A presentation discussing cohesive customer experiences, omni-channel research, usability issues, and effectively serving core customers.

1. Designing a Cohesive
Customer Experience
Elizabeth Rosenzweig – Bentley University
Scott Gunter – Usability Sciences

2. Today‟s Talk
 Introduction
 Touch points and the User Experience
 Research
 Virtual Ethnography
 Some solutions

3. Setting the stage
 Your company has continued to expanded its
market presence by adding a…
 Facebook page
 Mobile enabled site
 iPhone app
 Android app
 Weekly promotional emails,
 etc.
 Each of which received extensive user testing
before deployment.

4. Touch points
 Is the experience across each of these new
touch points consistent?
 What about with the existing touch points (e.g.,
website, store, etc.)
 Are the individual touch points working together
to enhance the customer's total experience?
 What role does each touch point play in your
customer's journey?

5. I want to start by taking you
on a little journey…

6. “You recently moved into a new
apartment and would like to
purchase a reasonably priced
leather sofa.”

7. The first part of your journey begins with a visit to IKEA.com.
From the homepage you browse to leather sofas.
After looking through the list, one sofa catches your eye.
You spend a few minutes reviewing the details.

8. After visiting the site you decide that you are not ready to
purchase.
However, you do think it would be good to join their email list
just in case they send you a coupon or upcoming special on
sofas.
You provide the required information to sign-up.
You immediately receive a Welcome email.
A few days later you receive a promotional email.

9. A few days go by and while checking out the Big Design
Conference Facebook page you‟re curious if IKEA has a
Facebook page.
You search for IKEA only to find there are quite a few different
IKEA related pages. After a quick glance you decide to view
the one that has the most likes (thinking that was the main
one).
After a brief look, you “Like” the page before realizing you
need to get to work.

10. A few weeks pass and while out shopping you decide to visit
an IKEA store to look at their sofas in person.
Since you are not sure exactly where the store is located you
navigate to the IKEA mobile site for assistance (of course you
don‟t do this while driving).
You type “Dallas, TX” within the „Find an IKEA store” feature.
This presents you with the address of the closest store.
After clicking on the address it opens the native map app
which will allow you to receive directions.

11. Having successfully located the store, you park and then
proceed through the front door.
Once inside you spend the first 30 minutes trying to locate
the sofas (I mean enjoying the IKEA shopping experience).
After looking at several leather sofas you find the one you
want to purchase.
You then proceed to pick-up and purchase the sofa leaving
the store as a happy camper.

12. Website Email Facebook Mobile Store
Was the experience consistent across each touch point?
Was trust being built along the way?
Was the customer compelled to continue shopping?
Was the brand messaging consistent?
While intentions are good, far too often we focus on improving touch points individually
while missing an opportunity to step back and look at the relationship each have on the
customer's total experience.

13. Open Discussion
Tell us about a GREAT experience you‟ve
had interacting with multiple touch points
Tell us about a HORRIBLE experience
you‟ve had interacting with multiple touch
points

14. Multichannel Customer Experience
by Consultancy, November 2010
49% of company respondents say a joined-up
multichannel customer experience is very important to
their organization,
41% say multichannel UX is quite important.
68% recognize a strong link between long-term
business performance and customer experience.

15. Multichannel Customer
Experience cont‟d
69% of organizations are just beginning to develop a
UX strategy.
9% surveyed have no strategy for improving the
customer experience.
38% report that ownership of the multichannel
customer experience lies within a combination of
different departments.

16. Forrester Research
 Global eBusiness And Channel Strategy Professional
Online Survey, Forrester Research Inc., November
2010
 Retailers who had focused on multichannel integration
found:
 an average of 48% increase in online sales
 28% reduction in operating costs
 25% increased profitability

17. Cross-Channel Experiences in Retail
http://pervasiveia.com/blog/cross-channel-retailing
 When asked, 83% of consumers prefer retailers
consistency across the different channels
 Pervasive information architectures provide consistency
in all active communication channels for any given
company, product, or service.

18. The Cross-Channel Experience,
Slide Share Presentation
by Nick Finck
3 Types of Touch points
• Static Touch points
• Interactive Touch points
• Human Touch points

19. Cross Channel Touch Points
• Web
• Email
• Packaging
• Product
• Streaming media
• Mobile
• Retail
• Sales Support
• Environment
• Click-to-Chat
• Social Media
• Broadcast Media

20. 3 Types of Touch Points
• Static Touch points
• Online or on paper (newspaper, magazines) information only
• Interactive Touch points
• Often online, internet or mobile internet, allows for
interactions:
• Search
• Find a product
• Ask about a product
• Find a store
• Etc.
• Human Touch points
• In person, usually at the store

21. Static Touch Point

22. Interactive Touch Point

23. Human Touch Point

24. How can “Out of the Box” thinking
help?
 Virtual Ethnography
 Brings together disparate elements to understand a
complex problem
 Time, Space and Technology- where do they merge

25. Virtual Ethnography
by Christine Hine
 Ongoing study of how people interact online, through
the social world of the internet
 Time is viewed differently in a virtual world, it can slow
down or speed up with no relation to the laws of
physics
 Space becomes an altered reality, whereas it must
adhere to the laws of physics in the physical world
 Technology then evolves based on how people use it

26. Consider This
Space and Time create a context for interaction

27. Space, Time and Technology

28. Some Steps To A Solution
 Identify your core customer
 Put the user at the center of the process:
 Inventory your touch points
 Identify attributes of each touch-point
 Create journey maps
 Evaluate touch points within journey map

29. More Solutions
 Research new ways to create and augment online
reality
 Use tools of Virtual Ethnography to study online social
behavior
 Observe the effects of Space and Time on touch points

30. Today‟s Talk
 New customer experience must integrate many touch
points
 What are examples of different touch points
 What is the latest thinking
 What can you do to apply this to your work

31. About Us
Scott Gunter
 COO at Usability Sciences
 Over 15 years as usability / user experience
researcher
 Has led over 300 research projects on behalf of
companies like Microsoft, J.C. Penney, Nokia, Kohl‟s,
Oracle, and Nike.
Elizabeth Rosenzweig
 Principal Consultant, Adjunct Faculty, Bentley
University
 Over 25 years experience in UX field
 Founder and Director World Usability Day
 4 Patents in UX Design