I was fortunate to attend the Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC a few weeks ago. I had a couple of ‘aha’ moments, but a lot of affirmation moments – affirming that what I was doing and thinking was correct. Over the next month or so, I intend to share some of my notes here.

First up: Customer Experience:  The Inconvenient Discipline
Presented by Elizabeth Peaslee of Creative Good (who help companies improve the customer experience).

Note: Don’t miss the top 3 things you should do before the end of the year

• Customers don’t care about your org chart.
• Customers need direction from you! Where should they go to go forward in their task
• They won’t look at everything – they scan from top to bottom to find the ‘winner’ – what they are looking for.
• Too many signs or calls to action – they will bail. Too hard to find what they’re looking for.
• Clear navigation – that moves them forward in their task.
• Make it quick and easy to scan
• Clear, concise and easily scannable content
• Bulleted list of features and benefits
• It is hard to read on the screen. Think shortform
• Readers want proof / validation:

Invest in high quality photos

User centric videos come from the customer’s perspective NOT from the marketing department!

Customer reviews (don’t always choose the GLOWING review. Make it authentic!!! Include the bad grammar, negative reviews.

Helps credibility

• Customers don’t want to be on your email marketing list. They’re annoyed to be asked to register before experiencing your website.
• Email is a privilege – you must treat it as such!

Also keep in mind :

• Text displayed in graphics – is annoying! People might want to copy/paste info from your website.
• Users do not maximize their browser windows! Don’t make design decisions based on this!
• Don’t assume that people know how to increase/decrease their font size. So make it a reasonable size!
• The back button is the most used in a browser and it will ‘break’ in Flash.

3 Things to do before the end of the year!

1) Leverage your metrics – Look for Red Flags

Engagement metrics: Time spent on site

Pathing data – where are people going? (Where are they dropping off… ecommerce will be on the shipping page).

2) Listen to your customers – listen to your family (ask them for their opinion. Free user group feedback).

3) Customer emails – if they’re writing to you, they’re at the extreme of the experience. Share customer emails during meetings. Reminds people of the bigger picture.