The Stranger's Long Neck

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The Stranger's Long Neck is a practical guide for any manager wishing to improve their organisation's online performance. Web content specialist, Gerry McGovern, explains that all websites have a small set of tasks, or 'long necks', that are important to its customers and that must be easy to complete or customers will go elsewhere. The Stranger's Long Neck shows how to tune in effectively to what your customers want - and then deliver it with aplomb. Understanding customer needs can be a difficult task when customers are 'strangers', in that he or she is always 'on the outside', particularly so in an online environment. Using case studies including Tetra Pak, Microsoft and the NHS, and illustrated with web shots throughout, The Stranger's Long Neck shows how organisations can use the 'long neck' theory to create and manage efficient and user-friendly websites.

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Essential advice for anyone seeking to improve their organisation's online performance Accessible style, practical information and proven results: case studies included from Microsoft, Tetra Pak and the NHS Loyal author following: Gerry has more than 10,000 subscribers to his newsletter around the world Gerry McGovern is a Web content specialist guru. Killer Web Content (A&C Black) has now sold over 10,000 copies since publication in 2006 and The Stranger's Long Neck deals with a similar topic that will appeal to his diehard fans

Acknowledgements vi 1. Trading with strangers 1 2. Gut instinct and the information tsunami 14 3. From Long Tail to Dead Zone 20 4. The rise of the Long Neck 26 5. A secret method for understanding your customers 32 6. There are always tasks 45 7. Defi ning tasks at NHS Choices 52 8. Free money: That's what we want 74 9. Organization v. customer thinking 93 10. How the Microsoft Excel Web site dramatically improved customer satisfaction 101 11. A method for managing search 118 12. Deliver what customers want-not what you want 132 13. Measuring success: Back to basics 143 14. Preparing for task measurement 157 15. Carrying out a task measurement 170 16. Those practical, innovative Swedes 180 17. Fox meets chicken 206 Further Reading 213 Index 215

About the Author

Gerry McGovern is the author of several influential books, including Killer Web Content (A & C Black, 2006). He is a sought-after speaker at international conferences on Web content management and has worked with many leading organisations, such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Aer Lingus.

Reviews

'Our work with Gerry increased understanding across our team... The result is a significant improvement (+20%) in our customers' ability to find what they need in Pinpoint.' Peter Horsman, Global Site Management Lead for Microsoft Pinpoint 'Gerry's customer-centric approach to website development has helped us reshape and dramatically improve Cisco's Partner Central.' Luanne Tierney, Vice President, Worldwide Partner Marketing, Cisco 'We have used Gerry's real customer-centric approach to improve the ability of our employees to solve frequently performed tasks - in one area more than a 50% improvement was achieved.' Gabriel Olsson, e-Communications Director, Tetra Pak

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About the Author

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