The search is on at HP.com:  One-Click Product Access drives improvements to the total customer experience

In 2004, HP introduced new “one-click” functionality with its site search application that was deployed worldwide across HP’s public Web site – www.hp.com – by the end of the year.  As part of HP’s strategy to provide solutions that are high-tech, low cost and deliver the best total customer experience, the One-Click Product Access project emerged from a thorough analysis of site usage data and customer feedback. 

Today, the solution provides HP customers who are searching for information about a specific product on the HP Web site with a set of Product Quick Links in addition to relevancy-ranked search results. 

The impact of this enhancement has been both significant and measurable.  Once activated, customers are using Product Quick Links 68% of the time.  The One-Click solution has also led to increases in both customer satisfaction and sales conversion rates.

“The One-Click Product Access project dramatically enhances the customer experience, so that customers with a known product can access cross-lifecycle product information in one click by using standard methods of navigation,” says Stephanie Acker-Moy, Vice President of Internet and Marketing Services at HP.  “One-Click is truly making it easier for customers to engage with HP.”

Historical search challenges at HP

The first challenge HP faced was to implement a search application with relevance across HP’s Web pages worldwide.

“This was at a time when the number of pages on HP.com was expanding rapidly and content was managed relatively independently by teams across the company,” explains Jennifer Moyer, Manager of the HP Internet and Marketing Services User Assistance Services Team.  “One of the major hurdles we faced was that page titles and descriptions were inconsistent or absent – and that greatly hampered an effective search process.  To help solve this problem, HP undertook a significant effort to educate our Web development teams about how to create ‘searchable’ content.  Working together, we dramatically improved the quality of search results on HP.com.”

“The second challenge was to create a consistent search service for each country Web site – for example, ensuring the customer searching the HP.com site in Japan has the same chance of success as the searcher in, say, France.  Now we provide search applications that are specific to each of our 70-plus country Web sites,” says Moyer.  “And we enhance them continuously and comprehensively.”

Search methods mature along with the Internet and customers who use it

As the Internet matured and as HP strengthened its search applications, search capability transitioned from a last-ditch effort into a preferred method for finding information quickly.  “We found that more customers wanted to be in the driver’s seat – to use their own language to navigate our Web site,” explains Moyer.  “In support of this transition, we increased the visibility of our search application and began to use it as a guide to the HP Web site.”

For example, when new products are introduced or a major press release is published, a team of employees at HP thinks through how the company should respond to customer queries about these topics in the search application.  “Along with providing a list of results that best match users’ specific queries, we present a recommended set of country-specific and language-specific links to the best starting points for this information on the HP site,” adds Moyer.

It’s all about the customer

HP’s search methodology is completely user-centric.  “Our goal it to take the work out of finding information on HP.com,” says Moyer.  “If ever we release a feature that is not proving useful to our customers, we remove it.  If it’s not saving the user time, it’s costing them time – in reading the page, in figuring out the capability, or waiting for our systems to render the application.” 

To determine what changes will have a positive impact on the customer, the team pulls from every available source of customer data – log file analysis, customer surveys, online polls, email from customers, usability studies, competitive assessments, secondary research from co-workers friends and family.

Moyer says that it was this multi-faceted comprehensive approach that helped her team determine the need for Product Quick Links as part of the One-Click Product Access search application.

Case in point:  Product Quick Links in HP.com search

The early phases of Product Quick Links development began with an analysis project to classify thousands of queries from different countries.  “We asked:  Were users asking questions?  Were they looking for information about the interaction between products?  Were they entering short topical queries?  Were they typing in their product numbers or error messages literally,” explains Moyer.  “Then we dug into one of the largest classifications of searches on our sites – product number searching.”

What HP learned is that:

·         Customers not only want but also expect radical simplicity and relevance in online engagements with HP.

·         Customers want to be able to target relevant product information using product codes, such as model numbers, SKU numbers, partner numbers and patch numbers.  This type of search, in fact, accounts for 60% of all searching on HP.com.

·         Customers feel that searches containing specific product names, numbers, SKUs and portions of information thereof – such as entering “1200” rather than “LaserJet 1200” are very specific if not unique and should produce limited, structured results.

·         Customers expect HP to intuit their intentions from queries and to guide the site navigation experience. 

·         Customers have a more satisfactory experience when HP recognizes intent and responds by validating their query and mapping the exact terms used to relevant, structured information.

“This reaffirmed our belief that search tools for major sites are not an alternative to but an integral part of site navigation,” says Moyer.

Research drives results:  Successful global rollout of Quick Product Links

The Product Quick Links capability was launched worldwide in multiple deployments throughout 2004.  Deployment began last spring within the U.S. HP.com search application with support-only links and quickly progressed to include the full product lifecycle including presales links.  In late summer 2004, the first three international releases of Product Quick Links were deployed in Brazil, Korea and the Unitized Kingdom, with worldwide deployment completed in November of last year.  Today, Product Quick Links capabilities are now available for almost all of HP’s live products and many retired products.

Throughout the deployment, HP continued to enhance the functionality of the Quick Product Links solution.  For example, if a customer submitted a query that is ambiguous, such as “2200”, the search system first returns a list of matching product lines to narrow the selection.  When a customer selects a single product, the search engine displays options that cover the lifecycle of relevant links plus a product image.  “This process allows our customers to direct the search and navigation experience easily and naturally – without having to learn HP’s classification system or business structures,” comments Moyer.

The initial support-only release of Quick Product Links showed a 48% click-through rate that has since increased to 68% in the U.S.  Regionally, the Product Quick Links solution is triggered for 44% of HP.com searches in the United Kingdom, 50% in Korea and 46% in Brazil.  Worldwide, Product Quick Links are used 68% of the time they are presented to users – with that rate climbing to 80% or higher in many countries.

Customers are quick to respond

Customer surveys and feedback show that One-Click Product Access and Product Quick Links are definitely boosting customer satisfaction.  In a recent survey, One-Click users expressed a significantly higher confidence in finding what they were looking for and rated usefulness of information significantly higher than users of “regular” search links.  This is particularly noticeable for users who used search to find driver/software downloads or to get product technical support. 

One customer puts it this way:  “You are already doing a pretty good job.  This is my first attempt at this particular search [and I found what I’m looking for].  It normally takes me a couple of tries to get my search term right.”  Another customer adds:  “Thank you for all your effort you are putting in this site.”  Yet another customer states: “You have one of the better Web sites when it comes to looking for information.”  Additional compliments include:   “Thanks for listening!  Product specifications and driver updates should come up as the first search result.  This makes life [as a consultant] so much easier!”

The success of Product Quick Links can be measured in another way – with recent data research and analysis showing that customers who use Product Quick Links are several times as likely to buy from an HP online store as those who use search alone.  With certain customer segments, One-Click purchase conversion rate is two-to-four times greater than demand generation activities such as paid search and external ads.

Lessons learned

“We’ve learned quite a lot through the research, development and launch of One-Click Product Access,” says Moyer.  “For one thing we discovered that customers are searching for a much greater breadth of product information than we’d ever imagined – adding up to nearly 15,000 specific HP models that customers search for each month.  Without comprehensive coverage of our product lines, this search solution could not have been successful.  There was no 80-20 rule that could be applied to this problem.  That is we couldn’t surmise that 80 percent of customers were looking for 20 percent of the products.  I think we surprised even ourselves with the amount of great product support and marketing content HP publishes on the Web for our customers.”

Other insights?

“If you build it, they will come,” continues Moyer.  “As the One-Click solution took hold and proved to be more valuable to customers and to HP than was forecast, teams from across the company began contacting us to contribute to the success and evolution of the solution.  Now when we plan enhancements, we look for ways to incent other teams to directly provide input in a way that positively impacts the solution or even encourages them to own a component of it.”

The HP team has also learned that innovation increases with expectations.  Moyer explains it this way:  “Imagine asking a question of someone who never seemed to understand you.  Then suddenly that person responds with the perfect answer.  Now you’re engaged.  Now you are more likely to ask another question.  When we create this type of situation online, we need to recognize that innovation brings new expectations – not only of the search application but also of HP as a whole.  Because the answer we provide to the second question from our customer could be more important than the answer to the first.”

Moyer also offers this advice to other companies looking to improve the search process.  “Approach site search design as you would approach product marketing.  Take the time to truly know and understand what your customers want.  Study the results of your customer surveys and read the emails customers take the time to send you.  Then measure what’s important so you can empower your teams to do what is best for the customer.” 

As part of HP’s One-Click Product Access search capability, structured, authoritative Product Quick Links represent the best starting points on HP.com for a specific product.

HP.com Product Quick Links in French

HP.com Product Quick Links in Korean