Clickstream Data Metrics:
The web channel has moved to the forefront as a critical success factor in the achievement of every organization's business objectives. Whether an organization is multi-channel or an Internet pure play, it will struggle to meet its strategic goals without a high-performing web-site. Therefore, each and every business needs accurate metrics to assess the performance of its online operations.
At this stage in the evolution of the Internet, most organizations recognize the value of metrics and have taken steps toward measuring website performance through the use of web analytics. Clickstream data provides valuable insight into the behavior of customers and prospects on the site: where they go, which marketing campaigns drove them there, how much time they spend on the site, where they leave the site, the average order size and other related pieces of data. However, as important as this information is, it does not paint a complete picture of website performance for two reasons:
- Clickstream data is historical. With clickstream data, web managers can see what site visitors did yesterday, last week or last month, but not what they will do in the future. And, in today's fast-paced and competitive online environment, organizations need insight into what customers and prospects will do in the future just as much - if not more - than they need to understand their past actions.
- Clickstream data metrics focuses strictly on WHAT, not WHY. Clickstream data provides a behavioral perspective of site visitors, but it doesn't help an organization get into the minds of site visitors and learn why they behaved as they did. Looking at customers strictly from the perspective of how they behaved without also assessing their attitudes doesn't tell the whole story.
It's clear that the value of clickstream analytics would be enhanced by integration with another sort of metric - a metric that provides a more forward-looking and predictive view of site visitors while adding an attitudinal perspective. Fortunately for savvy web managers, this metric is readily available in the form of customer satisfaction analytics using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
ABOUT THE ACSI
Produced by the University of Michigan, the ACSI is the leading national indicator of customer satisfaction with goods and services in the U.S. economy and the only cross-industry methodology that links customer satisfaction to financial performance. Applied to the web via a survey, the ACSI is the most credible, accurate, reliable and precise methodology of measuring customer satisfaction with the web experience. This proven, scientific methodology identifies key drivers of satisfaction and quantifies the relationship to overall customer satisfaction.
Going further, this rigorous methodology predicts how customers will behave in the future based on satisfaction data so web managers can understand how likely online customers are to buy (online or offline), recommend the site and return to the site, among key behaviors tied to loyalty. And, the ACSI methodology demonstrates how specific website enhancements would positively impact customer satisfaction, loyalty behaviors and ultimately, the bottom line.
HIGH-LEVEL VIEW OF ACSI CUSTOMER SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT SOLUTION
The graphic below provides a high-level view of the ACSI methodology and depicts the link among elements driving satisfaction, overall customer satisfaction and future behaviors tied to loyalty.
THE VALUE OF INTEGRATION
By combining ACSI-based customer satisfaction measurement with clickstream analytics, an organization gains a comprehensive view of the online customer or prospect, a 360? perspective that combines perceptions and attitudes with behaviors and past actions with future intent. Armed with this information, the team responsible for the web can make more strategic business decisions regarding the web in support of the organization's objectives.
The graphic below shows the value of integrating clickstream and customer satisfaction measurement.
INTEGRATING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ANALYTICS WITH CLICKSTREAM ANALYTICS: HOW IT WORKS
Merging these two powerful sources of information about online site visitors - clickstream analytics and customer satisfaction analytics - enables organizations to make decisions regarding website optimization based on a 360 view of the customer. Integration enables an organization to delve deeply into analysis of specific site visitor segments from both a behavioral and an attitudinal perspective. Segmentation and analysis can either begin with behavioral or satisfaction data depending on the objectives of the particular site and company and can occur on either an ad-hoc or an ongoing basis.
