Mark has a great post (read it - good info in the comments too) about building for the long term interest of the user. Couldn’t agree more:

In other words: a strategic focus on creating a good customer experience - that is, acting in the long-term best interest of the customer - is the most effective investment any team or company can make.

The benefit of a customer experience strategy, by the way, is made stronger by the relative lack of companies that use such an approach. Many companies - most of one’s competitors, in other words - still chase after short-term numbers by latching onto buzzwords, trends, and anything shiny.

At Judy’s Book, on-site customer experience has two main dimensions*. One is the quality of the site, how easy it is to navigate, how well it serves the user’s need, and the second is the content quality. If users are on beautifully designed pages that are easy to navigate, the content still has to be high quality. Managing content quality isn’t glamorous, but it has to be done. If anything, success only raises the burden here.

Improving the site flow and focusing on value to users requires keeping it simple, but not dumbing it down. One approach mentioned in the comments on Mark’s blog is essentially layering - keep the functionality, hide it from inexperienced users, but allow people to discover it over time. I agree with this approach - having a product that doesn’t do anything isn’t useful, but you can’t overwhelm new users with features. Also, keep out the things that aren’t relevant to the user problem you’re trying to solve.

As Mark suggests, focusing on improving customer experience with your product (and your company) is hard and requires persistent effort. I do think the rewards are worth it. I just wish the long term would get here sooner. :)

*I realize Customer experience isn’t just a function of the product, but also of how you interact with the customer on support emails, phone calls, complaints, etc. In this post however, I’m only addressing the product piece. Ultimately, every interaction someone has with your company adds up to define their perception of you overall.