Tracking the online customer experience after a website redesign

Tracking the online customer experience after a website redesign

We're interested in seeing how a recent redesign of our website is impacting the online customer experience, but we aren't sure how to measure this. Has there ever been a correlation drawn between the percentage of visitors to a support website and the number of calls received? Is there a study available that provides an average percentage of users who, when unable to find information via the web, will seek further support over the phone?

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To provide you with the right answer, one needs to know two important facts. The first is what is your business model and how prone is it to Web interactions. The second is what was the "before" situation prior to your website improvement. Without those facts it will be difficult to address your question.

There are industries and business models where the website is not the final sales destination but rather a stepping stone. In others we have seen that a Web visit will actually drive greater calls to the call center.

To be practical, simply measure the number of calls that started with a website visit prior to your change and the number of calls that arrive after your change. If you see a positive trend you probably did something right. Bear in mind that effective website design may expose the customer to new services he or she did not know about and therefore may call to inquire. Make sure your comparison of before and after does not penalize you for new cross-sell opportunities that the new website design enabled.

This was first published in July 2009