We have data, tons of it now actually. With so much information at our disposal there is no reason not to elevate the user experience by providing the added value of customization. This goes beyond letting people choose the "theme" they want for their site (i.e. Do you prefer a blue background or green? Do you need a larger or smaller font? Etc.)
What makes the ServiceNow CMS so unique, in my opinion, is the power of interaction available. Virtually every user who visits your portal or site is logged in. As a result you automatically know geography, language, role, and any other data you track as a company, as soon as someone lands on the home page.
So why don't we use this information more?
Here are a few questions to fuel discussion and possibly spark some creativity around making a more customized experience within the self-service space:
- When I land on the home page, can I see announcements or news that are unique to my role or my location?
- If there are 5 things that I tend to do every time I come to the site, can you set up the experience so, for me, those 5 items are MY primary navigation instead of what someone else set?
- Since I live in the US, can you set it up so when I do a search for policy information I only see results that pertain to my geographic location?
- As a result of previously searching and viewing content, can you serve up those items to me again in case I'm coming back for the same reason? Even better, can I set some items as "favorites" and have quick access to those items?
- There are things others in my group or my area of the world are searching for or looking at over the past few days. Can you serve those items up to me in case I might be interested in them as well?
- If you're going to show me an article talking about time off, how about also serving up how much time off I have left right there? And in that vein, what about making the articles more personal? If I saw an article that started, "Hey Matt, you have XX days of PTO left for 2014" I'm pretty sure my mind would be blown.
The more you make my experience custom, the greater chance there is that I will return and tap in to this self-service opportunity. If I have to work to find the information or have to sift through too much content, you've lost me.
As a final note on this, every one of the questions I listed above is being done right now — verified because I helped implement them all using ServiceNow CMS. This is the type of experience companies ARE providing now. I hope more join in because it's pretty amazing to watch it all come together.
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