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Main content
Benchmark structure
The Customer Respect benchmark methodology is designed to help companies identify areas for improvement on websites, and to allow them benchmark performance against competitors, best practice examples and sites of special interest.
Teams of expert evaluators examine a site using the structured methodology, and results are presented using a range of deliverables, containing action items and a high-level summary.
Structure of the methodology
In a standard benchmark evaluation, each site is examined over the five core indexes - Content, Navigation, Search, Trust and Dialog. In turn, each index contains between six and ten Visitor Benefit Statements (VBSs), and each VBS is broken down into Specific Measureable Criteria (SMCs).
| Sub-index | Sample VBSs | Sample SMCs |
|---|---|---|
| Content | Are there sufficient help resources to facilitate further research on the main topic? | General FAQ or knowledge base |
| Contextual FAQ or knowledgebase in line with task | ||
| Independent material (reviews, endorsements) | ||
| ... | ||
| Are there alternative methods of content presentation that provide background information on the company, products or services? | RSS | |
| Interactive presentations | ||
| Non-interactive presenations | ||
| ... | ||
| ... | ||
| Navigation | Are there devices to help visitors work out where they are in the site, how it is structured, and their status? | Breadcrumb trail present on all pages |
| Main navigation menu changes to indicate the current site section | ||
| ... | ||
| ... | ||
| Search | Can visitors refine the search after viewing results? | Search within search |
| Limit scope | ||
| ... | ||
| ... | ||
| Trust | Does the site specifically seek to assure customers about reasonable concerns at the point of data collection? | Message about security of form |
| Level of mandatory information appropriate to task | ||
| ... | ||
| ... | ||
| Dialog | Does the site have a good "contact us" facility? | Telephone |
| ... | ||
| ... | ||