Measuring Web site goals | Conversions and the customer

Online Statistics
Website goals can be measured by statistics. Measuring statistics can track site page visits and thank you page visits, bounce rates, user behaviour, traffic sources, PPC Performance and keywords that visitors use to find the website in search engine natural and paid results.

Collect Online and Offline Data
Monitor leads, sales, subscriptions, bookings, contacts and customer feedback. Data can be collected online, uploaded / downloaded, stored and administered online in conjunction with or replacing offline data management.

Measuring costs of administration, marketing and sales
How cost effective is the online marketing strategy? Costs of in-house administration, marketing, and sales completed in ‘real time’ as actions are taken by the customer. SEO &PPC campaigns measured for cost, performance and ROI.

5. Conversions and the Customer

Defining Conversions
On a website; conversions are actions that you want a customer to perform on the Website. They are in essence the purpose for most websites: A conversion can be defined in different ways including:

Online sales
Telephone lead contact or sale
A booking
Email enquiry or lead
Feedback / enquiry form completed
Newsletter sign up
Subscription to a product / service
Customer / user registration
A Download

Increasing Conversions
Paypal research shows that online retailers are looking beyond price and choice to achieve success online in order to meet customer demand (released October 2008)

They have identified the following as important factors in generating and maximising sales online:

Experience
Service
Website speed
Accessibility
After sales service
Customer Care facilities

Even the exchange / return goods policy offered on a website has been identified as one of the added value services that customers are looking for online. It seems that like the high street; competition is raising the game of online retailers.

Customer Expectations
Most users expect to see main navigation links to the major sections of a website on the top or left hand side. That being said navigation might be placed on the right instead of right. This can act to persuasively encourage users to examine the page before heading to another section. Consistent main navigation will improve usability with detailed menus added that are relevant and consistent to each section.

Customer Service Issues
It is reported that 49% of UK customers will abandon a website due to customer service issues on a website. This was recently reported in independent research carried out by the behaviour analysis company Tealeaf (released September 2008).

In their Online Transaction Survey of 2008 UK adult consumers 16+yrs they found that 9 out of 10 customers experience problems when carrying out online transactions. 49% saying that will abandon the transaction completely, or favour a competitor if they experience difficulties with online transactions; an increase of 12% since 2007.

If that isn’t bad enough they found that 77% of customers that have these difficulties will share their bad experience of a website with others. Inconvenienced customers will vent their frustrations both offline and online via other means.

Customer expectations are increasing on the web with the majority of customers expecting to be able to complete a transaction on the first attempt. 90% of customers surveyed that shopped online in the past year say that they expect the same level of service if not better than that which they experience.

Dr. Max Blumberg, Customer Management Strategist and Corporate Psychologist at the University of London stated "Online businesses need to make every effort to streamline and improve the experience of their visitors. The reward will be increased ROI, improved brand perception, and repeat business."

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