ZSL, Zoological Society of London
ZSL wanted to bring together their research, conservation and educational programs into one cohesive brand, along with their famous 'brands': the London Zoo and Whipsnade Wild Animal Park.
the OTHER media designed a collection of micro-sites each of which have consistent navigation and a strong ZSL brand but are edited by different teams of editors around the country. The sites share some data and work within a common look and feel.
There were a number of small usability tests along the way, throwing up interesting findings which were easily rolled into the development process on the fly.
Adding the ecommerce components has enabled ZSL to provide a service their customers expect, to increase revenue and to maintain links with zoo-goers, to increase animal sponsorship and their promote their conservation work.
Designing the customer journey
The real challenge for a complex organisation such as ZSL is helping the customer navigate the site without experiencing the complexity.
We start by analysing the different audiences and their needs and then define customer journeys through the site.
Central to the journey is that a visitor should not have to interact differently with different parts of the site. Once they have bought tickets or signed-up for a newsletter they should not have to register again to shop in the gift shop or make a donation.
While this might appear straightforward and obvious, behind the scenes it involves integration with multiple different and unconnected systems. In the case of ZSL these include ticketing, membership, retail and CRM.
The result however is a smooth customer journey and this is likely to improve revenues and dwell times as the customer travels around the site and encourage them to come back - just like London Zoo and Whipsnade themselves really!
If you have a complex site and would like us to use customer journeys to make it simpler, please contact us.
