Good Behaviour

This is an article I wrote for issue 176 of .net magazine in the UK.

I used to be Head of Online Planning and Buying at a London based media buying agency. I was there for 3 years between 1999 and 2002. In my first year our nascent online media planning and buying department experienced a 1000% growth in billings and some growing pains. Of course overall spend was much lower then than it is now as online media was also in its infancy relatively speaking.

Then in 2001 things slowed dramatically. At the time, growth in online media had been fed by new internet start ups with lots of VC capital looking to advertise to help grow their businesses and drive inexorably towards IPO! Additionally it was driven by a growth in interest from mainstream advertisers looking to dip a toe in and check the temperature.

Advertising is often considered a bellwether of economic decline as it’s one of the first things to be cut from budgets as belts tighten and when the slow down came in 2001 billings pretty much flat lined in our corner of the online media world, but other channels fared worse.

Part of the reason why online advertising may have fared better is due to much greater levels of accountability compared with other forms of advertising. Now consider the level of accountability we have with web analytics.

Back then in the early “naughties” web analytics was barely a twinkle in a webmaster’s eye, now it is proudly sitting at the boardroom table.

Not only can web analytics bring even greater accountability to on and offline advertising (if set up correctly) but it also completely opens up the level of business accountability for the website itself. It can be used to drive growth and cut costs through improved efficiencies across the whole spectrum of online communication.

If we are truly staring down the barrel of worsening economic conditions, especially looking forward into 2009 then arguably the worst thing any organisation could do would be to cut its web analytics budget.

Back in January I was working with a client that operates in an industry that is itself suffering but the saving grace for this particular client was their new website which had proved a great success in the face of a generally poorer trading climate.

If economic conditions deteriorate web analytics and the insight that it provides should be safeguarded and pored over with even greater intensity in the same way that normal business reporting and results are.

Analytics seems almost joined at the hip with conversion but improving profits doesn’t just have to be about selling more.

As times (look set to) get tougher improving operating efficiencies can be as important to the bottom line as improving on-site conversion rates. Spending money on valuable resource when it’s being under utilised is effectively wasted capital.

Thinking outside the web server

Improving operating efficiencies of a website is what web analytics was made for but it can also provide valuable information that can guide off-line operating strategies, an example of this would be in businesses running call centers.

Some businesses that have a presence both on and offline, and I refer not just to the “clicks and mortar” (hackneyed expression!) operations but also to others such as catalog retailers, may have found that their offline channel customers behave differently in varying degrees to their online punters. There are also those customers that come through both channels.

For potential customers driven by the web it’s not unusual to see day part website visitor patterns showing two spikes, one at lunchtime and one later in the evening after people have gone home and had supper.

For business that drive response to their call centers the online phone number will most likely be prominently displayed on the site.  A call me back form may also be provided so customers don’t have to waste their money waiting on hold & listening to mind numbing elevator muzac as they move up the queue.

Whether it’s via call me back forms or via the web only contact number, potential customers will pick up the phone at a time that will suit them but staffing call centers is not as easy.

Within in normal working hours businesses can run fully staffed call centers at standard rates but after hours rates for call center staff typically increases by 50% and between 200 & 300% on other “special” days such as Christmas and Easter.

If there is a lull in call center traffic at any point within normal working hours then staff will be under utilised and money potentially wasted. This becomes more acute if call center traffic peaks after hours when either there isn’t the staff to deal with it resulting in lost revenue or there is the staff to deal with it but the associated cost is higher.

To mitigate increased costs through up-weighted call centre staffing at peak times after hours it makes sense to re-coup as much as possible at other slack(er) periods.

Using web analytics to shed light on when web traffic is likely to put pressure on a call center can help improve efficiencies and bring down running costs while keeping customers happy and revenue flowing in.

Where the web is driving a significant contribution to revenue it can pay to keep the web analyst up to speed with issues that don’t necessarily relate directly to the website.