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Web_Site_Analysis_ _A_Study_in_Damage_Control
| Web Site Analysis - A Study in Damage Control
Web Site Analysis A Study in Damage Control
By WG Moore
In my last article, ‘Web Analytics – Getting It Right’, I
discussed some of the powerful ways that web site statistics can
be used to improve an ecommerce business. That article was about
success. This article shows that no matter how hard you try, you
can still get it wrong. This is a story about failure.
It is often difficult and embarrassing to admit failure and
sometimes it is even difficult to see it, even when it is right
in front of us. But only by examining our failures can we hope
to improve and progress. Hopefully, this article will help
others avoid the same mistakes we made.
Keep in mind that web analytics is not always about counting
traffic. In fact, that is usually only a small part of it. It is
mostly about offering better products and services, improving
the website and making each visit to our website a more pleasant
experience. It is also about building customer loyalty and
confidence.
This incident started when we received a request to cancel web
site tracking service for an account. This happens occasionally,
but of course, a cancellation is never a welcome sight. Try as
we might, we cannot please everyone. So we learn to accept these
things; it is just business.
However, it is our policy to investigate every cancellation and
try to determine what went wrong. Once someone has decided to
cancel, there is nothing that can be done about it. It is too
late. Any damage has already been done. We know that we cannot
recover a lost account, but we always try to learn something
that will help prevent such things happening in future.
The first thing we did that morning was to close the account as
requested and issue a credit. We then wrote to the web site
owner and informed them that their request had been taken care
of. We made no excuses nor did we try to recover the account.
But we did ask for help in understanding why they were
unsatisfied. We asked a few simple questions as to the reasons
for the cancellation and what we could do to improve the
service. Our request went unanswered.
Next, we looked up the account details to see what we could
learn. We were shocked! This account had been open less than 24
hours! Not even one full day. To be honest, this stung. It was
almost personal, a real slap in the face. It was not so much
that we had lost an account, but that it happened so quickly.
Such a thing had never happened before, so it was a rude
awakening.
Once we located the account, we were able to ‘drill down’ to see
every aspect of our client’s visits to our web site.
The original visit came from someone searching for a way to
monitor traffic on multiple websites. This was indicated by the
keywords used in searching the web. In the one day that we did
business, they made three visits, looked at 96 pages and spent
an average of 14 minutes and 7 seconds on each visit. The
average of 26 seconds per page is a bit long, but the 96 pages
visited are what really caught our eye.
Bear in mind that that was not 96 different pages, but simply 96
page visits. Some pages were visited several times. Our visitor
detail page lists each page in chronological order as it occurs.
This lets us see exactly what visitors find of interest and
gives us some idea of what is going on in their minds at the
time. Keywords and on-page links tell us what subjects were
important.
In this case, our visitor went directly to the products page to
see what we had to offer. They next looked at the pricing page
to see if it was affordable. They returned to the products page
using a link that discussed our risk-free, money back guarantee.
So we know this was an important consideration.
They then started the purchasing process, but changed their mind
and went back to the pricing page for another look. From there,
they returned to the buying process via a link that talked about
a special offer we had at the time. So now we also knew that the
offer had appeal.
In fact, our guest made three attempts at buying the product
before finally completing the sale. The very fact that they did
buy on the first visit is also a bit unusual. Most people shop
around and come back several times before buying. But there was
not enough time between visits for this to have been the case.
But then again, perhaps they had been shopping around before
coming to our site. So this alone was not given much weight. It
was just something we noted.
Next, our new client followed the usual procedures: going to the
login, changing the default password, setting up the account and
looking at the reports. From here, the first signs of confusion
and uncertainty begin to show.
Our client next went back to the products and pricing pages.
Since no links were used from these pages, we are not sure what
they were looking for. But they again returned and logged in and
tried to look at statistics. A few minutes later, they returned
again to the product and pricing pages for another look.
Finally we began to get a hint of what was wrong. Our client now
went to the tutorials and features pages, examining at length an
article on analyzing the website data. Then back again to the
statistics analysis. So now we begin to see that our client was
unsure of exactly how to go about gathering and using the
information from their website.
From here their confusion seems to increase. They went again to
account setup and then to the help pages. They repeated this
process several times over the remainder of the last two visits.
Finally, they gave up and cancelled the account.
Our next step was to examine our late client’s site setup
parameters. We found that certain fields were not set up
correctly, confirming our growing suspicions that our
instructions were not clear enough. By looking at the pages
visited and examining the subject matter of those pages and
links, we know that our visitor became frustrated at not being
able to see statistics being gathered in real time from their
site.
And the most telling feature of all came from examining the
client’s web pages. They had never installed the tracking code
on the pages so that statistics could be gathered in the first
place! And indeed, there were no records from this account in
the database.
This made it obvious that although we had sent them the tracking
code to be placed on their web pages, we failed to provide
guidance that showed exactly how and where to install the code.
We failed to explain its importance and how it worked. This was
a very basic and stupid mistake.
Most of our clients are pretty tech-savvy, and since we had
never had a problem like this before, we had forgotten that not
all of our customers are technically proficient. As if that were
not bad enough, our whole business was supposed to be focused on
the small web sites. It should be obvious that these people were
not likely to be technical people.
So what did we learn from all this? First and foremost, our
communications were bad. This client never asked for help. But
then, no one should have to ask. We should have offered it right
from the first, along with an easy link to reach us. We should
have made our introduction more personal, giving a sense of
friendliness and concern.
We also learned that our tutorials did not answer our client’s
questions. Neither did our help files.
Now we have had to re-think our entire presentation and
procedures. We have begun a process of updating and rewriting
our tutorials and help files, adding video demonstrations and
more graphics and examples. We have added help notices in our
introductory email to new clients.
Even though it was only one customer out of many, it was a very
important customer. They all are, as this quote from Brent Oxley
of Hostgator shows:
“One unhappy customer is worth the weight of 1,000 satisfied
customers in terms of how they can affect future business, so we
strive to keep as many people happy as we can. We may receive
500 letters of praise in a month, but it is that one letter of
dissatisfaction that keeps us up at night wondering how we can
make things better.”
The process of updating our site is still in progress. It is not
an easy job. Some items have been completed, but it will take
some time to get around to them all. A website is a constant
process of change and improvement. Nothing stays the same for
long in the internet world. We made the mistake of getting too
complacent. It took a harsh reminder from a dissatisfied client
to set us straight.
It is too late to bring that customer back. They are gone
forever. But perhaps we can prevent such a thing from happening
again. Perhaps you can use our failure to build on your success.
I hope so.
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About the author
WG Moore is a web analytics specialist with over 20 years of
hardware, software and web development experience. Visit
http://www.webstatsgold.com for more articles and information on
web analytics. You may contact him at will@webstatsgold.com
Copyright 2005 by WG Moore
Permission is granted for this article to forward, reprint,
distribute, use for in ezines, newsletters, websites, to offer
as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no
changes are made and the byline, copyright, and this resource
box is included.
About the author:
WG Moore is a web analytics specialist with over 20 years of
hardware, software and web development experience. Visit
http://www.webstatsgold.com for more articles and information on
web analytics. You may contact him at will@webstatsgold.com
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