Website Analytics Resistance

Website analytics are being overlooked and misunderstood by many organizations from my perspective. There are the elite few that truly leverage the capability and effectiveness of intelligent website analysis. Why do some people oppose data driven decisions? I think we need to look at the emotional side of deliberative and analytic processes. It’s not that we really have to but if we do, our delivery can be enhanced. We should try to understand who we are talking to when presenting our analytic report.

Case and Point

I recently delivered one of my most telling reports to a well established business. As you can see (other than the Christmas season) this website gets its fair share of traffic. The bounce rate is great; visitors are looking at almost 8 pages per visit. With about half a million monthly visitors we can tell at a glance visitors are engaged with this website.

In this case the client made a very specific request with the website analysis, “Tell me how we can increase our online sales”. That’s one of my specialties so I went to work.

Role Playing the Buyer

First I went to the website and did some role playing. I am a visitor looking to make a purchase, nothing else. How efficient is the sales goal funnel on this website is my primary question. Once I get to the homepage it’s beautiful, the website design is outstanding and reeks of conversion. I make my first click into the obvious sales funnel and WOW, step 2 is ever better. I know I am ready to move to the purchase stage but look at the other options available, measure your (product) first. This is a very well designed and thought out website, so far I have only good things to say. Let’s go ahead and make the purchase, it is made very obvious and graphically suggests to you “Make Purchase”. I make the final click to purchase and BANG! This is not rocket science; the cart software is a Java desktop APP that you must download.

This brings a few questions to mind.

  1. How can website analytics track a desktop APP?
  2. What is the true bounce and exit rate of this page?
  3. How are the users interacting with this purchasing process?

We have to be mindful of what is happening here. If a visitor that landed on this page moves forward and downloads the APP they will show as a bounce in Google Analytics even though they likely made a purchase. Here is the page in question using the “Top Content” metric in Google Analytics.

What I see here is almost 35% of visitors exit and almost 56% bounce. Although bounce may not be 100% accurate due to the aforementioned reasons it also is telling us part of the story here. This step in the online sales process is the most critical one. We have primed our visitor with two steps leading to this one with great design and architecture, now we have a problem with the Java APP. This is causing at least 34.44% of 42,801 visitors to leave. The over all bounce rate on this site is very respectable @ 10.19% (above). Even though we cannot see beyond this page, we can see evidence of major friction. That coupled with my user experience, download an app from a non trusted source leads to 1 simple conclusion. This APP is costing the client money, it needs to be web based to accommodate to the masses and not force a download.

Presenting The Report

Once I crunched all my numbers and confirmed data integrity I drafted my report to the client. This would be a high level meeting with people I did not know. As it turns out I will be presenting my report to the VP of marketing and the IT manager. It always starts with introductions, exchanging pleasantries then down to the crunch. At this point I lead into the key metrics I am going to look at. I usually focus on 2-4 key performance indicators. In this case the client wanted recommendations for improved sales, so that was my primary focus. After a broad dashboard view and compliments on a great design I dove right in.

Actual Client Conversation

Done using the phone and Gotomeeting (Shared desktop) T

his conversation took place on a three-way call

  1. Website Analyst- Robert
  2. Client VP of Marketing- John (Not real name)
  3. Client IT manager- Claude (Not real name)

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<–Begin Conversation–>

Robert Says “Well guys let me explain my deliberative process here. I started by role playing a typical visitor that was educated and just wanted to make a purchase. Step 1 starts here (displaying on shared desktop) and I just love the look and feel. Then I click the shop online button to proceed to step 2, fantastic. I can check my measurements or continue to make a purchase by clicking the loud and clear shop online button. Well done so far, let’s continue (click button). Have I identified your sales funnel so far guys?”

Claude and John in harmony “Yes”

Robert acknowledges “Great, so we are right on track to make a purchase and I am giving this conversion funnel an A+ up to this point. This is where your problem is guys, right at the mouth of the purchase. If I click here I am prompted to download an APP”

Claude buds in “THAT’s FINE, it’s very detailed when you download it and use it, and our business is very customized. Did you try to download it?”

Robert Replies “Yes I did and it broke once I clicked cancel, watch…”

Claude buds in “You are using Firefox, that’s why. You need to use internet explorer”

Robert replies “I have also tried IE and when I do, the same thing occurs”

Claude buds in “All you have to do is go to your security settings and”

Robert buds in “But, Claude I am just a non savvy visitor that doesn’t know how to do that. That is the safest way to assume every visitor is when you are designing usability features. Furthermore”

Claude buds in “I can assure you that the application works fine when”

John “Claude, can you please give Robert a chance to explain his report”

Robert Replies “Thanks John. What I wanted to add was a web based Ecom solution would have very quick ROI judging by the targeted visitors (low bounce, low exit, 8 pgs per visit) coming to your site.”

<–End Conversation–>

Conversation Analysis

This conversation only includes the highlights. I really thought Claude was going to blow a gasket. What I learned very quickly was he designed the APP personally. Now I understand why he took offense to my comments, even though my comments derived from data, emotions played a role in my delivery. In this case John picked up on this and allowed my voice to be heard. I really did not mean to offend Claude but in hindsight I can see why he was offended. This is not the first time I have encountered resistance to change. It makes me take a closer look at the psychological impact of my message and who its’ being delivered to. As a website analyst I always find the good and bad in every analysis, therefore breaking the news might leave some people’s nose outta joint.

Why Do Some Business People Oppose Change?

Website analytics are fairly new to the website marketing world. I mean it has been around for ages but in 2008/2009 a huge increase in website analytics awareness has surfaced. The problem is it is very misunderstood and misused.

Reasons Website Analytics Do Not Hit Home Always

  • A good analysis is disregarded no action is taken
  • No company commitment for analysis.
  • No budget for changes to improve
  • Lack of training and empowered analysts
  • Poorly educated or trained analysts do not correlate report data to actionable business /marketing realities

There is a growing trend of business people that swear by analytic data. These are the same people that realize having analytic software is a very small part of your web analytics investment. The real investment is in finding someone qualified to make sense of it all and provide true findings that always translate to ROI. The right people in place are what makes analytics perform profitably for you. Qualitative inputs are the gateway into effective actionable changes.

My fellow website analysts, I ask you to buckle up and enjoy the ride. Website analytics are here, now. 2009 promises to be the year of analytics. We are paving the way for a new wave of internet marketers.

A qualified website analyst has the greatest power of all but…

“With great power comes great responsibility” Uncle Ben-Spiderman.

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