Howard Firestone

Gone But Not Forgotten - I Hope

Today is my last day as an employee of iPerceptions and brings to a closure six very exciting years. Although I remain a shareholder of the company and will track its success as the iPSI index becomes the preeminent metric for measuring and tracking online customer satisfaction, nothing can replace the energy and fun that comes from working with a very young and diverse group of professionals.

I have had the pleasure of working in the online marketing sector pretty much from it’s infancy in 1996 and watched with great interest as the Internet bubble grew and grew and then poof – it was gone.

We are now seeing many of the same signs that appeared in 1997-99 except this time I don’t believe there will be a mass implosion. Rather this time round, hopefully the professionals in this business recognize that for a business to succeed, online or offline, basic common sense still applies – and that means when it comes to customer satisfaction there are no options – you don’t guess at whether your customers are satisfied and if they will return. You act.

On the web that means giving your online visitors the opportunity to share their thoughts with you. And of course, that’s why I believe the iPSI index will become the standard measure for evaluating and tracking customer satisfaction on the web.

I am extremely confident that the team at iPerceptions from Research & Development right through to Sales & Marketing will continue to expand and explore how best to meet the needs of online marketers and those working in the web analytics space and am only sorry I won’t be around to share in the spoils. Competitors beware – iPerceptions is about to launch into hyper-drive!

Watch out e-Metrics here we come!

The web professional’s semi annual North American pilgrimage to the mecca of all things analytic begins next Sunday May 6 as researchers and marketers from around the world converge on San Francisco for the Web Analytics Association’s General Meeting and Jim Sterne’s e-Metrics Summit.

This year the line-up at e-Metrics includes an impressive line up of power speakers including Bryan Eisenberg, Avinash Kautshik, Seth Romanow, Eric Peterson and of course the master himself Jim Sterne.

iPerceptions will be both exhibiting and speaking (Jonathan Levitt, Vice President Marketing) at the event and will also be releasing a new White Paper authored by non other than Jim Sterne. So if you are attending e-Metrics drop by booth 115 to get a copy of Jim’s White Paper. You’ll find it filled with insightful findings and valuable quotes from people like Lewis Simon from Dell and Oliver Carmona from Panasonic.

See you all at e-Metrics

The Positive Reviews Just Keep On Coming

In case you missed it, Duff Anderson, iPerceptions VP Research & Development had an audience of over 250 people glued to their seats during his recent AMA webinar titled "The Holy Grail of Web Analytics: Using Customer Feedback to Increase Online Satisfaction Scores"

Feedback has been overwhelming with over fifty follow up requests for more information and copies of the presentation.

If you missed the opportunity to take in this informative and thought provoking session click here to access the archived version.

Or better yet, just pick up the phone and call him toll free - 877.796.3600.

I'm sure he'd be pleased to share his thoughts and ideas with you about where the online research business and more specifically customer satisfaction and experience research is headed.

Board with web analytics?

That’s right – Board as in “it’s almost time to nominate new Board Members for the Web Analytics Association (WAA)”.

This is your chance to step up to the plate and make your voice heard. We’d like to hear about people you think would make excellent Board Members. You know people right now who fit the mold. They must be active paid members of the WAA (you all should be) with at least four years experience as a practitioner, consultant, vendor or educator – or how about something radical, a business based user – someone who works in Marketing or Marketing Research and uses web analytics as a decision-support tool. It goes without saying they must be leaders and evangelists for the web analytics community, both behavioral or attitudinal and be able to commit fifteen to twenty hours per month on Board related activities.

The actual call for nominees and the entire nomination process will be announced in a few weeks with more information available on the WAA website. What you can do right now is send me the names of people you’d like to see nominated as WAA Board Members.

Let's get some attitiudinal analytics guys into the bear pit. Time to raise our profile.

Web Analytics - It's more than just numbers

I'm a member of the Yahoo web analytics discussion group and I closely monitor the day to day exchanges of the many discussions concerning the challenges members face as web analytics specialists. What strikes me most about this group is the total fixation members have on thinking that by analyzing data spit out by their web analysis tools, be it, Webtrends, Websidestory or any other behavioral analysis tool, they can adequately understand the drivers of such key strategic issues as abandonment, conversion, loyalty and customer satisfaction.

Wake up folks and smell the cookies. There is more to life than debating the difference between a page view and a page impression and the implication of either on a visitor's overall web experience.

It was with this in mind that I read with great interest and satisfaction a Clickz feature article written by Neil Mason and want to share some of his thoughts with my collegues in the web analytics sector.

Just observing behavior doesn't give you the complete picture. The fact someone visited a specification sheet doesn't tell you whether someone found the information they were looking for or not. In my car-buying example, I was looking for the capacity of the boot (or trunk) of a certain model of car to compare with some other models. I clicked all over the place, spent loads of time reading certain pages. In many ways my behaviour might have been considered valuable with many pages viewed and long dwell times on key pages. But I never found the information I was looking for.

If there's to be more progress in the measurement of success of non-transactional Web sites, then the role of surveys and other visitor feedback devices must be strengthened as part of the overall mix. The success of a visit where there's no transaction involved needs to be defined almost on the visitor’s own terms. The only people who can tell you whether their visit was successful or not are the visitors themselves.

Non-transactional Web sites are generally harder to measure. Recent debates in the Web analytics world are around the development of new metrics and strategies for measuring concepts such as "engagement." It's great the debate is going on. We also need to step outside the box and recognize that the behavioral data will always have to be interpreted in the context of visitor perceptions and feedback. I suggest that organizations that are looking to measure success on sites that have little or no transactional activity should be looking to invest as much time and effort in developing a consistent and managed program of visitor feedback as they do in getting their behavioral data sorted.

Enough said - As a member of the Web Analytics Association, I know they will come around to recognizing the value of integrating attitudinal data in the form of customer feedback and online customer research with behavioral data. Maybe not immediately but for sure sometime this year we'll see movement in that direction. Let me hear what you have to say.

Christmas Lunch with Mitch

Jonathan Levitt and I had the opportunity today to grab a fast lunch with our old friend and advisor Mitch Joel, social marketing guru to the stars. It was a regular "old boys" reunion with Andy Nulman of Airborne Entertainment dropping by to say hello followed by John Sclapari from 24/7 Real Media

This end of year annual lunch has become somewhat of a tradition where an old war horse (me), and young turks (Mitch & Jonathan) exchange thoughts on where this crazy business is going to be a year from now.

Here are our top five predicitions for next year

1) Porn shops and cybercriminals will continue to increase their hold on Second Life.

2) The number of Blogs, Vlogs, and Podcasts will continue to increase with content and quality decreasing in direct proportion

3) The customer experience, both online and offine will rise to the top of the CRM foodchain as the most important element in determining overall customer satisfaction.

4) Google will use YouTube to launch a traditional television network using CGC as the primary source of programming

5) Can't resist this one - iPerceptions will continue to grow at triple digit rates and its iPSI satisfaction index will be recognized as the only true measure of online customer satsifaction.

From everyone here at iPerceptions we wish you and yours holiday greetings and a happy and prosperous New Year

Here's a heads up on a new study from iPerceptions/HSMAI

An impressive 44% of business travelers visiting hotel brand websites are "bookers" and actually make or change a reservation, according to a new joint study from HSMAI and iPerceptions that measured business travelers in the mid-scale hotel segment.

Furthermore, 4 in 10 of website visitors are first timers, and only 22.1% mid-scale business travelers abandon their plan to make an online transaction versus 31% in leisure travelers.

Those are just a few highlights from the first-ever edition of a unique, quarterly web metrics report of experience and satisfaction benchmarks, "The Voice of the Hotel Customer," which focused specifically on the business traveler in the mid-scale hotel sector. The report was written by Industry thought leader Cindy Estis Green, CEO of the Estis Group.

"This first quarterly report represents a significant advancement in measuring and benchmarking the impact of customer word of mouth and feedback in the hospitality sector," said Daniel Taras, our Vice President, Business Development . "Capturing the voice of your customer is critically important for companies that want to build their businesses in the always-on and always-connected online environment".

The iPerceptions research is based on data from 29 major hotel brands; 17 of which fall into this report's realm of mid-scale hotels. Other critical data generated from the study include:

56% of mid-scale business travelers have membership in rewards programs versus 52% industry-wide among business travelers;

Four in ten (41%) mid-scale business travelers are first timers to a hotel website versus 44 percent industry-wide; and only 25 percent are frequent users versus 35% frequent users industry-wide;

When analyzing the difference between bookers who "abandoned" their plans and successful bookers, the biggest differences were in the way a website's design was rated in terms of whether it enabled them to find what they are looking for and if the information covered the range they needed;

Site visitors who changed/booked a reservation rated the mid-scale hotel websites highest of any other customer group, scoring a rating 7.17 (out of 10) versus the overall business traveler group which was 6.95. Frequent site visitors (6+ visits in last six months) rated the websites overall at a high 7.75.

When comparing individuals' attributes against the overall mid-scale business traveler benchmarks, there are significant differences between website usage levels. First timers are considerably more likely than more frequent users to say that mid-scale hotel websites are not the place they would likely start their trip planning or that mid-scale websites encourage them to return. They are much less likely than frequent users to think that the website can enable them to find what they are looking for.

The more committed and engaged in using the site, the more likely a business traveler said the site was their primary trip planner and that it saved money in hotel rates;

While first timers in every category gave all aspects of the website the lowest ratings, their best scores were for navigation and content related attributes.

If you'd like a copy of this report, just drop a note to marketing@iperceptions.com. The next report is expected to be published in early April.

Ad:Tech Redux

I thought the following article in DM News byAssociate editor Giselle Abramovich was worth sharing with those of you who follow our blog.

Keeping the customer at the center of your business concerns is the key to success in just about any business, panelists at ad:tech New York said at a session titled “Web Site Analytics: It’s All About the Customer.”

Software provider Omniture is currently helping JetBlue to better customer experience.

“Our business optimization platform captures data like visits, unique visitors, click paths, attrition and campaign performance,” said Matt Belkin, vice president of best practices group at Omniture, Orem, UT.

JetBlue measures search keyword behavior and ties it to revenues, he said. Then it optimizes its search, providing a better overall customer experience.

“Measuring satisfaction is all about accurately capturing the voice of the customer, said Jerry Tarasofsky, president and CEO of iPerceptions, New York.

“ Traditional behavioral research solutions explain what is happening,” he said. “Our attitudinal analytic solutions continuously capture the multichannel voices of your customers, both online and offline to provide critical insights into why it is happening.”

iPerceptions strategy involves listening to actual customer in the context of real situations. Segmenting allows our clients to better understand their customer, and separate their most important customers from the many voices of the crowd.

AllRecipes.com uses iPerception’s Satisfaction Index. The index provides benchmarks and measurement of visitor satisfaction and experience..

AllRecipes.com touts a 53 percent year over year growth.

Ad:Tech New York - bigger and better

iPerceptions CEO Jerry Tarasofsky is carrying the flag for us this year at the biggest and best Ad:Tech show in New York. Susan Bratton, who has been the Conference Chair since 2002, told us this event is the largest one ever with over 1000 full conferees, 7,000 exhibit attendees 50 sessions and 200 speakers.

Yesterday Morning's keynote address, "On-Demand Marketing in the Age of Consumer Control," was given by Ted Leonsis, vice chairman, America Online, Inc. He pointed out that AOL's question early on was "what can you do online faster, better, cheaper than offline?" The Internet was "the wild west" and AOL had to -- and continues -- to focus on safety and security for its members. "If your customers can't trust you, they won't love you," Leonsis said.

He pointed out that rather than 500 channels of television, the Internet's intense personalization creates one global channel: "the channel of me." Through the social adoption of the Internet, AOL now delivers more and more to the consumer and charges less and less. Where it "took TV 50 years to reach 50 million homes, the Internet did it in 12 years." Now the Internet is a socially accepted medium driven by consumers getting content faster and cheaper, Leonsis said.

These consumers want their content "As they like it, when and where they want it." said Mr. Leonis and that's precisiely why iPerceptions is being asked to participate in more and more of these industry events. To succeed, companies such as AOL must be able to continuously capture the voice of their customers, listen to what they are saying and respond accordingly.

I invite you to join us Wednesday afternoon at 12:30 when industry thought leader Bryan Eisenberg, iPerceptions CEO Jarry Tarasofsky and senior executives from Jet Blue and AllRecipes.com will share their own thoughts how they have creatively used both behavioral and attitudinal website analytics to strengthen their most valuable asset - their customers.

Look forward to seeing at the session

Bazaarvoice and iPerceptions Team with CompUSA

Bazaarvoice, an innovator in helping brands use online word of mouth to build their businesses, and iPerceptions, a leading web-focused attitudinal analytics provider, today announced that 81% of surveyed CompUSA shoppers consider customer ratings and reviews important when they are researching or planning a purchase.

The findings are based on feedback and comments gathered by iPerceptions from over 2,000 CompUSA online shoppers during the month of August 2006. CompUSA is one of the nation’s leading retailers and resellers of technology products and services.

“CompUSA offers over 20,000 products online,” said Al Hurlebaus, Sr. Director of eCommerce at CompUSA. “Customer ratings and reviews are absolutely critical to helping our customers choose the right products from this assortment – and for attracting new shoppers to our site. We’ve seen the great data on ratings and reviews from the analysts this year, and we are now able to develop an understanding of how ratings and reviews influence the decisions of our own customers.”

A recent study by JupiterResearch found that the number of online buyers who cite customer ratings and reviews as the most useful shopping site feature has more than doubled from 2005 to 2006. JupiterResearch also found that online shoppers who find user-generated product ratings and reviews useful are heavier online spenders than average online buyers.

In addition to measuring the overall importance of customer ratings and reviews for consumer electronics purchases, the CompUSA study provides new insights into the conditions that influence the importance and relevance of other consumers’ opinions:

Surveyed shoppers indicated that both positive and negative reviews helped them make the right purchase decision for their needs. Some shoppers even stated that they consult ratings and reviews before making every online purchase.

Repeat customers considered ratings and reviews more important (86%) than one-time buyers (82%), underscoring the value of ratings and reviews in fostering customer loyalty and repeat purchase behavior.

Highly qualified shoppers – those who indicated that they were “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to make a purchase – considered ratings and reviews more important (85%) to their decision process than those who were unlikely to purchase (70%).

Younger shoppers consider ratings and reviews more important than older shoppers do. Importance was highest (88%) for the “less than 18” segment and lowest (70%) for the “45 and older” segment.

“Our findings for CompUSA represent a significant advancement in measuring the impact of customer word of mouth on both online conversion and branding,” said Jerry Tarasofsky, CEO of iPerceptions. “With ratings and reviews, CompUSA has managed to transform thousands of customer voices into a very tangible and strategic marketing advantage. Harnessing customer word of mouth is critically important for companies that want to build their businesses in the always-on and always-connected online environment.”

“CompUSA understands that customer ratings and reviews are strategic to their customer acquisition and conversion efforts,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “Online word of mouth and user-generated content is gaining more and more momentum and merchants who consider ratings and reviews to be just a site feature are at risk of missing out on a huge multichannel marketing opportunity.”

New Travel Research Study To Be Released

If you work in the online travel sector then start packing you bags because on December 6, 2006 HSMAI & iPerceptions are releasing their first Travel Customer Satisfaction Report at the HSMAI Travel Internet Marketing Strategy Conference in Sunny Isles Florida

This first-ever edition of a unique quarterly web metrics report includes experience and satisfaction benchmarks for the growing online marketplace in the hospitality industry. The initial report includes aggregated travel and hospitality industry data based on feedback from web site visitors in the context of their actual web site visits. In total, HSMAI and iPerceptions will publish four quarterly web site visitor satisfaction and experience reports as well as four related feature articles providing HSMAI members and the general business community with valuable insights, benchmarks and trends in visitor satisfaction and experience at hospitality-related web sites.

And if that isn't enough to get those airline tickets booked right now, on the agenda at the strategy conference are keynote addresses by Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, and Jacki Kelley, Yahoo! category development officer, Travel.

Additionally there, will be roundtable discussions on Resort Internet Marketing Best Practices, Search Marketing/PPC, Destination Internet Marketing Challenges, Group Booking Online and Hotel Blogs, as well as a general session on metrics.

For more information, check out the HSMAI web site or contact us - we'd love to see you in sunny Florida.

Emetrics - Here We Come

It's official - iPerceptions has just signed on as a premier Silver Sponsor for Jim Sterne's upcoming Emetrics Summit in Washington DC this coming October 16-18. For those of you who may not be aware of this important event, the Emetrics Summit comes on the heels of several similar events Jim has organized over the last few years though this event is his most ambitious effort yet. “The Big Picture” as the event is being promoted, is broadening its horizons. In addition to its famous focus on Web analytics strategies and technology, the Washington D.C. event features an expanded agenda including a focus on the role of Web analytics in measuring and optimizing online marketing value and business success. With over 50 speakers covering seven comprehensive tracks, the Emetrics Summit is a must-attend for marketing managers, web analysts and business intelligent experts alike. If you want more information, please visit their web site for the complete agenda and list of speakers. We look forward to seeing you in Washington. If you have a minute drop by our booth and say hello.

And while I'm on the subject of events, don't unpack your bags just yet. From Washington, it's just a quick one hour flight to Toronto where you can take in another "not to be missed" event sponsored by the Canadian Marketing Association on October 19-20. Our good friend Mitch Joel, Partner and resident new business wizard at Montreal interactive agency Twist Image is one of the great keynotes they've lined up as well as others including Bryan Eisenberg and David Weinberger of Cluetrain Manifesto fame. Take a minute to listen to Mitch's podcast with David. Lots more info on the CMA's Digital Marketing Conference. And if that isn't enough to get you to take a few days off and visit Toronto, it's rumoured, every attendee will get a copy of Bryan Eisenberg's new book "Waiting For Your Cat To Bark". That alone is worth the admission price - see you in Toronto.

HSMAI - A Hospitality Association That Understands The Value Of Customer Satisfaction

We’ve just signed a strategic partnership with the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International to provide their members and the general business community with unique quarterly web metrics reports that will include experience and satisfaction benchmarks for the growing online marketplace in the hospitality industry.

Keep an eye out for news of the first report resulting from this unique partnership. To be released in September, it will include aggregated travel and hospitality industry data based on feedback from actual web site visitors in the context of their actual web site visits – something not available from any other source. If you want advance notice, just drop me a note and I’ll make sure you get a copy of the first report.

What Do Avinash Kaushik, Bryan Eisenberg and Mitch Joel Have In Common?

We’ve decided to invite a select few industry thought leaders to share their views and opinions about anything and everything related to attitudinal metrics, online research, customer satisfaction and how marketers go about capturing the voice of their online customers. The rationale for this stems from our belief that being able to continuously listen to and understand what your customers are saying is fast becoming the holy grail of marketing, both online and offline. And with the many new and innovative ways to get a handle on “the voice of the customer”, we wanted to give our readers the opportunity to learn from the best. With that in mind we’ve invited professionals with expertise in several different fields to share their thoughts with you.

Hopefully over the next few months you’ll catch some insights and interesting viewpoints from the likes of the gentlemen mentioned above as well as those from fields as diverse as biostatistics and entertainment – check back with us and let us know if you find this information helpful.

The Buzz On Buzz

We’ve just announced the beta release of a new iPerceptions solutions called streetVoice, and it’s attracting a lot of attention not only from our retail and automotive clients but from our hospitality based clients as well who have a vested interest in keeping on top of consumer buzz in blogs, news groups, chat rooms, and travel opinion sites. And it’s no wonder.

A quick visit to sites like tripadvisor.com, hotelchatter.com and roadgladiator.com is enough to convince even the strongest doubter that consumers are flexing their vocal muscles about what they like and dislike and smart marketers are taking notice. And well they should. Consumer generated content is the flavour de jour and it’s catching on like wildfire which is why we’ve partnered with UK based Repindex to produce monthly streetVoice reports that keep our clients plugged in and turned on to what’s being said about them in the blogosphere and elsewhere. The adage “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” has never been truer. And a new corollary to that is “what you don’t know you can’t manage and what you can't manage can hurt you”. In other words, there are discussions and debates going on out there and unless you know about them, you really can’t manage them from a communications perspective

So listen up. Consumers and even your own employees are talking about you. You can tune in and listen to the music or tune out and hope for the best.

If you are interested in participating in a beta test contact me. We have a limited number of slots still open in the test. Of course our existing clients go to the front of the line.

CaseCamp Anyone?

My friend Mitch Joel, Partner at Montreal based interactive agency Twist Image, and someone who is always pushing the envelope has again taken the lead on an interesting initiative. He has assumed responsibility for launching Montreal’s first-ever CaseCamp. CaseCamp, created by Eli Singer, a Toronto based industry thought leader offers this explanation on the CaseCamp Wiki: “CaseCamp is a marketing oriented unconference - it's open to anyone and completely free. CaseCamp is about telling stories. Presenters share case studies of their work. The goal is to create a commons for discussion, learning and networking.” My associate, Jonathan Levitt and I are presenting our first Uncase study – a look at customer sat metrics and how one customer sat rating alone does not tell the whole story. For more information, go to Montreal Case Camp and don’t be shy – add your name to the list, give a presentation and join the conversation. We look forward to meeting you

Podcasting – Is anybody listening?

Our good friend Mitch Joel from Twist Image has just started podcasting and it got me thinking. Mitch is one voice in a sea of many voices and although his “six pixels of separation” podcast is interesting, I’m still wondering who is listening? And does it warrant the time and investment to undertake such an initiative?

I personally don’t get it. Podcasters are sending their words into the ether thinking they are just two steps away from becoming the next Dan Rather or Diane Sawyer.

Sorry to disappoint but that’s not how it works – at least not yet. There is more to broadcasting than putting oneself in front of a microphone and sending sound bytes over an Internet connection. If you build it, they will NOT come has never been truer.

I guess the question becomes one of relevance, reach and reason. Do you have something interesting to say that other people want to hear? Do you have the audience to merit spreading your gospel across the sound? And lastly, what is the motivation behind your effort?

Mitch Joel is typically ahead of the curve - so I'm sure they WILL come - but like I said there are many voices out there with less interesting things to say.

I like to sing in the shower...doesn't mean that people want to listen to me.

The Online Customer Experience – It’s more important than ever before.

Just finished reading a great article by John Gaffney Executive Editor, Publications for 1to1 Media. In it he reviews several highlights of a new research study from UK based analytics firm Foviance. In the study, researchers found that top publicly traded firms were now placing higher priority on the online customer experience than the traditional offline experience. And most important, 96% of the companies surveyed said they planned to focus more energy on the online experience than the offline customer experience.

This shift in priorities has implications that go to the very core of the way retailers, marketers and in fact any company interacts with their customers and stakeholders online. Think about it. Where once unhappy customers were relegated to dealing with an anonymous person working within the bowels of the “consumer affairs department”, any unhappy online customer can now, at the click of a button take their complaint public via blogs, podcasts or community spaces like myspace.

No longer is the customer experience something that is shared on an individual level. If you as a company drop the ball and your customer has an unhappy online experience, sooner or later the world is going to hear about it.

It’s time to recognize that your customer’s online experience is as important or even more important than their offline interaction with your company. Make sure you allocate time and resources to monitor and track all your customer experience touch-points and you won’t be sorry.

Emetrics Summit - web analytics comes of age

Jim Sterne’s fifth annual Emetrics Summit concluded last week and although I did not have the opportunity to attend, all indications are that the show was the best ever – in fact Jim has been so successful evangelizing the need for better, smarter and more user friendly analytics solution that his Emetrics Summit has grown from one event in Santa Barbara to multi city programs in London and coming this October Washington D.C.

Why all the interest in web analytics you might ask? The better question is why has it taken this long for the marketing community to jump on board the analytics bandwagon. And even more important – do those in the know really understand how to use the myriad of solutions presently being peddled by everyone from Google and Yahoo to countless other providers in between.

As someone intimately involved in the business, I’m constantly amazed when we meet marketers who consider themselves sophisticated users of web analytics yet when asked if they regularly undertake attitudinal web research – an important component of web analytics, the response is something like – “we consider attitudinal research as an accessory to our primary web analytics program”.

How does one respond to something like that. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Peppers & Rogers: They get it!

Just finished reading an article from Inside 1to1, the weekly newsletter from the Peppers & Rogers Group and I have to say these folks sure know what they are talking about.

Many marketers rely on expensive behavioral solutions to help them better understand their customer's experience when, as the Peppers & Rogers team discovered, simply asking customers about their experiences can lead to unexpected insights. Case in point - at Armani, for example, management personally conducted in-store customer interviews and found the stores to be intimidating to new customers. The staff treated these customers differently because they didn't yet know them. Management then took action to improve the store experience for new customers. There was no extensive customer tracking, mapping and analysis undertaken. Armani management just listened to what their customers had to say as took appropriate action. Let me tell you, the web is no different. If you think your behavioral analytics can replace good old customer feedback you are 100% wrong.

Having just completed the Ad-Tech Impact ten-city road show, I can personally attest to the fact that majority of the attendees were interested in learning about behavioral analytics at the expense of attitudinal analytics. For those of us who recognize that watching how people behave at your site is not nearly as important as understanding why they are acting that way, this misguided interest is a challenge we must address NOW.

Web Analytics Solutions: I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore

Howard Beale in the award winning 1976 movie classic “Network” was mad as hell and right now I’m feeling the same way. I just finished reading an article by Jennifer LeClaire in E-Commerce Times 03/28/06 entitled “Comparing Web Analytics Tools: Which Is Right for You?”. The article is well written and quite informative but it is missing one essential element that goes to the root of my frustration and why “I’m not going to take it anymore.”

Tracking and monitoring server logs is just one element of a total web analytics solution, yet it seems that this one metric has grabbed the attention of industry analysts and writers as the Holy Grail of web site research.

My frustration stems from the fact that every day I see articles much like the one I’ve mentioned that profess to layout the pros and cons of various web analytics tools, when in fact what these articles are all doing is simply comparing the differences between solutions that essentially do the same thing – track, monitor and report server log activity.

Well, I’m here to say that there’s far more to web analytics tools than offerings that track server logs. Bryan Eisenberg President of FutureNow Inc said it best when he reminded attendees at a recent Ad-Tech Impact event “behind every click is a person”. And no amount of server log analysis can tell you what’s going on inside the hearts and minds of your web site visitors. Those people have opinions and thoughts about their web experiences that no server log analysis will ever accurately reveal.

So wake up marketers. It's time to recognize that you are missing a big chunk of intelligence if you are relying strictly on your server log analysis to point the way for your ongoing web strategies and initiatives. You can start by adding listening tools to your research and web metrics arsenal. Do some attitudinal research focused on your web site visitors (yes, this is self serving, but at least I’m being upfront about it) or just start to take note of, and track the feedback you get from visitors to your site. You just might get a whole new perspective on your customer’s web site experience.

Air Canada customer satisfaction

Two weeks ago I had the occasion to fly Air Canada to Seattle for the Ad-Tech Impact event “Key Metrics For Marketers”. The trip was less than eventful except for numerous flight delays related to mechanical problems on two separate aircraft. Instead of arriving in Seattle at 10:30 PM PST as planned, I arrived in Vancouver at 1:00 AM (PST) with a connection to Seattle the next day at 7:30 AM. I made it to the conference with minutes to spare with lived with the fact that there’s not much any of us can do to minimize the inconvenience and hassles flight delays sometimes cause.

Today I received a pleasant surprise when I opened my Aeroplan frequent flyer account to discover Air Canada had added 4,000 points to the account for the inconvenience caused by their mechanical problems. When one talks about customer service and customer satisfaction, at least in this case Air Canada scored major points with me.

I’m not sure who gets credit for this. It would be great if this were standard procedure. If not, then credit goes to the astute agent who rebooked my flight after the second delay. Either way, Air Canada has realized that it doesn’t take too much to keep their customers satisfied. By simply acknowledging a problem and doing something to say were sorry, they have indicated to me at least that they not only "talk the talk" but they "walk the talk" and genuinely value my business. Hats off to Air Canada.

What Air Canada demonstrated by their actions in the traditional bricks and mortar world is something we believe every marketer in the online sector must emulate.

Stay in tune with your web site visitor's experience and at the first sign of disatisfaction, make sure you respond.

Ad-tech Impact report from the road

I am writing this from Los Angeles where we've just completed the third of ten Ad-Tech Impact one-day programs titled “key Metrics For Marketers”. So far my fellow road warriors from such well know companies as ExactTarget, ClearGauge, WebTrends, Target Marketing, Future Now and I have shared our insights and knowledge with a great group of folks in Seattle, Phoenix and Los Angeles. Turn out for the events has been excellent with over 130 people taking in the day in Seattle, over 100 in Phoenix and over 130 in LA.

The purpose of these one-day events is to educate and update marketers on how they can best maximize the value of their web initiatives, be it online advertising, e-mail, search or web site development and web metrics.

The days begin with a kick-start from Jim Sterne who knows how to make a crowd sit up and listen – and listen they do as he takes everyone through the full spectrum of online metrics from acquisition, navigation and content right through to conversion and retention. The remainder of the day is jam packed with info sessions and case studies presented by some of the brightest minds in the business.

If you are planning on attending the event in your city, take in our session on unleashing web analytics where along with the team at ClearGauge we'll show you several interesting and unique new ways to track you customer funnel, develop key performance indicators and track visitor satisfaction on an ongoing basis. And use the Impact150 discount code courtesy of iPerceptions to save $150.00 off the registration price.

Will report back later in the week after we visit Dallas.

On the road again - ad:tech IMPACT one-day Internet Marketing Conference

In case you haven’t already checked it out, visit the ad:tech IMPACT site to get the lowdown on when their Key Metrics for Marketers all day seminar is coming to a city near you.

This one-day event is designed to turbo charge results and ROI for anybody interested in the online space. Three tracks throughout the day will focus on:

• Online advertising, analytics, and optimization
• Web site design and optimization
• Analyzing marketing ROI

In addition to hearing industry guru Jim Sterne share his thoughts on “Tracking The Customer Funnel”, you'll have the opportunity to spend a day with other thought leaders including Rich Bruner, Jonathan Carson, Charlie Buchwalter, David Daniels, Shane Atchison, and of course the team from iPerceptions who have been invited to participate in an afternoon session on unleashing the power of web analytics (attitudinal, behavioral and competitive) and how to use analytics to:

• Increase conversion rates and decrease site abandonment
• Generate more qualified sales leads and lower acquisition costs
• Turn customer feedback into a road map for enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Translate web traffic analytics into meaningful and actionable sales pipeline insights

And best of all, as our guest you can save $150.00 off the registration fee of $395.00

For information on when ad:tech is coming to your city or region go to ad-tech.com/impact and when you register don't forget to use the code 'IMPACT150' to get your $150 discount, courtesy of iPerceptions.

We look forward to meeting you in person.