Let's Chat

Is Your Website Driving Away Valuable, Technical Users?

Technical users aren't just browsing—they're building your success. Learn how to meet their exact needs and make their job (and yours) easier.

Loading...

Summary

What’s the summary? I’m too busy. Architects and Engineers are regularly overlooked in the eCommerce experience. Not that they are buying, but they will recommend your products. Understanding their needs will increase your revenue as they find critical information faster.

Problem: Technical customers are a core component of your marketing efforts. If they spec your product into their projects, they effectively become an extension of your sales team. Unfortunately, many websites don’t give this audience what they need, effectively leaving money on the table.

Note that architects and engineers also include generally technical people. They are looking for detailed information to make purchasing recommendations. This can also include Law Enforcement/Military buyers, consultants, subject matter experts or purchasing advisors.

Solution: Ensure these highly technical and exacting clients get exactly what they want. However, what they want is obscured by the great firewall of the internet: interaction is not necessary to get what you want. This means the merchant does not have visibility to real-time customer feedback (unless something like live chat is utilized).

We’ve developed two personas to investigate this highly technical customer. The outcomes may surprise you.

Persona 1: Alex (Late 20s, Electrical Engineer)

About Them

  • Graduated from engineering school six years ago. He recently achieved his Professional Engineer stamp.
  • He works overtime, proving his worth in climbing the ranks. He has too much on his plate, not to mention tight deadlines. Strives for excellence.
  • He appreciates nuance and is generally positive about life. Not overly adventuresome.
  • He is careful with his money—investing is one of his hobbies.
  • Highly technical: used to make pedals for electric guitars.

Fundamental Goals

  • Wants to design systems that will meet all (plus some) anticipated needs while maintaining compliance and safety.
  • Bring innovation through new ideas, technologies, and systems.

Frustrations

  • Marketing fluff that doesn’t provide critical details.
  • Exaggerations that inflate or conflate product performance.
  • Overexplanation or things that are not core to a product’s use.

Familiar Digital Experiences

  • Amazon
  • Youtube
  • Mail/Outlook/Teams
  • Apple Products (and Apple News)
  • Government and code websites, for example: FCC licensing, NFPA
  • Product websites

What they want from your brand

  • Quickly find products matching criteria.
  • Potential compliance or philosophical standards.
  • An easily-communicable and provable value proposition.

UX Needs

  • Quality search and filtering, especially with large catalogs.
  • Easily findable critical product information, like cut sheets, data sheets, manuals, and guides. Additionally, distilled information to communicate easily to stakeholders.
  • Product comparison: what are the differences between three different antennas?
  • Download cut sheets for counterparts or a presentation with screenshots and visuals.

If you would like help developing these personas for your company, let’s chat.

Persona 2: Ayla (Early 30s, Architect)

About Them

  • Passed the ARE examinations almost ten years ago and has since climbed the ranks to be a project architect.
  • Specializes in industrial and manufacturing facility design.
  • Loves her slightly rural abode with a couple of horses and some farm animals.
  • Settled comfortably in her industry and is in a role at a company that she enjoys where she feels like she makes a notable contribution.
  • Enjoys being challenged to find creative solutions to obscure problems.
  • Gets fulfillment by contributing to her community through pro-bono opportunities.

Fundamental Goals

  • Promote sustainability and efficiency through her knowledge of LEED certifications and energy-efficient practices.
  • Carefully understanding a project's requirements to build a requisite facility while also be adaptable to new business endeavors.
  • Achieve the Senior Project Architect title by proving exceptional capability.

Frustrations

  • Unable to figure out which product is right for a given application.
  • Poor product details to ensure compliance with project requirements or standards.
  • Missing options to connect with sales to help refine the product list.

Familiar Digital Experiences

  • Tiktok
  • Revit
  • Code websites (International Code Council and International Green Construction Code)
  • Amazon
  • Teams/Office 365

What they want from your brand

  • An easy experience that facilitates frictionless access to specifications.
  • Transparent information around product certifications.
  • Quality support to answer further questions.

UX Needs

  • Filtering to narrow down the options to an understandable set of products.
  • Budgetary guidance to project total costs.
  • Clear identification that the organization is aligned with project objectives (product certifications).
  • Easy location for CAD drawings and requirements (electrical, HVAC, weight, dimensions, codes).
  • Ability to save products within a nameable (per-project) list to easily revisit, repurchase, or share with other team members.

Want help developing these personas for your company?

We would love the opportunity to walk you through this process—taking the 'e' in eCommerce from 'electronic' to 'easy.'
Lightning Image (Expect a fast response)