Design for Interaction

A quality customer experience makes consumers happy. And satisfied consumers positively influence brand experience and revenue, we can be quite sure of that. But thankfully Forrester Research has now published a research report in which this can be proven with statistics. A good customer experience results in loyalty, and that means more revenue. How do we create a quality customer experience? Consumers have high expectations of services. The expectations consumers have are influenced by online services. When Amazon can remember my last purchases and my wishlist, why doesn’t the bookshop around the corner do that for me?

Loyal customers lead to more revenue

A good customer experience leads to loyal consumers, and those are valuable! The Forrester Customer Experience Index measures the customer experience by looking at usefulness, ease of use and enjoyability.

Bruce Temkin, Vice President & Principal Analyst bij Forrester Research analyzed consumer data to discover how these useful, easy to use and enjoyable services lead to increased revenue. He found a 10 point increase in a firm’s Customer Experience Index results in a $284 million change for every $10 billion in revenue (average across 12 industries):

• Additional purchases: $65 million
• Reduction in churn: $116 million
• Word of mouth: $103 million

More results and details of this research – what are the exact measurements for user experience, and how was ‘word of mouth’ measured – I cannot give you. The entire Forrester report Customer Experience Boosts Revenue can be downloaded (not for free though).

How do you create a good user experience?

How can we create services which make people happy? Which are useful and enjoyable? Those services need to match the expectations of consumers, and to make a real impression they have to exceed those. Jon Bove from Kicker Studio talk about these expectations in her presentation on Service Design. (Apparently, while in Europe service design is the more common term, in the USA service design and customer experience design are both used.) The bottom line of her story: existing online services influence the expectations we have of services in ‘the real world’. We are talking about all developments which fit under the web 2.0 umbrella. A well designed service would then have to take into account the following expectations:

Immediacy

Consumers want a direct reaction, not within a day, but within a second. Twitter and Google can also give us information this fast.

A voice

Consumers want to give feedback, they want to be heard. On the web we can share our opinion too, on websites such as Digg and Get Satisfaction, where consumers and companies can connect. An important lesson companies have to learn, Jennifer Bove says, is to deal with all the feedback they receive. No company is perfect, products and services can always be improved, in an iterative process.

Expertise

Consumers are better informed, and get frustrated when they don’t get all the answers right away. How can a service offer knowledge and expertise, that exceeds the value of online expertise?

Customization

Consumers expect a service which is adapted to their personal needs and taste. If Amazon remembers my last purchases and my wishlist, why doesn’t the bookshop around the corner do that for me?

Co-creation

Jen Bove also mentions co-creation as an important aspect. From the perspective of the designer it is important to involve front line staff and consumers in developing a service. Of course, as an interaction designer, I couldn’t agree more. Both in interaction design as in service design a process of co-creation helps to create a valuable and useful product or service, that suits consumer needs.

• Free book by Bruce Tempkin, Forrester Research: The 6 laws of customer experience
• Jen Bove’s presentation on Service Design