Recently in Customer Carewords Research Category

Writing Right for the Web: Carewords Quotes on Font Size and Content Density

We added an option for an open-ended question to Customer Centric Index (CCI) surveys about 9 months ago. That feature has been far more popular than anticipated. At least 50 percent and sometimes over 70 percent of the survey respondents answer this question:

• "If you could change one thing about our website, what would you change and why would you change it?"

And so hundreds of visitors to higher education websites are adding comments that expand on the regular survey statisitics. These web visitors come from a variety of audiences: alumni, future students, current students, faculty and staff, and parents. Whatever the background, their recommendations are remarkably similar.

Dense Blocks of Text Drive People Away

When people first come to a web page, they scan quickly in search of content that interests them. Dense blocks of text make that difficult, often impossible, to do.

You can't force people to read.

Every page on your website... every page... should include subheads and bullet points that quickly communicate the key points of the page in 5-seconds or less. Keep paragraphs to no more than 5 or 6 lines of text. Keep most sentences as simple as possible. Hint: If you have to use semi-colons, your sentence is getting too long.

The first paragraph on a page is an especially bad place to "go long" on content presentation.

In their own words, here are responses from some of our CCI survey takers:

• "Simplify the page content, because I'm coming to learn something in particular, rather than to read a book, per se. I like books, just not on web sites."
• "Easier to read with less paragraphs and more bullets."
• "Some of the pages have too many words on them."
• "There is too much plain text on the home page. It would be better to give brief explanations and have links for further information."

Font Size: Don't Make Them Squint... Give Visitors Control

This might seem really basic but many websites need to pay more attention to the size of the font  used to present content in the center of the page. Of course, different people can reasonably prefer different font sizes. One solution: an easy-to-see tool that lets visitors increase or decrease the font size on whatever page they are reading.

• "Have bigger print, because the print is a little too small right now. It is harder to read with small print."
• "I would make the font size a little bigger because my friends and I have to look close on the screen."
• "Some of the font is too small and should be enlarged."

Especially for Mobile Websites

Everything here about content density and font size is even more important on mobile-friendly websites that people will access from small screens on their smartphones.

That's all for now.

Susquehanna University: Visitors Report Very High 90% Satisfaction Level

Websites win awards for different reasons, but seldom for what the people who actually use a website think of their experience with it.

Over the past two years, Customer Carewords partners have completed CCI (Customer Centric Index) surveys at 18 colleges and universities. We've asked future students, current students, faculty and staff, alumni, and parents to tell us the top 3 web characteristics (from a list of 13 positive and 13 negative possibilities) that best represent their experience at the website.

There's a pattern to the results. External users are almost always more satisfied than internal users. And "menus and links" and the "search" function are usually the areas of most dissatisfaction. Relatively few people select the "visual appeal" of a site, but when they do, most are positive about it.

90% Postive Rating from Parents and Future Students

Last week we completed a CCI survey of parents and possible future students at Susquehanna University. The results, compared to other CCI surveys, were indeed amazing. Parents (114 responses) and future students (182 responses) picked one of the 13 positive web elements 90 percent of the time. Susquehanna received the highest ratings we've seen in 8 of the 13 areas and was not far behind the leaders in the others.

The website was launced less than a year ago. Paul Novack, director of web communications, and the entire web team have much to smile about as they continue to plan future improvements.

"Search" and "Menus and Links" Stand Out

The results for "search" were especially impressive. The search function on higher education websites is almost always one of the top two topics selected by users and the selections are much more negative than positive. In this case, 6% of the positive ratings received were about search and only 1% of the few negative ratings.

Similarly, 12% of the positive ratings were for "menus and links" and only 2% were negative. 

Both of those results are equivalent to a "man bites dog" story as the exact opposite of what usually happens. The unusual success in these two areas is what set the Susquehanna website apart from most CCI results.

The "visual appeal" of the site was also quite strong, receiving 19% of the positive votes and only 1% of the negative votes. The difference here from other CCI surveys is that "visual appeal" received more total selections than any of the 13 areas. That's never happened before.

Comments from Real People

We give survey takers the chance to answer this question: "If you could change one thing about this website, what would it be and why" and 164 people did that for the Suspuehanna survey. These two reflect the overall tone:

• Parent: "Nothing--it is the best of all the colleges we have researched for our son this year, who will be coming as a freshman in the fall."
• Future Student: "Sorry, this isn't an improvement - This website is actually one of the best college websites I've come across. Good work!"

Of course, no website is perfect. Changes suggested included: an area for student ratings about their experience after enrolling, more photos and videos of student activities, average test scores and GPAs for entering students, and more information about faculty.

CCI Results at 10 Colleges and Universities

Overall CCI Results at 10 colleges and universities are reviewed in my presentation "Rating Higher Education Websites: The Student Experience" from  the J.Boye conference last November in Denmark that's available on SlideShare.

A CCI survey can help you fine tune your website. Results are usually available about 2 weeks after survey invitations are sent. Contact me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com   

Website visitors... eager to offer improvement advice

Over the past year 16 colleges and universities have done Customer Centric Index surveys with various groups visiting their website here in the United States and in Canada, Sweden, Norway, and the U.K.

Until recently we didn't have an option for adding answers to an open-ended question, but several of the early participants asked us to include that feature. And so in three recent CCI surveys completed at Bemidji State University, Ball State University's School of Extended Education, and Rider University we added a question like this:

• "If there was one improvement you could make to our website, what would you do and why would you do it?"

50 to 75 Percent Response

While we didn't predict a response rate in advance, the actual level was a major surprise. For Bemidji and Ball State, about 50 percent of everyone completing the survey took the time to add a written comment. At Rider, the only one so far to use a prize incentive to encourage responses, the response rate from survey takers jumped to 75 percent.

The message seems clear: ask people to help you improve your website and many will take the time to do just that.

Highest Concerns: Search and Links

Results of these last three surveys continue to confirm that two items are most likely to stand out as needing improvement regardless of who is answering the survey:

• Search... in this age of "Google," people have high expectations that search will work well at their college or university. For most people, it does not.
• Links... dissatisfaction with link structure is a common concern. People often are happy with content when they can find it. But too often, finding what they want is a special challenge.

Nancy Prater, director of marketing and communications at Ball State's School of Extended Education, summed up the value of the CCI survey results: 

• "The CCI survey has helped us identify problems we did not know we had, verify customer service issues we suspected existed, determine what we are doing right, and give us important benchmarks for measuring future improvement. We are using this data to make adjustments to our navigation and Web site copy, especially as it relates to search terms. It is also helping us focus efforts on our most critical needs, so that we are tackling problems impacting the largest number of our Web readers first.
• "We added an open-ended question at the end of the survey to help us understand the "whys" behind some of the responses. This provided us with more helpful and honest feedback than we would have received in a whole series of focus groups.

Persuasion Technology and Online Marketing

At the J.Boye Aarhus09 conference in Denmark earlier this month I attended a half-day tutorial by BJ Fogg, director of the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab.

A single blog entry can't do justice to the full presentation, but here are a few notes that seem relevant to those of us who focus on creating stronger marketing impact at higher education websites.

• The web as a "platform for persuasion" is an important concept for marketers building a new website or enhancing an existing one. Let's admit that a primary, if not the most important, purpose of the website is to generate new enrollment and to gain funding support from alumni and other "friends" of the university.
• Keep conversion expecations realistic. BJ suggests that 1/3 of website visitors will do what we want without much persuasion if it is easy to do it and 1/3 will never do it. That leaves about 1/3 in the middle open to persuasion points as they visit the site.
• It is important to remove as many barriers to task completion as possible for the middle 1/3 or they won't do what we want.  
• The more complex the website, the less persuasive it will be.

Remove task completion barriers

And so there is a need for constant attention to these persuasion barriers: 

• Navigation built around organizational rather than visitor preferences.
• Language that doesn't connect with visitors as Carewords do.
• Broken links and out-of-date content. Be ruthless about this.
• Long inquiry forms. The brevity of the Creighton University form is admirable. 

Every barrier means less conversion from that 1/3 in the middle cluster. Some barriers will even reduce conversion from the 1/3 that really want to do what you hope they will do.

Social media and online persuasion

BJ believes social media sites are strong persuasion tools.

• Social networks are "platforms for persuasion" and Facebook is the "#1 persuasion tool of all time."
• Amazon makes good use of social media techniques by empowering community comments and by recommending new items based on the preferences of the visitor.

Don't be afraid to experiment

One note stands out: don't be afraid to experiment with change. Victory, BJ believes, will go to those who are not afraid to take online initiatives without knowing in advance that every one will work. Discard initiatives that fail and expand those that succeed. Getting proof of success before trying anything new makes it likely that your more adventuresome competitors will leave you behind.

J.Boye Conference: Philadelphia 2010

Check the developing schedule for the J.Boye conference May 4-6 in Philadelphia. There is a higher education track, as well as 7 others, including "online communication" and "online strategy" where you can meet and mingle with people working outside higher education.

That's all for now.

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ 

Just back late last night from Gerry McGovern's 3rd annual meeting for Customer Carewords partners, this year in Belfast.

The partners are an international group. People attended from 8 countries: Canada, Denmark, Holland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States.

While my notes are still fresh to mind, here are some highlights we shared from our experiences this year working with universities, corporations, and government agencies to improve their websites.

Website Tasks:

• People who are responsible for websites are often ashamed or bored by the "top tasks" that people who use websites want to do. A "top task" on Intranets, for instance, is often "finding people" within the organization. At many sites, that isn't easy. But making it easy isn't new or exciting. Too often it doesn't get fixed.
• People who are aware of "pain points" on a website often don't know which ones to fix first. One benefit of Carewords research is the identification of top tasks so that web leaders can first fix the ones that are most important to people who use the site. Priority is set based on fact, not opinion.
• Primary pain points most often result from navigation, search, and out-of-date content.

Task Performance Index

• Our Task Performance research measures the time it takes people to complete key tasks and gives each one a TPI or Task Performance Index ranking.
• Most tasks we measured over the past year were in fact done well (61 percent), many were not done quite so well (32 percent) and some were disasters (7 percent.)
• Fixing the disasters first becomes the key goal.
• We give a person 6 minutes to complete a task. If it can't be done by then, it likely can't be done at all.

The Value of Search

• Checking for the Top 100 search terms used on a website can also help pinpoint what's most important to people who use the site. Be sure to look back for 12 months so that seasonal variations don't skew the results.
• Check for variations in the words people use to search for the same thing and total the similar items. One of my favorite combinations is "premed" and "pre-med" and "premedicine" for future students trying to learn more about medical school.

Usability

• Website usability is improved by a simple A to Z site map that new visitors and members of your organization can easily find and check. Don't hide the site map.
• Almost all our usability testing is now being done remotely. We watch people from afar while they work on a computer. The people we are watching are more relaxed. The client cost is lower.

That's a snapshot of what we've learned since our 2008 meeting. Carewords research has been ongoing for about 15 years now. Sharing the results from new clients improves the process and expands everyone's knowledge. Well worth the trip over the Atlantic.

Task Completion is #1 

What's been constant over the years is the emphasis that people place on task completion. That's the most important lesson from our work. We don't expect it to change.

Contact Us

If you're at a college or university and don't think your website is performing as well as it might, I'll be happy to explore Carewords options with you. Starting with an email to bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com is usually easiest.

If you're at a corporation or government agency, check the contact information for other partners. 

That's all for now.

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ 

Customer Carewords Expanding Client Base

Despite the world-wide economic slowdown (or perhaps because of it), major firms and organizations are investing in Customer Carewords research to better plan web content: the words and phrases that visitors see when they first arrive at critical web pages and navigation that lets them find it as quickly as possible.

That reminds me of a recent financial news report that investments in technology often are the first things that take place as organizations seek more efficiency in their activities during a time of restricted sales. Websites remain the key hub of an online presence. It certainly makes sense to make them work as well as possible in an increasingly competitive environment.

Gerry McGovern's partner update in July brought news of these new Carewords clients:

• Top mobile phone company
• City University, London
• Major IT vendor
• Swedish Television (SVT)

We're also moving ahead with a new series of CCI (Customer Centric Index) surveys, here in the United States as well internationally. Gerry's CCI webinar in June created interest from 12 to 25 U.S. colleges and universities that I'll be contacting this week to schedule online surveys between now and September.

If you'd like to explore either the full Customer Carewords program or the CCI survey for your college or university, contact me at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com.

That's all for now.

• Join me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/  

Customer Carewords and Top Website Tasks

Gerry McGovern gave a webinar yesterday to 60+ plus people from around the world, including several from the higher education sector in the U.S. and Canada.

The purpose: focus on the special ability of Carewords research to identify top tasks that people coming to a website want to get done and to generate interest in future Carewords engagements.

You'll find both the PowerPoint presentation and Gerry's audio at http://www.customercarewords.com/webinar-previous.html

Questions from the Audience

People asked a variety of question... here are a few that stand out this morning:

• How is the survey done? We place the survey online using Survey Monkey. Clients either send an invitation to take the survey to people in an email database or place an invitation online at their website. The right approach depends on the audience. Email invites are faster, with most response arriving the first day. The online version will take longer.
• What is the survey about? The survey asks people to quickly select top tasks from a list of about 100 that we create from a variety of sources, including the present website, competitor websites, and internal stakeholders. Response is rapid (not more than 5 minutes) as we are looking for an immediate, instinctive reaction similar to how people react when first opening a web page.
• How long does a project take? While a project can be completed in as little as 8 weeks, it really is better to allow for more time and plan for about 12 weeks.
• Is it best to do this before or after creating a new website? Since a website is never done, a Carewords research project brings benefits whenever it is done. That said, people planning a website redesign should consider building site architecture and navigation based on results of the research that identify what tasks are most important to people using the site.
• What does a project cost? Cost depends on the size of the website, the number of stakeholders involved in deciding on survey content, and the number of audiences included in the survey. In U.S. dollars, a Carewords project might run from $12,000 to $50,000. Most higher education projects will be at the lower end of the range.
• What's the primary benefit? People come to websites to do one or more tasks. Carewords research replaces conflicting opinion about what's most important on your website with an objective, fact-based guide to the most important tasks. That in turn has benefits for organization and presentation of content. When you make it easier to do things on your site, you make people happy. And happy people will think well of you and return to your site again.

Visit the Customer Carewords Website

You can learn more about Customer Carewords at the website.

Contact me to talk about a project for your college or university. Email to bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com or call at 248.766.6425.

That's all for now.

• Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing
• Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/ to receive my monthly newsletter and Link of the Week selections.
  

Registrar's Website is a Link of the Week Success

It surprised me.

When I was searching for a May 8 Link of the Week selection, motivation already existed to search among college and university websites for a strong example of a "service marketing" site that was oriented to students as the primary audience. We are about to rewrite the present content and recommend new pages for a public university's registrar pages. My thought was that stellar examples would lend inspiration and insight to that task.

University of Missouri Leads Service Marketing Approach

Turns out that service-oriented Registrar's sites are not easy to find. After visiting 43 websites in the U.S. and Canada and coming across a very few that were candidates, the University of Missouri site stood out from the rest. Visit the Mizzou Registrar's page and see for yourself.

The search also helped me understand why in our CCI (Customer Centric Index) surveys the negative response level from current students has been much higher than the negative response level from "future" or "prospective students." A marketing orientation of "let's make this as easy to use as possible" hasn't yet spread throughout most higher education websites. People have to use these sites on a regular basis. For most, the experience isn't nearly as pleasant as it might be.

Why is that the case? Sometimes the answer is internal politics, sometimes it is staff time to make things work better... and sometimes it is just "Why should we make it easy to use? I had to struggle when I was a student." Yes, I actually heard that sentiment at an on-campus presentation about 2 years ago from the chap who developed the website. Fortunately, not everyone thinks like that.

Lori Croy, director of web communications at Mizzou, said it well:

• "Those types of sites are a pain to work on, no fun at all, but are the great workhorses of our universities. It's seldom anyone notices them for the good they do. More often they're noted for falling short of good service and usability."

7 More Registrar's Sites to Visit

Based on my experience last week, most often sites like this do fall short of good service and usability. But not all of them. Missouri seemed the strongest, but here are 7 other U.S. and Canadian sites that stood out from the 43 visited for various elements of their approach:

• http://www.bu.edu/reg/
• http://cms.bsu.edu/About/AdministrativeOffices/Registrar.aspx
• http://www.biola.edu/registrar/
• http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/
• http://www.registrar.dal.ca/
• http://www.registrar.uwaterloo.ca/ 
• http://registrar.illinois.edu/

Earlier today I sent off the results of CCI (Customer Centric Index) surveys to DePaul University and Tyler Junior College.

A CCI survey asks website users to pick from 13 positive and 13 negative characteristics and tell us about the most positive and negative features of a website they've been using. CCI is part of the Customer Carewords program developed by Gerry McGovern.

Responses are grouped in 3 categories: Content, Information Architecture, and Social.

The more positive the results, the more the website is meeting the needs of the particular audience taking the survey. For the higher education sector, we've been doing tests with alumni, future students, current students, and faculty and staff. Not every school has surveyed every audience, but overall we've got a good response from people in each group.

CCI results point you in the right direction for effective use of website improvement resources.

CCI Results from 9 Colleges and Universities

Now that we've completed CCIs in Canada (University of Manitoba, University of Waterloo), the U.S. (DePaul University, East Stroudsburg University, Fordham University, Tyler Junior College, University of Missouri), Sweden (Lund University) and the U.K. (University of Hertfordshire), one element continues to stand out: there's a large gap between the experience of external users vs. those of internal users.

We've had positive experience reports of up to 90 percent from alumni and future students in some of these surveys, with a low of about 70 percent. When future students become current students and need to use the web for regular business, experiences change. For current students, a 60 percent positive rating is about as good as it gets.

Faculty and staff, more often than not, are even less satisfied. Positive response can drop to under 50 perecent and it seldom goes above 60 percent.

Intranets are Rare in Higher Education

Why the disparity?

The most immediate thought that comes to mind is that few colleges and universities have built Intranet sites especially for the faculty and staff who need to use the website for business almost every day. The typical home page is still the best indicator of that: home pages are most often designed as the entry points for everyone who uses a website. And creating navigation from that page that best meets the needs of both internal and external audiences is no small challenge.

In the next week or two I'll be writing about overall results from people in each of the 4 groups: alumni, future students, current students, and faculty/staff. We'll take a closer look at what each group likes and doesn't like about their experience at college and university sites. In every group, the mix is interesting.

Tune-up Your Website

Tune-up your website after a CCI survey. Contact me at bob@bobjohnsonsulting.com for details and price. Learn how your website compares.

Subscribe to "Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter" at my website. 

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing