Released on: March 13, 2008, 2:54 am

Press Release Author: For More Free Resources visit www.greatpromotionsite.com

Industry: Management

Press Release Summary: In my last article, 'Web Analytics - Getting It Right', I
discussed some of the powerful ways that web site statistics can be used to improve
an ecommerce business. That article was about success. This article shows that no
matter how hard you try, you can still get it wrong. This is a story about failure.


Press Release Body: In my last article, 'Web Analytics - Getting It Right', I
discussed some of the powerful ways that web site statistics can be used to improve
an ecommerce business. That article was about success. This article shows that no
matter how hard you try, you can still get it wrong. This is a story about failure.

It is often difficult and embarrassing to admit failure and sometimes it is even
difficult to see it, even when it is right in front of us. But only by examining our
failures can we hope to improve and progress. Hopefully, this article will help
others avoid the same mistakes we made.

Keep in mind that web analytics is not always about counting traffic. In fact, that
is usually only a small part of it. It is mostly about offering better products and
services, improving the website and making each visit to our website a more pleasant
experience. It is also about building customer loyalty and confidence.

This incident started when we received a request to cancel web site tracking service
for an account. This happens occasionally, but of course, a cancellation is never a
welcome sight. Try as we might, we cannot please everyone. So we learn to accept
these things; it is just business.

However, it is our policy to investigate every cancellation and try to determine
what went wrong. Once someone has decided to cancel, there is nothing that can be
done about it. It is too late. Any damage has already been done. We know that we
cannot recover a lost account, but we always try to learn something that will help
prevent such things happening in future.

The first thing we did that morning was to close the account as requested and issue
a credit. We then wrote to the web site owner and informed them that their request
had been taken care of. We made no excuses nor did we try to recover the account.
But we did ask for help in understanding why they were unsatisfied. We asked a few
simple questions as to the reasons for the cancellation and what we could do to
improve the service. Our request went unanswered.

Next, we looked up the account details to see what we could learn. We were shocked!
This account had been open less than 24 hours! Not even one full day. To be honest,
this stung. It was almost personal, a real slap in the face. It was not so much that
we had lost an account, but that it happened so quickly. Such a thing had never
happened before, so it was a rude awakening.

Once we located the account, we were able to 'drill down' to see every aspect of our
client's visits to our web site.

The original visit came from someone searching for a way to monitor traffic on
multiple websites. This was indicated by the keywords used in searching the web. In
the one day that we did business, they made three visits, looked at 96 pages and
spent an average of 14 minutes and 7 seconds on each visit. The average of 26
seconds per page is a bit long, but the 96 pages visited are what really caught our
eye.

Bear in mind that that was not 96 different pages, but simply 96 page visits. Some
pages were visited several times. Our visitor detail page lists each page in
chronological order as it occurs. This lets us see exactly what visitors find of
interest and gives us some idea of what is going on in their minds at the time.
Keywords and on-page links tell us what subjects were important.

In this case, our visitor went directly to the products page to see what we had to
offer. They next looked at the pricing page to see if it was affordable. They
returned to the products page using a link that discussed our risk-free, money back
guarantee. So we know this was an important consideration.

They then started the purchasing process, but changed their mind and went back to
the pricing page for another look. From there, they returned to the buying process
via a link that talked about a special offer we had at the time. So now we also knew
that the offer had appeal.

In fact, our guest made three attempts at buying the product before finally
completing the sale. The very fact that they did buy on the first visit is also a
bit unusual. Most people shop around and come back several times before buying. But
there was not enough time between visits for this to have been the case. But then
again, perhaps they had been shopping around before coming to our site. So this
alone was not given much weight. It was just something we noted.

Next, our new client followed the usual procedures: going to the login, changing the
default password, setting up the account and looking at the reports. From here, the
first signs of confusion and uncertainty begin to show.

Our client next went back to the products and pricing pages. Since no links were
used from these pages, we are not sure what they were looking for. But they again
returned and logged in and tried to look at statistics. A few minutes later, they
returned again to the product and pricing pages for another look.

Finally we began to get a hint of what was wrong. Our client now went to the
tutorials and features pages, examining at length an article on analyzing the
website data. Then back again to the statistics analysis. So now we begin to see
that our client was unsure of exactly how to go about gathering and using the
information from their website.

From here their confusion seems to increase. They went again to account setup and
then to the help pages. They repeated this process several times over the remainder
of the last two visits. Finally, they gave up and cancelled the account.

Our next step was to examine our late client's site setup parameters. We found that
certain fields were not set up correctly, confirming our growing suspicions that our
instructions were not clear enough. By looking at the pages visited and examining
the subject matter of those pages and links, we know that our visitor became
frustrated at not being able to see statistics being gathered in real time from
their site.

And the most telling feature of all came from examining the client's web pages. They
had never installed the tracking code on the pages so that statistics could be
gathered in the first place! And indeed, there were no records from this account in
the database.

This made it obvious that although we had sent them the tracking code to be placed
on their web pages, we failed to provide guidance that showed exactly how and where
to install the code. We failed to explain its importance and how it worked. This was
a very basic and stupid mistake.

Most of our clients are pretty tech-savvy, and since we had never had a problem like
this before, we had forgotten that not all of our customers are technically
proficient. As if that were not bad enough, our whole business was supposed to be
focused on the small web sites. It should be obvious that these people were not
likely to be technical people.

So what did we learn from all this? First and foremost, our communications were bad.
This client never asked for help. But then, no one should have to ask. We should
have offered it right from the first, along with an easy link to reach us. We should
have made our introduction more personal, giving a sense of friendliness and
concern.

We also learned that our tutorials did not answer our client's questions. Neither
did our help files.

Now we have had to re-think our entire presentation and procedures. We have begun a
process of updating and rewriting our tutorials and help files, adding video
demonstrations and more graphics and examples. We have added help notices in our
introductory email to new clients.

Even though it was only one customer out of many, it was a very important customer.
They all are, as this quote from Brent Oxley of Hesitator shows:

"One unhappy customer is worth the weight of 1,000 satisfied customers in terms of
how they can affect future business, so we strive to keep as many people happy as we
can. We may receive 500 letters of praise in a month, but it is that one letter of
dissatisfaction that keeps us up at night wondering how we can make things better."

The process of updating our site is still in progress. It is not an easy job. Some
items have been completed, but it will take some time to get around to them all. A
website is a constant process of change and improvement. Nothing stays the same for
long in the internet world. We made the mistake of getting too complacent. It took a
harsh reminder from a dissatisfied client to set us straight.

It is too late to bring that customer back. They are gone forever. But perhaps we
can prevent such a thing from happening again. Perhaps you can use our failure to
build on your success. I hope so.


Web Site: http://www.greatpromotionsite.com

Contact Details: SCO.90 SECTOR-35-C CHANDIGARH
nanak1037@gmail.com