PixelMEDIA Inc.

Business Challenge
Cbeyond offers managed communications services to small businesses in several major metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. Its CbeyondOnline service and support portal allows more than 29,000 customers to view and manage their accounts, including phone, email, and Internet services. The portal is a valuable tool in assisting customers with their needs, while also reducing the number of support calls to customer service.

Always focused on improving service, Cbeyond turned to PixelMEDIA’s Usability and User Research offering to evaluate the application and find ways to enhance the customer experience—as well as continue to decrease the need for support calls.

PixelMEDIA Solution
In years past, PixelMEDIA had conducted informal usability testing for Cbeyond to improve specific application features and functionality. For this latest upgrade, PixelMEDIA recommended a more formal approach and utilized Morae’s video-enabled usability software for task-based user testing that would capture true, indisputable evidence of customer preferences and recommendations.

PixelMEDIA collaborated with Cbeyond to define user types and identify common tasks for the testing. The one-hour sessions were conducted onsite at Cbeyond’s Atlanta headquarters and included a range of customers, from business owners and administrative assistants to IT professionals. PixelMEDIA’s usability experts implemented three methods of data collection:

• Participant Profile Interviews—Customers were interviewed and asked questions about their work and use of the CbeyondOnline self-service application portal.
• Task-based Online Exercise—Leveraging Morae software to observe and record how users interact with the Cbeyond application via video, PixelMEDIA led customers through a script of defined online tasks. They were instructed to “think out loud” so that their facial expressions and voice could be recorded in conjunction with their online screens and actions.
• Debriefing Questions—Users were asked questions about the online testing experience, including likes/dislikes, areas of frustration, and suggestions for different navigation or text within the application.

The Impact
Based on the findings from this research, PixelMEDIA delivered a comprehensive usability report that offered several recommendations supported by video footage of the users being tested:

• Streamlined content and navigation will create a more engaging interface, increasing the overall usage of the application
• An enhanced design with new color coding will help users find what they need more quickly
• Tighter integration between the application and help tools will deliver a more rewarding experience

With these results, Cbeyond and PixelMEDIA had the direction—and confidence—to move forward with an enhanced interface and improved functionality that will deliver a better overall customer experience.

The usability testing conducted by PixelMEDIA helped us work more efficiently in designing and developing the right application for our customers. We would recommend this service before you start any web-based initiative. —Heather Snell, Director of CbeyondOnline

For this solution, PixelMEDIA provided the following User Experience services:

• User Profiles and Interviews
• Usability Testing with Morae Software
• Task Analysis
• Research Report and Recommendations

Tags: customer experience, Usability, user research