Customers of the Future

Cambridge founded in 1991 1999 Revenues of $628m 40% of revenue outside of North America 50 offices in 19 countries on 5 continents More than 4,000 employees worldwide

Services Interactive Solutions Customer Management Solutions Digital Strategy and Planning Management Consulting Network Services/CTI Training and Assimilation Services

Cambridge Technology Partners

Cambridge in Australia

Established in May 1997 Focus on delivering eBusiness Solutions Clients are listed in Top 100 companies in

Australia Offices in Sydney & Melbourne Over 110 staff

A focus group of young consumers From regional & metropolitan areas around

Sydney and Melbourne Aged between 16 and 22 Met in Sydney and Melbourne sessions

between May and October 2000 They discussed issues and innovations relating

to the Internet and IT industry

Who are Customers of the Future?

Why Customers of the Future?

Cambridge is concentrating on the New Economy challenges that our client’s face when trying to understand issues that young consumers are having on a day to day basis.

What we discovered ... Initially security was an issue Positive purchasing experiences helped reduce the

reluctance to buy online Group was evenly split over privacy on the Internet

personal details seem widely available (online/offline) entering excessive personal details online is disliked they recognise the gathering of data as a market research

tool

Junk email confirmation & delivery notices are welcome junk email is received every day junk email is regarded as rubbish and deleted without being

read

Look & Feel of the Site some sites attracted groups members while at the same

time turned off others in the group dark backgrounds, lots of information make the site “busy” this was attractive to the guys, but not to the girls

Branding gravitated towards sites they had heard of before not related to sites with bricks & mortar stores advertising pays off - gravitation towards known sites gravitation towards branded products gave the site a sense

of confidence site design became important in making decisions about

whether or not to trust lesser known sites

What we discovered … cont.

Australia vs Rest of the World a real preference for Australian sites is this patriotism? key influences are:

price

speed of delivery

previous poor purchasing experiences

a view that if something goes wrong it’s easier to rectify locally

What we discovered … cont.

What didn’t they like...

Pop-up screens asking for registration details Links not working Not having enough information to allay fears

about what to do when: receiving incorrect items receiving damaged goods how to exchange items

What they really liked... Getting information about products

listening to CD’s reading reviews written by other buyers knowing the dimensions of a product

Good site navigation visually interesting balance of flash & 3D animation necessary for speed quick and easy access to information and services

A timely reminder...

Sometimes it’s just about having access to

products & services

Understanding your audience

Effective design means understanding your audience

More than demographics and market segments

Learn what turns your customers ‘on’ and ‘off’

Logistics of the sessions

4 pairs of sessions

Discussion around a large central table

3 hours focus group sessions - Sunday morning

Facilitators / Audio recording / reports

Activities in the sessions

Introductory activity

Review of previous purchase

Purchase product over the internet

Discuss purchase

Summary of results

Shift in purchasing concern from privacy to delivery logistics statistics => privacy & security questions that started to be asked delays (2 months+) & order cancellations misleading delivery information tolerance of delivery delays (metro vs. non-metro) opportunity to exploit ‘Australian-ism’

Emails tens of ‘junk’ emails each week deleted, blocked & companies criticised

Summary of results cont.

Site Design good navigation expected search tools for specific searches through flat structures

eg. Book clear, simple, easy to use category structures for browsing

eg. Gift purchase

Content reviews from other purchasers opportunity to sample the product when appropriate at least as much info as supplied with the physical product

Customers of the future 2001 Expanded program Industry + academia

Questions ?