Time To value: Setting Up Experiments At Pace
Business departments are under pressure to deliver results and Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) specialists are no exception.
Which means those involved in CRO and optimising the customer experience (CX) must hypothesise, research and then conduct experiments to identify evidence-based improvements at pace. The C-suite will be focusing on realising the value of their investment in CRO - whether the imperative is for better customer retention, higher value order baskets or an improved CX, they’ll want to see results within a reasonable timeframe.
But isn’t CRO about taking diligent, painstakingly checked steps to ensure decisions are validated against data and to avoid any risk? Yes, absolutely. However, roadblocks to implementing experimentation can be removed, the volume of CRO experiments carried out at any one time can be increased and tests can be set up to be more productive and deliver more insights quicker, all in the name of driving significant positive change.
Let’s start with addressing a couple of mental barriers. It’s very possible CRO teams have run tests before, either in-house or with the help of an external partner, that ultimately delivered no real value and there’s a disillusionment with testing.
There is also the real worry that setting up a useful test might be too complex and take too much time to produce any useful insights for the business.
These are understandable feelings, and setting up an experiment does require some preparation. But it could be that the projects that have failed to help were ideated incorrectly, measured the wrong outputs or failed to align with the wider business strategy and other departmental KPIs.
Ideas for fuel-injecting your experiment process
Bearing this in mind, there are tools and strategies that can help with speeding up experiment execution. Let’s walk through just a few:
· You don’t have to go big with experiments. You’re more likely to extract a greater volume of useful insights by running rapid, iterative tests than trying to devise the ‘perfect’ test. As ever, done is better than perfect.
· We’re in the age of AI. Using AI-driven tools for data analysis and to process pattern recognition enables you to getresults and identify improvements much more quickly. Of course, AI is not infallible in its recommendations, so a human sense check will always be part of the process.
· AI tools can also speed up the personalisation of user experiences (UX), whether its tailoring content on web pages or making personal recommendations for products and services at speed or powering a chatbot that can converse in more natural language.
· Collaboration between different teams will get you on the path to a successful experiment much quicker. Involving other departments, from IT to design, as stakeholders means that they’ll be more willing to help with adjustments and remove bottlenecks. And the feedback from customer-facing teams can help you spot where there might be pain points for which there’s a quick fix.
· Standardising experimentation processes will remove friction and unnecessary steps in the set up. There’s no need to keep reinventing the wheel when it comes to setting up protocols around tests.
· If you’re stuck in conceiving or implementing tests a fresh pair of eyes can help. That’s when working with an external partner can be useful – they can set you up with several experiments to run concurrently, so there’s a good flow of useful data coming into mine.
Combining all the above can provide real momentum for your CRO projects.
One example is the work we undertook as CRO consultants for P&O Cruises. The company wanted to see improvements in the UX for its online booking process, so we implemented our four-month accelerator programme that enables a business to launch tests in weeks instead of months.
The process involved a comprehensive UX audit to identify problem areas and surface the insights that could improve website performance and encourage completed transactions. We talked to the teams at the sharp end of dealing with potential customers and reviewed session recordings and analytics. The main diagnosis was that the Deals page needed some TLC.
Sprints conducted by our own CRO team implemented the strategic enhancements we recommended that focused on simplifying the user journey and making essential information more accessible.
The business soon enjoyed improved results across all the areas tested, including a 9% increase in cruise purchases, a 78% jump in bookings after viewing the deals page and a 51% uplift in orders for deals. Our accelerator programme had the P&O Cruises conversion journey shipshape in double-quick time.
As Gavin Atcheson, P&O Cruises Senior Digital Experience Manager said of the programme process: “It has saved time in development … and means we can develop and deploy experiments faster allowing us to continually drive towards iterative improvements.”
If you want to learn more about the accelerator programme and how we can help speed up time to value for your CRO investment, then contact us and we'll be happy to set up an introduction call with one of our specialists.
