by Janus Boye
The effects of physical distancing have created a lot of opportunity to increase loyalty from existing customers, and capture new ones, via your website. There's also the risk of losing customers and brand value if you can't accommodate their shifting expectations.
That all means companies need to do more to support their customers via their websites. And the economic impact of everyone staying indoors means that a lot of companies are cutting budgets and staff. They need to do more, with less, in a complex environment.
In our recent member conference call, Laura Stringer shared four key things that leaders and their teams can do - starting right now - to improve their website and streamline its operations.
These are all things you can do without spending additional money, and in some cases may actually reduce costs!
Four actions to better serve customers
In her presentation (download PDF), Laura actually kicked off by a few things not to do. She called for a stop to redesigns, one-off, specialized projects and shadow sites.
She also made the important opening point, that many businesses are in survival mode right now due to the impact of the pandemic. This also means that so much has changed, so don’t make assumptions right now about what customers need!
She then went on to her four recommended actions to streamline your website operations:
Show IT some love - like by nurturing the relationship between IT and other stakeholders and by listening to the suggestions by IT
Manage it like a product - with inspiration from product management, sprint planning, communication and prioritizing
Repurpose content - what can we do better in terms of storytelling and perhaps combining existing content types
Make a pattern library - a way to catalog each different component you have in action. A pattern library creates efficiency, facilities governance and empowers editors
Reflections on what really happens in large, complex website programs
In particular taking inspiration from product management and the pattern library seemed to resonate with the call participants.
Also, as Laura said in a memorable quote
Bad communication - in particular with stakeholders - can kill your project
One of my personal highlights of the call, was Laura’s emphasis on translation between IT, marketing or other stakeholders. That’s good advice that bears repeating.
She also asked a simple question on how decisions are made. Understanding that process in your organisation can unlock many efficiencies!
Finally, we covered RACI, which remain commonly used, but Laura advises caution:
If they get too complicated, no one follows them. As with any governance outside highly regulated environments
Learn more
During the call we also talked about FAQ’s, which Laura are not a fan of. For more on the "to-faq-or-not-to-faq" waters, Laura referred to Carrie Hane’s excellent post: 5 reasons not to use FAQs.
You can also enjoy the 42-minute recording below.
Finally, do consider becoming a member. You can also meet Laura in person in our CMS Expert group or do leave a comment below to continue the conversation.