Optimize Your Customer Experience Around Jobs to be Done

Performance marketing is increasingly effective at targeting potential customers and driving them to your site. But few companies then go on to leverage that targeting information to succeed with customers once they’re there. If you knew who was coming to your site and why – the jobs to be done while there — you could tailor the experience to increase conversion and boost average basket size while also increasing satisfaction and encouraging retention.

Grocery and big-box retailers have been tailoring experiences in-store to different trip missions such as “stock up” or “fill in” for years, allowing them to drive sales by catering to each trip’s unique needs. What bricks-n-mortar stores generally lack, however, is the ability to identify which customers are on which mission and adjust real-time to those unique needs.

Apps and websites have an advantage over them. Elements of the eCommerce experience (such as the landing page, assortment, product recommendations, headlines and imagery) can be customized to better address the needs of different types of visits and types of people making those visits. Sites are often organized around product lines, but these may not reflect the motivation behind the visit, the reason someone is shopping the site. Should sites instead be organized around the jobs to be done by the visit such as inspire, learn, comparison shop, transact, accessorize, troubleshoot, replace?

What are the jobs to be done on your site?

Would knowing a visitor’s goal at the time they hit the site allow you to provide an experience that’s better for both the customer and your business? Perhaps some examples can help you see how.

• Life insurance – is the job early learning, needs assessment, first time buying, or coverage expansion?
• Cancer treatment – is the job choosing a course of treatment, finding the right doctor for you, or feeling supported by a community of common sufferers or caregivers?
• Travel agency – is the job efficiently booking a familiar locale, getting destination ideas, finding things to do in a selected city, price shopping alternative providers or optimizing rewards on a business trip?
• Athletic shoes – is the job finding out when the next sneaker drop will be, assessing which shoe functions best for a budding triathlete, learning what the latest style is or building your own custom creation?

How do you find out what the jobs to be done are? 

Would knowing what the job is help you to help them achieve those goals faster and easier so they don’t leave without satisfying their mission? Sure, you say…but how?!

• Site analytics, clickstream data, CRM information and site-intercept survey-based attitudes and needs of visitors can be combined to statistically derive, size and profile the jobs to be done on your site. Some of those jobs may surprise you, addressing needs that you didn’t know your customers have.
• Adding qualitative drill-downs and compelling video-based storytelling can bring these jobs to life to inspire your web designers to do things differently.
• Leveraging tools such as Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics can allow you to serve up the customized experiences that will help visitors get the job done more quickly through a frictionless experience that facilitates conversion and cart maximization.
• Linking multiple sessions to a single user in your CRM can inform not only how to serve them on-site, but how to retain them and reach out to them in your email campaigns.

Personalize the customer experience

While advertising serves to find customers, your website is the greatest opportunity to win or lose a customer. The experience someone receives is as important as the products or services they seek. Now table stakes, personalization and conversion deserve the same emphasis as acquisition. Every company’s needs are unique, and these capabilities are evolving rapidly. So let us know if you’d like to chat with someone on our Digital Analytics team about the possibilities.