FREEDyourMind

Q1 E-Gov Satisfaction Results are Here

How are e-gov websites doing in the eyes of us citizens?  The latest report from ForeSee Results and the University of Michigan is now available, measuring over 100 e-government websites using the proven methodology of the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

Quick Summary:
Overall satisfaction with e-gov sites is 73.6 (on a scale of 1-100) down from 74.1 last quarter. This follows 3 quarters of increases. 

Why?  One reason is expectations are much higher now then in the past.  With President Obama's internet savvy campaign and internet savvy staff, the expectations are for better, more usable and more functional e-gov sites.   Well, it has been 100 days, which is a lifetime in an internet company, but a relatively short time for Government.  The future looks bright but we are not there yet.

Get the full commentary here.

U.S. Online Sales Up In Q1

US online retail sales rose an average of 11% in Q1 according to Shop.org.  They studied 80 companies with the help of Forrester Research.  58% of the companies surveyed reported that their online sales increased over the same quarter last year. 

Now, these are self reported numbers, it is only one quarter and only 80 retailers responded to the survey.  That all being said, this is very encouraging news for the online retail industry.   

Happy Earth Day!

More and more corporations are figuring out that one easy way to go green is to drive more business online. Think of all the paper saved by bills and statements and newsletters and information that can be viewed online instead of on paper.

TechNow '09

If you live in Michigan and you haven't yet bought your tickets to TechNow '09, get on it!

What is TechNow '09, you ask? Basically three young entrepreneurs got together to talk about how to encourage start-up technologies and investment in Michigan. Read all about them in the Free Press or in Crain's. I'm speaking on a panel at the event, which should be lots of fun, especially since it's the only business event I've been to this year that concludes with a Manolete concert.

See you there!

It's True: Satisfaction with Online Financial Services is Up

Incredibly, customer satisfaction with online banking is up. Customer satisfaction with online investment services is up. Customer satisfaction with online credit cards is up.

What's going on?

Every year, we partner with Forbes.com to do a survey of people who visit online financial services websites. This year, despite the economy and the near-daily bad news, customers are more satisfied than ever with the three online industries we surveyed.

On our study's 100-point scale, satisfaction with online banking is up to 83, making it one of the very few service industries to pass the threshold of 80, generally considered an excellent score. Online credit cards is also up, to a score of 80 and even online investing (which was hammered in the February ACSI report) is up to 78 as the markets have started to settle.

I wish I could tell you there was some magic bullet or miracle app that has saved the day, but the truth is, it's basic blocking and tackling. Each of the three industries improved in basic online elements that directly impacted satisfaction. This should be good news for banks, credit card companies and investment firms. You don't need to reinvent the wheel during an economic crisis.

Even better news: your website can have a huge impact on overall operations and could be a huge corporate advantage when times are tough. Highly satisfied online customers are significantly more likely than less satisfied customers to purchase more services, open more accounts, use the website as a primary channel, and recommend both the company and the website. Therefore, improving the online experience leads to increased revenue (because customers purchase additional services and recommend their friends and colleagues to do the same), as well as cost savings (because these customers use the website as their first source for information and transactions rather than more costly alternative channels).

Read the whole report for more details on the findings.

A lot of interesting things came out of the study though. First of all, only 1/5 of online bankers remembers seeing communication about their bank's financial stability on the website. That either means it wasn't there or that they didn't see it. Either way, it is absolutely essential that banks, given what we know about the ability of the web to build loyalty, use their websites to reassure and inform customers and prospective customers.

Second of all, only 13% of online bankers with mobile phones use them to access their bank's website, and only 3% of online bankers overall use mobile apps. Those that do tend to be more satisfied.

So what do you think--are you surprised that online satisfaction increased for an industry in so much turmoil?

What is happening with my conversion rate?

This is the question I received recently at an emetrics conference.  The web analyst was getting questioned by his management why their conversion rate was dropping.  After all, his boss kept reading about the importance of conversion rate.  I hear this question a fair amount.  Recently I heard this from a senior exec at a multi-channel retailer.  Their online sales were soaring, so was their traffic.  And customer satisfaction was also increasing. But conversion rate was dropping.  They wondered why?  Well, let's take a closer look. 

As we looked at the data we found a couple of interesting things going on.  Their traffic was soaring for two reasons.  A good percentage of the growth was the result of a very effective SEM campaign reaching out to new customers.  New visitors were converting at a lower rate then the normal site traffic.  Not a surprise, we expect to see new visitors convert at a lower rate then returning visitors.

Another strong contributing factor of the growth was a significant increase in visitors doing research for purchases in the store.  This segment of the audience will also convert at a lower rate then traffic that is  looking to purchase online.

Now, the reality is that everything this retailer was experiencing was positive, yet it was driving conversion rate down.  Conversion rate can be an important metric, but only when used properly.  I find that most sites are using it incorrectly.  Conversion rate at an aggregate level is a great example of a misleading metric.

Be careful that the metrics you use measure success, not simply measure what you can count!

Netflix Delivers 2 Billionth Movie

Netflix announced this week that they delivered their 2 billionth movie. It was Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and the guy in Alabama who ordered it got a free lifetime subscription to Netflix. I don't think that 2 billion number includes all the videos they've streamed, just those they've delivered by mail. They're mailing 2 million movies PER DAY. That has got to make them the USPS's greatest customer. Wonder if they get a volume discount?

I mention this because Netflix has come out at the top or tied for the top position in eight consecutive ForeSee Results e-retail studies: we measure online satisfaction with the top 40 online retailers every Christmas and the top 100 e-retailers every spring. This means that Netflix consistently has the best customer satisfaction in the e-retail industry, and the research indicates that companies that have high satisfaction reap significant finnacial rewards. Netflix revenue grew more than 13% from 2007 to 2008, while the industry average was more like 7%.

We're analyzing the data for the Spring 2009 Top 100 e-retailers list now, and I'll give you a hint about whether or not Netflix made the top spot again. Wait, no, I won't give you a hint. What fun would that be?