Task Completion: Start Here
I was recently asked by an enterprise client to put something on paper (that he could send to his boss) on the importance of task completion as a base metric for the analytical process.
Why do you guys see it as the (as I often say) prequel to measuring site efficiency?
iPerceptions’ voice of customer solutions begin with a fundamental understanding of visitor intent. To date, conversion has been the most ubiquitous web analytics metric, but it has distorted the analytics picture by assuming that all visitors are onsite to fulfill transactional tasks. This is simply not the case, as a recent analysis showed that over 80% of visitors log onto websites to fulfill non-transactional tasks.
While you have a desired list of outcomes for your website, your visitors have their own distinct set of tasks that they are looking to accomplish. Matching intent to outcomes is the holy grail of online marketing, and measuring visitor task completion will provide you with concrete evidence of how efficiently your site is bridging this divide. Task completion ties back to hard actions taken by visitors and forms the basis of true site accountability. While respondents can be more forgiving when reporting their satisfaction with a website or their loyalty patterns, when they are asked about task completion, it's a cut-and-dry equation--they either completed their tasks or they didn't.
In a time of unprecedented economic upheaval, where growth in all channels—online included—is abating and consumer confidence is sinking, it is crucial to know which metrics link back directly to healthy business outcomes, and which tie directly to behavior. A recent iPerceptions study of over 100,000 respondents to online retail websites demonstrated the significant benefits that task completion improvement can yield to website operators. 67% of visitors who completed their primary tasks reported enhanced brand opinion (vs. only 18% for those who do not). Additionally, 60% of visitors who completed their tasks reported a higher future likelihood to purchase either online or offline (vs. only 14% for those who do not).
By focusing on visitor intent and leveraging iPerceptions’ powerful diagnostic tools and analytical support, you will be tapping into a research approach that has consistently yielded proven online conversion and customer retention uplift, as well as sizable operating cost reductions.
