying on Brand Credibility Instead Of Good Usability
• Expert Blog Post – Usable Internal Business Systems – Just A Pipedream?
• Expert Blog Post – House Of Fraser – A User Experience Review

Once the 2009 usability buyers guide is published we’ll provide a link and further details.

Following the upload of my recent presentation to slideshare, we were delighted to be informed that the presention was featured on the Slideshare Showcase within the Business and Management section.

If my last presentation slides I uploaded onto Slideshare are anything to go by, we can expect our presentation to be seen by many more people that the attendees of the ‘Speeding Up In A Slowdown’ conference that I took part in, which included a keynote speech from Google.

The other presentations I have uploaded onto Slideshare are:

• The Importance of Usability For Internal Business Systems
• The Importance of Usability For Customer Facing Websites
• Usability Primer – Why Its So Important For Businesses

I was recently contacted by The Royal Mail to see whether I would like to take part in an ‘Ask The Expert’ clinic which features in their quarterly SMART magazine. I was more than happy to provide some advice and recommendations for a niche retailer looking to develop the commercial side of its operations.

After I had submitted the 200 words, The Royal Mail saw an opportunity to video interview me as part of their ‘One Minute Mentor’ area on their website. This sits within the SMART area of the Royal Mail website and a screengrab is provided below. The strapline for SMART is Inspiration for the modern entrepreneur.

Royal Mail SMART area on their website, featuring Paul Rouke

The 10 subjects covered in short video interviews were…

What is usability?

What is website usability and why is it important?

Key usability questions

What are the key questions on usability every business with a website should ask itself?

E-tail potential

What are the main areas on a site where e-tailers lose potential sales and what can be done to prevent this?

Benefiting internal systems

How can internal business systems with poor usability affect the efficiency of a business?

Paul Rouke video interviews with The Royal Mail

Improving conversions

How can good website usability improve a company’s conversion rate and ultimately its bottom line?

Capturing data

Many companies use web forms. What can you do to improve the number of completed forms?

Search engine marketing

What difference does good usability make to search engine marketing?

Measuring usability

What measures should be in place to ensure that a website’s usability stays at its best?

Integrating channels

How important is it to integrate offline and online usability?

Design vs. navigation

What’s the ideal balance between design and navigation on a website?

You can also listen to a podcast of the 10 video interviews

Paul Rouke featured on the Royal Mail website