How come folks do business with you? Because you’re a family owned and operated company? Because you’ve been slogging along for 126 years? Because you have sterling customer service? Great prices and cool sales assistants? You may have all these things going for you, but it’s probably not why your customers come to you. And it’s not the stuff that’s really going to persuade potential customers to do business with you.
There’s something special about your business, and it isn’t even completely defined by your Unique Value Proposition. You know what’s special about you – trust me. It’s just that you don’t know you know it, or you don’t think it’s important enough. So it isn’t something you communicate to your potential customers.
That’s where the process of Uncovery rushes in to save the day.
No doubt you recall MAP, our methodology that guides you through developing the persuasive architecture of your Web site? Uncovery is the first phase in the process:
“Skillful uncovery is the first necessary step toward designing and developing effective persuasive architecture. Neglecting this phase would be the architectural equivalent of constructing a building but omitting the footers! Uncovery is responsible for mapping objectives, developing strategy, understanding the customer's buying process, understanding and refining the sales process, researching keywords and key phrases and defining the key business metrics you will use. If you don't get the uncovery part right, you won't be able to define or measure success.”
Okay, so it’s appears to be all the stuff that gets the ball rolling. But what does it mean?
The truth is, most folks don’t really know why people do business with them. They suffer from an “inside the bottle” mentality that keeps them from seeing what’s truly going on around them. There are often crucial pieces of information that are hidden to them, and thus hidden to their potential customers. The purpose of uncovery is to root out that information and share it with everyone.
One of the best models to understand what the uncovery process accomplishes is the Johari Window, a communications model invented by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in the 60s. It describes the process of human interaction. If you can apply this as a model for interaction design, it is even more pertinent for the Web.
Let’s talk about the Johari Window. “Self,” that’s me, and I’m a whiz-bang tax lawyer. “Others,” that’s you, my customers and potential customer base.
The OPEN quadrant represents all the information we both know about my business. It’s the stuff I acknowledge about myself and put into brochures, or magazines, or newspapers, or on television so that you know it too. You and I share this information. It’s OPEN.
Then there’s information you know about me that I don’t ever get to learn. You might have heard someone complain ‘cause I wouldn’t let him itemize a deduction the way he wanted. Your neighbor may have had several experiences she’s happy to share with you. You know this stuff, but I don’t. I am BLIND to it.
The information that you and I both don’t know is UNKNOWN. It might not always stay UNKNOWN as we continue along the path of doing business together, so it basically represents future possibility.
The critical piece I need to grasp for my Web efforts to be most successful is the HIDDEN area, the part that I actually know about myself and you’re really desperate to know.
Think about this. When was the last time you made a considered purchase? It probably took a lot of time – you probably spent a lot of time researching and shopping around. And eventually, still with unanswered questions, you came to the Web hoping you’d find reviews and opinions that provided the answers you needed to discover.
This is the main reason why many visitors come to the Web to do business with you, and this is the area that you want to open up as much as possible. By being the resource that finally answers the questions your visitors can’t get answered anywhere else, this is where you can really maximize the ROI of your Web site.
After all, the more you are able to help your visitors meet their goals, the more you will help you meet yours.
Stay tuned to this same Grok channel. Next time we’ll peek into what happens in the uncovery process!
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