insights! #33: improving customer experience through digital empathy

Joubin Rahimi:
Fantastic that you're back for this new insights! episode! My name is Joubin Rahimi and today I have Katja Moritz as my guest. Hello, Katja.

Katja Moritz:
Hello, Joubin.

Joubin Rahimi:
Today it's about digital body language. First it would be great if, before we get into the topic, you could say a sentence or two about yourself.

Katja Moritz:
Gladly. Hi, I'm Katja, I'm User Experience Manager at brytes. At brytes, it's very much about website content. How can we improve pages? And together with my colleagues, I develop the measures we then put into practice. We can gladly go into more detail on what that means shortly.

Joubin Rahimi:
Great. And you don't just do this off the cuff, as they say in Cologne, but you have a scientifically grounded basis for it. Maybe you could say a sentence or two about that.

Katja Moritz:
Exactly. We work with scientific foundations, meaning we apply certain behavioural principles. We analyse customers' body language on the websites, look at what they do. And derive specific recommendations for action for the shops we support from that.

Joubin Rahimi:
Body language is an important topic. I just noticed I've sat differently here again. I also wondered whether to face the mic or you. But I'll orient myself towards you now. Anyway, tell us a bit – what is digital body language, to start with?

Katja Moritz:
We took on a problem at brytes, and it's exactly this topic: what is digital body language? We all know, of course, what body language is in the offline world. That means we see certain postures, gestures, facial expressions. And the problem is that many shop operators don't know how the customers who are currently active in their shops behave, especially in the online space. And what we then do is analyse exactly this digital body language. That can be something like a certain scrolling behaviour. It can be which pages a customer moves through. Does he click on something, does he click on nothing, which search terms does he enter? All the interactions the customer has with the page, all of that together makes up the customer's digital body language.

Joubin Rahimi:
But isn't that actually something we already have: web analytics? Or is that too simple a view?

Katja Moritz:
Well, this web analytics is used to work out certain customer intentions from it. That means we look at it and interpret this data too. Of course, there are also aspects that are simply recorded and captured along the way. That's also, in a sense, part of web analytics. But digital body language also encompasses the aspect of interpreting this content and translating it into concrete intentions, wishes and needs.

Joubin Rahimi:
That actually goes step beyond web analytics.

Katja Moritz:
Exactly.

Joubin Rahimi:
And body language is also something where you say, if I click differently, I can read something from it.

Katja Moritz:
Exactly. One example could be, we look at search terms. Does a customer enter that they're looking for white sneakers, for example, or do they enter a specific model with a brand and a size, then those might initially be the same information: they're searching for something. But the content alone can already tell us something about what exactly they're looking for. Where might they be in their purchasing behaviour? Are they already well advanced, have they already shortlisted products? Do they want general information? And that from this one example alone. And there are of course hundreds of factors that together map out the digital body language. And the combination of these then tells us, for example, about a customer journey phase a customer is currently in.

Joubin Rahimi:
Ok, you wear white trainers too. Let's take an example I'm familiar with: bicycle parts. Two years ago I bought a power meter, measuring pedals like that. I'll give two examples, maybe you can tell me where I am in the journey. Once when I enter power meter pedals, that's one term. And the other is Garmin SLX 400. I don't know if that's the exact name of the item, but of course there are these parts not just from Garmin, but from others too. Where do I stand at these two points? So once when I name the product category and then the item name?

Katja Moritz:
It'll probably be the case that if you want to inform yourself in general, or by the time you reach the point where you know this model, you've probably already gone through that other step beforehand. That is, you'd normally start by having a need and saying, I need something for my bike, and then you inform yourself about it. What exactly could this something be? What solves my specific problem? Then you'd probably rather go searching for general power meters. You then look at various products, perhaps various shops too, and settle on a relevant set of products. That could then, for example, include the model just mentioned. And after that you'd typically go searching for which shop to buy it from. That is, you can go through both of these steps yourself, but that will happen at different points in time. That is, you also develop further in your customer journey, and the same person can display different behaviours at different points in time. That's exactly what's exciting, the situational aspect.

Joubin Rahimi:
Totally clear. If I don't yet know which products would really excite me, I can't enter them into the search engine either. That was a very trivial example just now. When I go to America, that's always the best example for me, and go into a shop there, you get bombarded with the whole range of offers. And I think to myself, surely they must be able to tell from my body language that I don't want that. I want to be left alone. I'm German. I want to be left alone and not go straight into conversation. I want to look by myself. I can do the hunting myself. Can you also recognise that, when someone freshly walks into the shop, and how do you then respond to that behaviour? And what counts as fresh?

Katja Moritz:
As an example, we could look at what the customer's entry page is. Is it someone who lands on the homepage? Then they've probably not necessarily settled on products yet. But is it someone who lands on a specific product? Then they've probably already engaged with that product in some way, arrived there via some recommendation link or paid search, meaning they're probably already relatively set on that product. In that case we might prefer to highlight positive attributes of the shop, such as fast delivery times, good reviews, to strengthen trust in the shop. And in other cases, where the customer is browsing generally for information, we might prefer to give orientation aids for using the site. And there it's important to consider where the customer comes from, how I can address them, and what I actually know about the customer. You perhaps can't necessarily tell in America that you're from Germany. Or the same would go for me just as little ...

Joubin Rahimi:
...blonde hair, blue eyes.

Katja Moritz:
Who know. But exactly this make good salesperson – interpret such info. Maybe in America exactly this wanted. Can have regional diff in Europe and America too. Even diff between Germany, Austria, Switzerland can be big in parts. So maybe stuff work in Germany, not at all in Switzerland. Must handle that individually.

Joubin Rahimi:
Let me jump in there. Do you have an example of something that worked in Germany but not in Switzerland or Austria? Or the other way round?

Katja Moritz:
We've implemented certain measures with us in various countries too. Meaning customers run shops in various countries and there we could clearly prove these differences with data. Some measures simply didn't work as well. Perhaps there are simply more bargain hunters in Germany, so highlighting discounts works better in Germany than in Switzerland.

Joubin Rahimi:
Is that fact or assumption?

Katja Moritz:
That's an assumption now. We definitely saw different performances in the data. But whether it's really the bargain hunter behind it, who might not be so represented in Switzerland, that would be my assumption for now.

Joubin Rahimi:
Okay, though it must be said, Aldi and Lidl actually come from Germany and not from Austria or Switzerland. Now we're already talking about types, i.e. the bargain hunter, the one who wants to get a good deal. But I suspect not all Germans are always just bargain hunters wanting a good deal – there are different attitudes. Do you have experience with that? What do you segment by in your work, and how can you recognise things, for example?

Katja Moritz:
There are actually many different types of bargain hunters. These can be people who simply look for the cheapest product. They can also be people who say I want very high product quality but at the best price. That means here too you have to distinguish which bargain hunter you're actually talking to, in order to reach them correctly. And you can determine that, for example, by things like: how are price filters used? Where does the customer come from? Is it a price comparison portal? Then that already tells us something. Most price comparison portals link directly to product pages, meaning you search for your product on the portal, so you're already relatively set on the product, then land on the shop page and probably just look for the cheapest price. These are often also customers who are only there briefly, who might not necessarily become regular customers. That means we have to reach them at that point too. We have a small chance to win them over for the shop once, and we have to immediately strengthen trust in the shop. And we'd approach them differently than, say, customers who are just generally browsing a page for information, who perhaps came to a shop more organically. Then you could send them to the sale area, because they like to be inspired and just want to see which products are currently cheap. They might just want to get a good deal and not focus on a specific product at all.

Joubin Rahimi:
I know some sites where you go into checkout and there's nothing there. And on other sites, the checkout is simply part of the normal page. And I've caught myself noticing something else on the right-hand side. And then you look at that too and forget you actually wanted to check out. I'd guess this happens to a lot of shop operators, that you might say, if I've already got someone who genuinely wants to buy, don't disturb them any further. But how do I recognise that someone wants to buy? Or do I always have to adapt the checkout? When does a discount code appear, or not? If I'm already set to buy, I'd take it along.

Katja Moritz:
Exactly. If you're already firmly determined to buy, the shop doesn't actually need to grant you that discount any more. That means, as a shop operator, you can also make use of a certain efficiency with exactly such measures: I keep my checkout very clean and I no longer distract my customer from possibly putting other products in the basket. There's always the question of balancing an improved conversion rate against a higher basket value, because both can of course positively affect revenue in the end. If you have a higher basket value but fewer purchases, that can lead to just as much revenue as the other way round – higher conversion rate but lower basket value. And it certainly also depends on the products you sell. Are these more like impulse items, more low-price items? Or are these really things like, for example, a racing bike you might buy for 10,000 euros, where you really need to inform yourself first? There are definitely differences between products. The shop then has to try that out for itself. Who are my customers, and how can I reach them there? We've definitely found that when we can recognise clear purchase intent, because someone is going straight for products, putting them in the basket and starting checkout immediately, then we leave them alone. But if it's someone who's perhaps a bit more hesitant, has several sessions in a row, visits the basket multiple times, leaves again, adds products to the wishlist beforehand, then that might be exactly the moment where we can set the decisive trigger with a discount code and get them to complete the purchase after all.

Joubin Rahimi:
Great! That's what we have the software for, even though that's not the point right now, but these insights help everyone. But maybe you have one or two more insights on body language, where you'd say if you spot a pattern like that, it's very likely an expression of ...

Katja Moritz:
There I'd actually just see the customer's entry page as a decisive characteristic. Is it the homepage? Is it a general information page that simply represents a particular product category? Then I know the customer might still need help with selection. So I can, for example, highlight tools that make the selection easier for them, filter options or also offer a chat. But if I see it's a customer who's moving very specifically and perhaps enters directly via a product detail page, then I can already say quite clearly they're fairly decided. So I'd rather highlight my shop USP and strengthen trust in the shop as such.

Joubin Rahimi:
Great, thanks for the insights on this topic. And for questions, feel free to reach out to us via the relevant comment functions or via corresponding e-mails and messages. That way we can keep the discussion going. Thank you, Katja!

Katja Moritz:
Many thanks.