Mercedes-Benz wants to know what people who visit its Web site think about the site, how well it works, and how efficiently it gets them what they need. Survey-based analytics are not new for ecommerce, but it's becoming more important to marketers who try to get beyond clickstream data and eye candy. The question is how to broach the subject with consumers who may not want to take time out to answer questions.

The Montvale, N.J., automaker hired consumer analytics company iPerceptions to run consumer surveys on www.MBUSA.com and measure the results. Eric Jillard, department manager of digital marketing and CRM at Mercedes-Benz USA, says stickiness isn't enough.

"The example I always give here is you can look at behavioral analytics and traffic," he tells Marketing Daily. "People can come to your home page, click on 11 different pages, and spend lots of time on your site, and you might look at that and say this was successful. We learn that maximizing time and page views is a good thing. But not if they are going through 11 pages and leaving frustrated because they didn't find what they were looking for. Now, we can match clickstream data with what consumers are actually saying about their experiences there."

Claude Guay, president and CEO of iPerceptions, which has done similar programs for BMW and Mini, Mazda, Hyundai, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, says the program works by launching a Mercedes-Benz-branded script comes up immediately asking if the consumer would mind answering questions to the company improve online experience at the end of his or her stay at the site.

"Two to 8% of people actually say 'yes'; once they do, we disappear 'behind' the page, waiting for the consumer to finish the visit. It's important to note that assuming a 3% response rate, the other 97% will still get a branded experience that says Mercedes is listening; they view that as a positive."

Guay, who says that the response rate for luxury carmakers is higher than average -- as high as 12% -- adds that asking at the outset of a visit whether consumers would take a survey is more effective than launching a survey query during the site visit, partly for psychological reasons.

"It is important to intercept at the outset, politely," he says. "It's like going to a dealership and having someone greet you at the door to ask if they can help you versus following you around, and every time you bend over to look at a vehicle saying, 'Can I help you with anything?' We think that makes a consumer feel they are being watched."

Dany Di Tullio, analyst and account manager at iPerceptions, says the survey is also designed to be visually simple, with one question per screen, a progress bar and about 35 questions. "We don't want survey fatigue. By doing tricks such as automatically flipping to a new question screen when you click an answer, that makes it nice, smooth and easy," he says.

Per Di Tullio, across all brands there are two key attributes for a successful site: discovery and movement. The latter means how rapidly a consumer can access information; discovery is the extent to which a site has the content they are looking for.

Says Jillard: "For us, it's the broader awareness that bad experiences cost money. Customers who don't have good experiences with us are less likely to recommend us to others; a clunky or inefficient or bad experience on a Web site may signal to people that other things about the company will be difficult, or frustrating, including the vehicles and dealership experience."

This news story is important. I recommend that everyone read it.