Navigating to Customer Success

Continued

Like many companies’ e-commerce environments, TomTom’s was complex, relying on several systems. As a result, it was possible that no one would notice when individual failures occurred—especially if the Web site was still up and running. When it came down to it, there was no way to tell if the individual end-to-end user processes were working correctly.

“It is surprising that we didn’t have good insight into our e-commerce experience, but it makes sense given that in the past the focus of TomTom was on making great portable navigation devices and working with our retail partners to sell them,” says Diele. “But we’re in a transition phase, expanding from an electronics manufacturer to a content-and-services provider. Now we know that monetizing content and services is a very good growth opportunity for the future.”

Gaining Insight into the Customer Experience

But putting the company in a position to capture that revenue would require a different approach to e-commerce management. That’s when TomTom contacted Oracle and decided to try out Oracle Real User Experience Insight.

“Oracle believed so much in the product that they said, ‘Try it. We know this is what you need, and if it’s not the case, we’ll pick everything up and take it all back,’” says Diele. “It was very, very open, and they showed a lot of confidence in the solution they provided.”

Given the low risk and the potential upside, TomTom proceeded. “The product did what Oracle promised,” says Diele. “It gave us valuable insights into the end user experience and provided guidance to us on where to optimize the process. That’s when we decided to actually purchase the product.”

Oracle Real User Experience Insight allowed TomTom to identify the weakest links in the end-to-end customer process and which e-commerce or back-office systems weren’t working correctly. “It helped us to get our IT teams focused on the business objective of improving our end-to-end user experience,” says Diele.

Like many company’s e-commerce infrastructures, TomTom’s was built from many different applications and systems that were not necessarily intended to work together but nonetheless provide customers with a complete e-commerce experience.

“After deploying Oracle Real User Experience Insight, we really got a better understanding of how our e-commerce interactions worked and where the points of failure were,” says Diele. “We also learned how we could optimize the system to obtain the best ROI [return on investment]. I’m convinced that for us, this product will pay back within the first six months, easily.”

Business-Focused Decision

For TomTom, the decision to invest in Oracle Real User Experience Insight was driven by business needs, not IT requirements. “Our e-commerce sales and Web site are extremely important for the future growth of our business, both in terms of their financial implications as well as their impact on our customer relationships,” says Diele. “So it wasn’t a hard decision to make this investment.”

In some companies, this type of tool might be the responsibility of the IT department. But in a fast-growing company such as TomTom, the driver for business-focused IT end-user experience management came down to a business imperative.

“It all starts with our business objectives. We’re doing this because there’s a lot of value in our content and services,” says Diele. “Every hour that the Web site is not performing to its max, it costs us money and more importantly doesn’t meet the high quality standards we have for our customers. My objective is to increase the business and benefits that we can drive with our end users.”

That’s why Diele’s e-commerce group, and not the IT department, was the key driver for the system. “My business unit was the main sponsor of this investment, but we did make sure to get buy-in from our experts in the technical department, who’d be working with the product on a day-to-day basis,” he notes.

Diele also had to make an investment proposal to the board of directors, who approved the purchase.

“The board recognized the tremendous upside potential in time and availability of our end-user interface, and they saw this as a critical tool in catching those opportunities,” says Diele. “That’s why they approved the investment.”