Are you looking at your "return frequency" data?

Return frequency is probably one metric that is representative of customer satisfaction irrespective of the industry.

In a web based business, however, it is both, difficult to accurately measure return frequency and hard to utilize the data (provided we have a good sample) to promote our business.

In most reporting tools, return frequency is reported at site level - that is, how many times an average user is coming back to our site. And, therein lies the problem. First, it is only speaking about an average user. Second, it is only measuring the metric for the entire site. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as an average user, and more than likely, your site has more than a few dimensions. Consequently, a site-wide metric is only good for an "average user" - not a winning strategy for any business.

So, the first step is to adapt your anlytics software to show page and/or site section level return frequency. Then "de-average" the users into defined buckets, and classify site sections based on repeat visitation data. Combining these two insights will help you understand why a user is coming to a particular site section/page at your site. You can then tailor the experience to meet "most" needs of "majority" of users to the above site section/page. The reason I say "most and majority," is to emphasize that trying to classify 100% of your site usage will probably not yield best ROI on the effort invested. Picking top 5 or 10 site sections, for above improvements, will be a good start.

Do you have a specific question on this metric or others that you would like addressed? I promise to move it up my list of topics to discuss :)

Is the business Main Page enabling your consumers?

A lot is invested in creating that spell-binding first impression (our main page, or front door!), but are you doing all you can to ensure that the experience is in line with your consumers' expectations? I wanted to draw our attention to this often hyped, yet overlooked disconnect! Applying this concept to our web site may bring amazing results, not just in terms of conversion (this is unique based on our business goal/s), but also, consumer satisfaction, which drives loyalty and a positive "word of mouth" - all very important considerations!

The primary goal of your "front door" should be clearly defined, keeping in mind the needs of your consumers. Assuming, market research has helped you focus on the consumer need, the next step is to focus on your primary goals? Is it; branding, growing traffic, addressing a consumer need in your niche market, growing revenue, driving traffic to other parts of your site, etc. Once you chose the primary goal, the remainder on the list above can still be addressed as secondary goals, while staying focused on a positive consumer experience. One could also address more than one primary goal from the main page, but that starts to get into addressing a specific need within a niche market segment. A case in point - Google, which meets a critical consumer need for search and achieves several goals - high traffic, positive branding, etc.

So, the strategy should be identify/target a consumer need in the market segment, and tailor the experience to closely match your primary goal(s). Focus on one or the other and you risk losing consumer attention, loyalty and branding - all of which can hurt the business in the long term.