For Customer Experience Professionals

Topic Overview: Customer Experience In A Down Economy

by Harley Manning, Moira Dorsey, December 12, 2008

As markets around the world continue to decline, credit stays tight, and job cuts escalate, making the case for customer experience will be even more of a challenge. But firms can ensure that the experiences they offer don't degrade — and hopefully improve . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Using Personas To Inform Marketing And Sales Efforts: Three Examples

by Moira Dorsey, June 7, 2007

Personas are especially helpful in getting employees to understand and obsess about customer needs — the first principle required for Experience-Based Differentiation. While personas have been used to improve the quality of products ranging from software . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

How To Design The Right Channel Mix

Leverage Channel Strengths Based On User Behaviors And Business Goals

by Moira Dorsey, April 26, 2007

Customer experience professionals have a wide array of customer interaction touchpoints at their disposal. With so many options, how can they choose the best combination that drives customer satisfaction while keeping costs at an acceptable level? Executives . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Best And Worst Of Personas, 2007

Forrester Applies Its Evaluation Methodology To Personas From 23 Interactive Agencies

by Moira Dorsey, July 19, 2007

To gauge the current state of personas, Forrester applied its persona evaluation criteria to reference personas provided by 23 interactive agencies. Most of the personas showed significant room for improvement — and problems ran the gamut in both type . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Interactive Agencies That Can Help With Persona Projects

Eighteen Vendors With Significant Persona Creation Experience Report Research And Industry Expertise Details

by Moira Dorsey, November 14, 2007

A survey of interactive design agencies uncovered 18 firms that have significant experience creating personas and conducting persona research. The agencies are using diverse research methodologies to create personas for a variety of design purposes for . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

How Personas Drive Experience-Based Differentiation: Four Examples

by Moira Dorsey, September 6, 2007

Personas help everyone with a stake in customer experience to obsess about customer needs. This healthy obsession is key for companies that want to differentiate the experiences they provide. A mutual fund company and its agency, Organic, used personas . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Small Firms That Can Help With Persona Projects

Thirty-Three Vendors With Significant Persona Creation Experience Report Research And Industry Expertise Details

by Moira Dorsey, September 12, 2007

A survey of user experience vendors uncovered 33 firms with significant experience creating personas. As a group, these firms leveraged a variety of research methodologies, and their persona experience spanned industries, with a high concentration in . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Best And Worst Of Cross-Channel Design, 2007

Forrester Applies Its Cross-Channel Review Methodology To 16 Major Firms

by Moira Dorsey, February 16, 2007

Forrester applied its Cross-Channel Review methodology to the experiences at 16 firms — four of the largest credit card issuers, consumer electronics retailers, PC manufacturers, and wireless providers. While Dell and Circuit City received the top overall . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Questions For Persona Creation Vendors

What To Ask Before Selecting A Vendor To Help With Personas

by Moira Dorsey, February 4, 2008

Personas can help build more effective experiences. But customer experience professionals can't expect to get those results from any vendor they hire to research and create personas. That's why companies need to ask prospective vendors about how they . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Persona Project Costs And Deliverables

Small Firms And Interactive Agencies Report On The Number Of Personas Created, Interviews Conducted, And Costs

by Moira Dorsey, November 27, 2007

Surveys of user experience vendors uncovered 18 interactive agencies and 30 small firms with significant experience creating personas. The two groups report averaging four personas and roughly 20 interviews per client engagement in 2006. Project size . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

How To Choose — And Use — A Primary Persona

by Moira Dorsey, December 28, 2006

Firms typically have three to five personas to guide the design of a Web site. While the resulting design should ultimately satisfy all of the personas, designers should start by satisfying the needs of just one: the primary persona. Firms should pick . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Best And Worst Of B2C Site Design, 2007

Forrester Applies Its Web Site Review Methodology To 16 Major Firms

by Moira Dorsey, March 30, 2007

Forrester applied its Web Site Review methodology to the site experiences at 16 firms — four each of the largest credit card issuers, consumer electronics retailers, PC manufacturers, and wireless providers. As a group, electronics retailers outperformed . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Best And Worst Of Phone Self-Service Design, 2007

Forrester Applies Its IVR Review Methodology To 16 Major Firms

by Moira Dorsey, May 25, 2007

Forrester applied its Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Review methodology to the phone self-service experiences at 16 firms — four of the largest credit card issuers, consumer electronics retailers, PC manufacturers, and wireless providers. None of the . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Best And Worst Of Email Interaction Design, 2007

Forrester Applies Its Email Interaction Review Methodology To 16 Major Firms

by Moira Dorsey, April 23, 2007

Forrester applied its Email Interaction Review methodology to the email experiences at 16 firms — four of the largest credit card issuers, consumer electronics retailers, PC manufacturers, and wireless providers. Of the nine companies that actually responded . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Top User Experience Flaws On Financial Services, Retail, And Automotive Sites

Forrester Taps Its Database Of Web Site Reviews To Find Top Flaws By Industry

by Moira Dorsey, January 11, 2007

We looked at the results from Forrester's database of Web Site Reviews to find the top failures on sites in three industries: financial services, retail, and auto manufacturers. What did we find? Illegible text and absent contextual privacy and security . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Persona Review Scorecard 2.0 (116 KB DOC)

by Moira Dorsey, August 2, 2007

The standard scorecard format for review criteria.

For Customer Experience Professionals

Cross-Channel Review Reviewer's Guide (927 KB DOC)

by Moira Dorsey, August 22, 2007

This is the Reviewer's Guide to go along with the Cross-Channel Review Scorecard. It will be featured on the Customer Experience Web site.

For Customer Experience Professionals

Web Best Practices At Fidelity, Staples, And UPS

Panelists Share Design Insights At Forrester's Consumer Forum 2006

by Moira Dorsey, December 28, 2006

Forrester's Consumer Forum 2006 included a panel of senior managers from firms that achieve Web site effectiveness through disciplined design processes. Fidelity described how the use of metrics to consistently measure results enables the firm to consistently . . .

For Customer Experience Professionals

Learning From Wal-Mart's Web Site Redesign

How The Walmart.com Team Managed The Redesign Process

by Moira Dorsey, March 13, 2007

Walmart.com recently launched a major redesign. To understand how they went through the process, we spoke with Walmart.com's marketing director and vice president of user experience. These execs answered the following questions: What were the goals of . . .

Phone Self-Service Needs A Makeover

Forrester's IVR Evaluation Uncovers Usability Flaws

by Moira Dorsey, March 18, 2004

Consumers pick up the phone expecting useful, reliable service. When they encounter interactive voice response (IVR) applications, they want the same high level of performance. But not one of the IVR systems we evaluated meets customer expectations. To . . .

What To Do When Site Menus Must Be Deep

by Moira Dorsey, March 30, 2004

Flat menu structures help users accomplish their goals faster and with fewer errors. But some sites are too big to make all essential content available within three clicks of the home page. Careful attention to other design best practices — like providing . . .

Common Persona Misconceptions Debunked

Understand What Makes A Valid Persona To Avoid Failures

by Moira Dorsey, September 6, 2006

Personas are valuable tools that enable firms to correct misconceptions about users and make quicker, more reliable design decisions. But even as firms seek to take advantage of the benefits personas offer, misconceptions about what makes for valid personas . . .

Best And Worst Of Phone Self-Service Design, 2005

by Moira Dorsey, March 30, 2005

Forrester updated its phone self-service evaluation methodology and applied it to the user experience offered by 15 systems across four industries — airlines, credit cards, shipping, and wireless. Fourteen out of 15 systems failed. While the majority . . .

Wireless Carrier Sites Provide Poor Menu Options

Forrester Evaluated The Experience Of Four Top Wireless Carriers' Home Pages

by Moira Dorsey, December 23, 2004

Forrester used its Web Site Review methodology to examine how well the Sprint PCS, Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile home pages help users start the process of selecting a new wireless carrier. Only Sprint PCS passed our criteria; the . . .

Customers Prefer To Provide Feedback At Their Convenience

by Moira Dorsey, March 23, 2006

According to data from Forrester's Consumer Technographics® Q4 2005 North American Healthcare, Customer Experience, And Retail Online Survey, consumers are more likely to provide firms with feedback when their online experience stands out. They prefer . . .