One of the major areas of focus at Telcom is the constant and ongoing improvement of the ways through which customers interact with us. The current state of many UK (and global) internet providers is quite a convoluted one; Jargon is rampant and people can have difficulty differentiating between the various options on offer.
Last month we launched our new simplified pricing options, and today we proudly launch our most recent step in this process; Our shiny new website.
The old site was pretty useless.
Our first site was a web of services and ideas; We were so keen to tell people about everything we could do, we simply just kept patching pages on without any real vision of the overall structure, and that lack of structure translated to a slightly confusing maze for our customers to navigate.
What do people actually want?
So... if the old site was bad, the next step was to start to work out what could be defined as 'good'.
After much thought, we set down 3 tenets for our new build:
- Allow customers to find and action what they want with as little effort as possible
Primarily the site is a tool for customers to choose and manage their connection. They likely aren't as super excited and interested in connectivity as we are and just want to get online as quickly and easily as possible. Our job is to make sure they can. - Minimise the number of questions they have along the way
Connectivity can get a little complicated when you start looking into its various aspects. The site needs to reduce the number of queries that pop into a customers heads as they look through the offering. This is done by both keeping language and concepts simple and also by making sure that any language or concept that is introduced, is explained in a satisfactory way. - No user-hostile behaviour
We want to instill trust in our customers and will build our website to reflect that. No sneaking unnecessary products into the checkout and no "uncheck this box if you don't want to not join our mailing list"
So... with those in mind, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work on our, simpler, clearer and prettier new site.
Our second attempt
So here it is... our second attempt. By no means the end product, but hopefully a decent improvement on its predecessor. Here are some of the highlights:
Simpler welcome page
When people arrive on the site we want to get them to where they are looking for as quickly as possible. Our home page now does 4 things:
- Tells people what we do with a one-line pitch
- Presents the two main options (Home Internet and Business Internet) within sight when the page is opened
- Has a strip for accessing announcements and blog posts like this one
- Offers 3 of our less commonly accessed services lower down the page
Clearer service offering + Simple, understandable pricing
The biggest change we made, not only to the site, but across the company was to create a clearer, and more understandable service offering. Looking at our various customers, we were able to reduce their needs down to a one normal home connection type and three business connection types. For more details, check out the post on our new internet offerings.
Each offering, (Fibre, Access, Essential and Priority) now has their own page, talking about the benefits of each and who they are designed for to give people a better idea of what connection is suited to them.
An example of the Priority connection class page:
Making it clear what you get and giving examples of the type of businesses the connection is designed for:
We also have created our new speed picker which not only tells you the full pricing, but also tries to include a description of the speed that will be useful to the person deciding what connection they need.
Easier signup from anywhere
The simplest change we made to the site was to add a easier path for people who just want to get online. On the top right of all pages, even this one, you can click 'get connected' to start you on the journey to getting set up.
From there you'll be taken to our new signup pathway, one of the areas we will be putting the most work into in the coming months. The goal of this system is simple; to get people from 'I want this' to 'online' as quickly and as easily as possible.
Nicer to look at, on all devices
The other peeve I had with the old site was that it was simply a bit useless looking. The pages are quite dry and colourless and it just felt like people using it would be falling asleep at their keyboards.
We've added a bit more colour and imagery to this new build as well as putting a bit more work into optimising it for different screen sizes.
Our first steps towards 'Control'
At Telcom, we are very excited about our Telcom Control project. We've been working on it from day 1 and are sure it is going to completely change how the company works. It will be the first time that we can truly leverage our new, technology-focused infrastructure to simultaneously make our customers' lives easier and our customer support more efficient. I don't want to spoil the big reveal too much, but think you guys will like it!
Stay tuned!
