Greed vs. The Customer Experience

September 20, 2005 | 20 Comments

Almost a year ago I put a whole lot of thought into a concept I called “The Sweet Spot”.

The Sweet Spot is that special place where customer needs and business needs are in perfect balance. It’s an extremely tricky place to be. So much so that you should be commended, as a Web professional, if you even make the attempt.

(Usually the front line Web professionals are taken out of the equation altogether, so don’t fret if you have no say in these matters. I feel your pain.)

As the Web stands right now you can make boatloads of money by ignoring the customer experience. Sad but true. However, I think that’s a losing proposition in the long term. People are starting to wise up and the adverse effects it can have on your brand could hurt you for years.

In my experience it seems to make good business sense to side with your customers anyway. But it does seem like that’s pretty rare. The lure of more and more “easy” money seems to take over and the experience falls by the wayside.

The Lure of Green

I’m all for people making money on the Web. I usually don’t mind advertising and I know why it’s there. I also know, first hand, how hard it can be to do advertising right. As well, I don’t mind paying for a content or service, as long as it’s reasonable and it makes for a better experience.

The process of figuring out how much money you can make with your Web site or application, and still provide a good experience for your customers is a rough one.

Especially when it comes to advertising on the Web. Ads are in direct conflict with a good experience. They have to be somewhat intrusive to be effective, but you go too far and you lose readers or customers. You simply can’t have ads and not hurt the experience.

The problem is, as a publisher, you need to have ads to make money in most cases. As Web publishers have been finding out for years, people have an ever harder time paying for content than they do dealing with ads.

But you can find an acceptable balance between ads and a good experience. I’m trying to do that here on my site, and I know many publishers who put lots of thought into how to place ads on their sites. But, again, it’s tricky. Do it wrong and what you think is beneficial actually ends up hurting you.

When it really gets bad is when a publisher combines ads with pay-for content with no regard to the experience.

Example: ESPN.com

A perfect example is ESPN.com. They’ve damaged their experience to the point that it’s almost unusable. All because they’re seemingly trying to make a few extra (million) bucks. If this doesn’t cost them loyal readers I’d be really surprised. I know I don’t use ESPN.com much any more. And I used to go there every day. I sure as heck won’t pay for anything they’re offering any more.

• They move things around all the time, making it very hard to find things consistently. Presumably they do this to keep you hunting and pecking around the site and looking at ads.
• They’ve recently added one of those splash screen ads, thus barring your way to the home page. After so long without them it was impossible not to notice.
• The ad stuff is barely tolerable, but they also keep moving content into paid services, at ridiculous prices. It seems like every time I turn around they’re taking away something that was free or upping the prices — if they’re doing that they should also be removing the ads.
• To top it off, you have to view and bypass all sorts of ads to even get to the paid content. There are no short cuts, and they tend to make you re-login and look at even more ads anytime you try to do anything.

Some of this might be due to poor design decisions, but the overall message I get is that they’re all about the money and they’re not passing any benefit on to me, the customer. In my mind that shines a bad light on ESPN’s entire brand. I get the feeling they don’t care a whit about me as a customer.

Now, realistically, they’re big enough and have a strong enough brand that they’ll probably get through it. With a boatload of extra coin in their pockets no less. But there is a lesson to be learned here. I honestly don’t think many companies could do what they’ve done and actually benefit from it in the long run.

And, regardless, it’s damaging to their brand.

The Customer Is Always Right…Right?

I’m a firm believer that experience will matter more and more as time goes on. I also think experience will be a key component in anyone’s branding efforts. Especially on the Web. As we’re presented with more choice and more opportunities to find the products and services that truly suit us, the more the customer experience really matters. Sometimes it’ll be the only thing the customer can hold on to.

I know it’s important to me. Give me a choice and I’ll almost always go with what I see as the stronger brand. That impression is usually based on my experience with the company or the experience of other’s passed along to me.

It’s important, if you want to maintain your brand online, to try and align your business with the needs and desires of your customers. This means making design decisions that benefit them, while still trying to find ways to pay the bills. It means responding to their e-mails in a timely and friendly manner. It means providing content that is easily found, read and written in a tone that puts a smile on your face. It means be honest and open with people. It means giving a little extra to your loyal customers.

It’s a lot of work, but I think it’ll pay off in the long run.

A Few Good Brands

I thought I’d take a second to talk about some folks I’ve had personal experience with who I feel are doing it right:

• 37 Signals. The products are well worth the cost. They’ve upped services without uping prices. They’re responsive and personal.
• Neves. Nice, easy to use site. Great products. They’ve given me a little “extra” every time I’ve ordered from them. Their correspondence is light, funny and informative.
• Coudal Partners. I ordered some JewelBoxes and the service was great. They were able to work with my special needs and gave me a special price plan to fit. They were quick and friendly with all correspondence.
• Dreamhost. Sure, I get a kickback for recommending them. But the service is great, cheap and full of extras. They add free stuff to my service all the time. They’re friendly, funny, open and great at providing the info you need to get something done.
• Gawker. For what they do they’re pretty good. They care about the quality of the content. They actually take the time to worry about how their ads effect the experience of their readers.
• Amazon. They’re not perfect and at times I think they tinker too much. But they’ve got most of it down right. I usually have no problems using their site. I tend to find what I’m looking for and the checkout process is cake. The few times I’ve had issues they’ve been very responsive and easy to work with.
• PayPal. I was very pleasantly surprised when I had to sort out my first issue with PayPal. The experience wasn’t perfect, but it ended up much better than expected. I was able to figure out the process online easy enough and when I had to contact them to help me sort things out they were responsive, friendly and helpful. Their service seems to work well for me and is relatively easy to use. It goes to show that a little can go a long way on the Web. Probably because there are so many who don’t do much of anything to improve the experience.

Do you have a company or band you think does particularly well online?

Filed under: Experience
Keyword Tags: experience+design branding advertising Web+design

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