al thousand visitors each and every day, can you be sure that they are genuinely interested parties? I recently came across an example where one client was shocked to discover that over 3,000 of its daily visitors turned out to be search engine bots. Moreover, the robot hits were actually prohibiting around 80 genuinely interested prospects from accessing the site every day. Even at their conservatively estimated conversion rates this would result in around ?500,000 per annum in missed revenues. The business itself has been operating for a number of years blissfully unaware of this and as a result they have now taken positive actionWith the burgeoning online transaction market across finance and retail sectors and based upon the premise that a competitor is just a mouse click away, the need to ensure a smooth and efficient buying experience is of paramount importance.

Many early adopters of the bleeding edge web technologies reaped the rewards of being first to market and sell their products and services in a secure online environment. However, the world as we all know, is not static and with new web technologies appearing every twelve months, coupled with the inheritance of disparate technologies through merger and acquisition activities, has left many organisations with what I term a 'technology hangover' that saps both financial and human resource allocation from the ever-decreasing annual budget.

What companies now face is a plethora of different company web sites, each requiring constant attention, maintenance and development.

With the gradual migration of prospects to online transactions, the associated online customer experience becomes critical to the success of the business. Research shows us that people don't generally go online to purchase goods - at least not initially. What they seek in general terms is information. If you provide them with the appropriate level of information during that session there is a reasonable chance of presenting a corresponding value proposition that will entice the prospect to commit and buy your offering on impulse. If however, they experience problems during the data entry process, there is an 84% chance the prospect will abandon the activity and look elsewhere for a competitive offering. Having provided them with all of the information you have effectively made it difficult for them to buy.

And how will your business be made aware of this?

The bottom line answer is that whilst your web analysis software will give you the raw statistics on conversion, it will not identify the problem that the user encountered.

As a former enterprise software salesman myself, I am acutely aware that if you make a mistake during the sales cycle, you learn from it and vow never to repeat that mistake in future. Unfortunately software isn't that clever and as a result, the mistakes in web site logic that are causing potential consumers to abandon the process today, will invariably be alienating a whole new generation of prospects twelve months from now.

Another problem with sitting in the ivory tower, casting admiring glances over the site visitor statistics is that whilst you may have several thousand visitors each and every day, can you be sure that they are genuinely interested parties? I recently came across an example where one client was shocked to discover that over 3,000 of its daily visitors turned out to be search engine bots. Moreover, the robot hits were actually prohibiting around 80 genuinely interested prospects from accessing the site every day. Even at their conservatively estimated conversion rates this would result in around ?500,000 per annum in missed revenues. The business itself has been operating for a number of years blissfully unaware of this and as a result they have now taken positive action

anisations with what I term a 'technology hangover' that saps both financial and human resource allocation from the ever-decreasing annual budget.

What companies now face is a plethora of different company web sites, each requiring constant attention, maintenance and development.

With the gradual migration of prospects to online transactions, the associated online customer experience becomes critical to the success of the business. Research shows us that people don't generally go online to purchase goods - at least not initially. What they seek in general terms is information. If you provide them with the appropriate level of information during that session there is a reasonable chance of presenting a corresponding value proposition that will entice the prospect to commit and buy your offering on impulse. If however, they experience problems during the data entry process, there is an 84% chance the prospect will abandon the activity and look elsewhere for a competitive offering. Having provided them with all of the information you have effectively made it difficult for them to buy.

And how will your business be made aware of this?

The bottom line answer is that whilst your web analysis software will give you the raw statistics on conversion, it will not identify the problem that the user encountered.

As a former enterprise software salesman myself, I am acutely aware that if you make a mistake during the sales cycle, you learn from it and vow never to repeat that mistake in future. Unfortunately software isn't that clever and as a result, the mistakes in web site logic that are causing potential consumers to abandon the process today, will invariably be alienating a whole new generation of prospects twelve months from now.

Another problem with sitting in the ivory tower, casting admiring glances over the site visitor statistics is that whilst you may have several thousand visitors each and every day, can you be sure that they are genuinely interested parties? I recently came across an example where one client was shocked to discover that over 3,000 of its daily visitors turned out to be search engine bots. Moreover, the robot hits were actually prohibiting around 80 genuinely interested prospects from accessing the site every day. Even at their conservatively estimated conversion rates this would result in around ?500,000 per annum in missed revenues. The business itself has been operating for a number of years blissfully unaware of this and as a result they have now taken positive action

of information during that session there is a reasonable chance of presenting a corresponding value proposition that will entice the prospect to commit and buy your offering on impulse. If however, they experience problems during the data entry process, there is an 84% chance the prospect will abandon the activity and look elsewhere for a competitive offering. Having provided them with all of the information you have effectively made it difficult for them to buy.

And how will your business be made aware of this?

The bottom line answer is that whilst your web analysis software will give you the raw statistics on conversion, it will not identify the problem that the user encountered.

As a former enterprise software salesman myself, I am acutely aware that if you make a mistake during the sales cycle, you learn from it and vow never to repeat that mistake in future. Unfortunately software isn't that clever and as a result, the mistakes in web site logic that are causing potential consumers to abandon the process today, will invariably be alienating a whole new generation of prospects twelve months from now.

Another problem with sitting in the ivory tower, casting admiring glances over the site visitor statistics is that whilst you may have several thousand visitors each and every day, can you be sure that they are genuinely interested parties? I recently came across an example where one client was shocked to discover that over 3,000 of its daily visitors turned out to be search engine bots. Moreover, the robot hits were actually prohibiting around 80 genuinely interested prospects from accessing the site every day. Even at their conservatively estimated conversion rates this would result in around ?500,000 per annum in missed revenues. The business itself has been operating for a number of years blissfully unaware of this and as a result they have now taken positive action

it will not identify the problem that the user encountered.

As a former enterprise software salesman myself, I am acutely aware that if you make a mistake during the sales cycle, you learn from it and vow never to repeat that mistake in future. Unfortunately software isn't that clever and as a result, the mistakes in web site logic that are causing potential consumers to abandon the process today, will invariably be alienating a whole new generation of prospects twelve months from now.

Another problem with sitting in the ivory tower, casting admiring glances over the site visitor statistics is that whilst you may have several thousand visitors each and every day, can you be sure that they are genuinely interested parties? I recently came across an example where one client was shocked to discover that over 3,000 of its daily visitors turned out to be search engine bots. Moreover, the robot hits were actually prohibiting around 80 genuinely interested prospects from accessing the site every day. Even at their conservatively estimated conversion rates this would result in around ?500,000 per annum in missed revenues. The business itself has been operating for a number of years blissfully unaware of this and as a result they have now taken positive action

al thousand visitors each and every day, can you be sure that they are genuinely interested parties? I recently came across an example where one client was shocked to discover that over 3,000 of its daily visitors turned out to be search engine bots. Moreover, the robot hits were actually prohibiting around 80 genuinely interested prospects from accessing the site every day. Even at their conservatively estimated conversion rates this would result in around ?500,000 per annum in missed revenues. The business itself has been operating for a number of years blissfully unaware of this and as a result they have now taken positive action to address this. And was this discovered after an elongated, expensive sales process and an equally arduous implementation and roll-out?

The answer, rather amazingly is that this was all discovered in a week-long proof of concept. Needless to say, the company quickly elected to purchase and adopt the technology as a core part of its strategic analysis.

Many companies are evolving their web analytics by employing page-tagging, whereby each page has additional code inserted, allowing analytical software to report on it at appropriate times. The problem here is that web sites change and grow at an amazing rate and the initial wooden dollar cost of implementing this could be as high as ?150,000. This doesn't even factor in the ongoing maintenance and support costs, the margin for human coding error or the lack of depth of the analysis.

My advice would be to avoid page-tagging projects and look for a robust solution that facilitates page analysis as an integral part of the product offering, obviating the need for additional coding.

There are solutions available today that will give you the ability to passively monitor your customer's online experience without impacting the performance of your site. Each session can be recorded and replayed by customer experience and helpdesk personnel without compromising user security. I have heard of examples where these processes have been used in dispute resolution cases and for customer support people to follow up on abandoned transactions, thereby protecting revenue streams.