As I’ve discussed in past posts, many companies are finally starting to realize the value of usability as a differentiator. Although there is infinite room for improvement across all industries, I’ve recently enjoyed using one seriously improved experience solely based on better usability.
I have a bank account that rebates all ATM fees so I don’t care about which bank I visit to withdraw cash. I’ve never paid attention to the amount of the fees, but if I did, I would consider paying more for a better user experience. About 6 months ago, I had my first experience with the redesigned Bank of America ATM’s. What an improvement! Bank of America, or more likely the firm they hired, certainly thought through the user experience and did some testing prior to deployment. As a result, if I have a choice, I will always use the Bank of America ATM solely based on superior usability. Bank of America made these improvements in response to an update by Wells Fargo so hopefully they will continue to compete on user experience.
Of course there are other examples. For regional travel, nothing beats http://southwest.com. I thought their most recent updates were a step backwards, but Southwest still holds a major usability advantage that captures my business over other airlines. In the airline business, the most frustrating brands are those that refuse to acknowledge the problem.
As more companies realize the advantages of superior user experience, usability will become a competitive matter, improving for all of us. This trend is already accelerating in mobile applications because limited interface options dictate superior core task functionality as a requirement, even for bad designers.
Do you have any differentiating user experiences to share?
With the emergence of usability and testing as a top priority for online business (finally), I’ve been disturbed by some of the basic functionality problems I’ve encountered online lately. Most of the time, I find issues that would seemingly be resolved after an average quality assurance process and would definitely be resolved after less than five user tests.
In an effort to figure out how some of these atrocities are making it on to the internet, I’ve created a two question anonymous survey to try to get an idea of the level of testing that is currently considered acceptable. Please complete or forward to the appropriate people:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/G8VB28K
Lately, I have talked with several local business owners that had never heard of several potential business sources that I consider essential. These are very intelligent and busy people that simply don’t have time to keep up with the latest internet trends so I don’t fault them. However, any local business that is not in tune with their presence on the following websites is probably leaving money on the table:
1. Yelp – http://yelp.com
Yelp is a free service that allows anyone to write an unbiased review of your business that is available to the public at any time. Do I have your attention yet? To stay up to speed on your Yelp page, use the site’s search function to find your own company and click the large red button that says, “Claim This Business.”
2. Local Search
- http://google.com/local
- http://bing.com/local
- http://local.yahoo.com/
Local search is the most likely way that internet searchers will find a small brick and mortar business. All of the major search engines have expanded the capabilities of local search to include directions and reviews, another source of information about your company that you’ll want to closely monitor. All the search engines have similar functionality to Yelp that allows you to claim and enhance your business listing.
3. Analytics – http://google.com/analytics
What good are all these new sources of business if you can’t measure the results? Google Analytics is free and easy to install on almost any website. In addition to always asking your new customers how they found out about you, it’s important to have solid numbers about how people find you online. If you need help, installing analytics is a minor project that can usually be completed in a couple hours.
What other internet services do you consider essential for local businesses?
