Stranger's Long Neck

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.

'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

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.