Prepared by:

1
boston upa
Guided Selling
Independent Study Results and Best Practices

• Prepared by
• Michael Hawley VP Experience Design
• May 26, 2009

2
About MadPow
3
What Is Guided Selling?

• Definition
• A process to educate consumers about a set of
  complex products or services
• Needed where consumers need support to make an
  informed selection
• More than presentation of list of options or
  features a conversation or dialog
• Similar to in-person interaction with helpful
  salesperson
• Process
• Lead a consumer through a set of questions that
  assess their values, intended usage and knowledge
  of a particular category
• Use information to direct consumer to product
  selections that meet their needs

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Guided Selling is Not Faceted Navigation or
Filtering
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What Did We Do?

• Goal
• Conduct independent study to assess strengths and
  weaknesses of various guided selling tools to
  learn best practices and inform future design
  decisions
• Sample Research Questions
• To what extent do we need to show results
  narrowing through interaction?
• How are video, audio and other multimedia best
  used?
• Are progress indicators necessary? If so, how
  should they be displayed?
• Do users need the ability to go back in the
  interaction? If so, how?
• How should suggestions or results be displayed?
• Are there circumstances where guided selling
  works best?

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Research Method 1 One-on-one Task-based
Comparative Usability Test

• Methodology
• Six different guided selling applications, each
  participant interacts with three
• 15 participants, sequence of sites randomized to
  prevent order bias
• Mix of age groups, gender, online proficiency
• Think-aloud protocol during task-based
  interaction with each site
• Participant Triad comparison of three sites

• Triading
• Qualitative interview technique that reveals
  constructs
• Elicits attributes that are important to users in
  their vocabulary
• Researcher asks the participant to identify how
  two of the three examples are different from the
  third

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Triading Example
Identify how two of the three examples are
different from the third.
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Research Method 2 Unmoderated Interaction and
Feedback

• Methodology
• Online, unmoderated participant interaction with
  each site
• 20 participants interacted with each site, 120
  participants total
• Tasks and follow up questions informed by results
  of one-on-one study
• Specific probing questions for each site
• Qualitative interpretation of participant
  feedback

• Sample Tasks/Questions
• While answering questions, what did you like? and
  dislike?
• While viewing the results, what did you like? and
  dislike?
• What aspect of the tool confused you?
• What about your experience with this tool stands
  out?
• What would improve this tool?

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Sites We Tested
Air Conditioners
Running Shoes
Laptops
Mortgages
Gifts
Life Insurance
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Findings and Implications
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Perceived Speed Most Important Navigational Factor

• Findings
• Progress indicators helpful but not main focus
  especially for branched modules
• Add ability to leave guided module
• Support pageless design to increase perceived
  speed and indicate learning experience
• Support replay of audio enabled sections
• Maintain consistency for changing answers after
  results page
• First focus visitor on questions rather than
  result set

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Use Video with Caution, Leverage Audio to Enhance
Experience

• Video
• Video very polarizing, large impact on brand
  perception
• Low quality video production can appear
  gratuitous and unnecessary
• Spokesperson video marketing?
• Multimedia learning modules helpful
• Audio
• Obvious control for audio
• Elaborate on text, but text only should suffice

Thats an ill-fitting suit
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Valid Questions and Responses Key to Module
Success

• Findings
• Present consequence of response in question
  context
• Give ability to skip question if responses dont
  apply
• Add visual options if appropriate to aid
  comprehension and increase ease of use
• Provide mutually exclusive responses where
  appropriate

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Valid Questions and Responses Key to Module
Success
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Build Trust by Recognizing Brand Position and
Adapting Accordingly

• Findings
• High degree of skepticism for guided selling
  modules for own-brand products
• Cross-brand aggregators have higher inherent
  credibility
• Increase trust by showing tradeoffs and impact of
  question responses
• Present rationale and options for results pages
  that recommend most expensive options

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Build Trust by Recognizing Brand Position and
Adapting Accordingly
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Build For Learning, Finding, or Recommending
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For Learning Experience, Give Control of Pace

• Findings
• Options to progressively learn and branch OK, in
  fact, helpful
• Multi-media less effort for learning than reading
• User research and personas can inform learning
  levels

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Give Visitor Control of Learning Experience
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Results Page Be Mindful of Visitor Stage

• Offer value and build personal relationship
• Printed or emailed collateral, online bookmarks,
  etc.
• Add-ons and cross sells

• Feature-based comparisons
• Clear, intuitive conversion path
• Highlight differentiators

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Results Page Be Mindful of Visitor Stage
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Results Page Show Impact of Responses

• Findings
• End results should indicate impact of responses
• Men gravitate towards comparison charts
• Consider number of results depending on domain

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Summary

• Findings
• Perceived Speed Most Important Navigational
  Factor
• Use Video with Caution, Leverage Audio to Enhance
  Experience
• Valid Questions and Responses Key to Module
  Success
• Build Trust by Recognizing Brand Position and
  Adapting Accordingly
• Build For Learning, Finding, or Recommending
• For Learning Experience, Give Control of Pace
• Show Impact of Responses on Results Page

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Thank You

• Documentation
• Results and full presentation slides
• http//www.madpow.net

Have a question? Michael Hawley mhawley_at_madpow.ne
t _at_hawleymichael 603-436-7177