Getty Images: Making It Easy for Customers to Do Their Jobs

We've been following Getty Images since the mid-90s. We profiled the first Getty company, Photodisc, in Customers.com. Here's an update on the Getty Images case study. Getty is about to launch a new Web site—designed for and with its customers. This new site will be customer adaptive in nature. As customers do their jobs, the site will adapt to their work patterns. Getty's customer experience and online team did a ton of customer research—segmenting customers by industry and by roles, watching how they do their jobs, learning from how they interacted with their Web sites today. But when Getty piloted role-based Web experiences, customers rebelled. They didn't want to be pigeon-holed. Sometimes the same person starts in a creative, brainstorming mode/role—let me find the right images for this project—and in the same session also flips into a transactional role—let me check to be sure that the right images wound up on that client's bill. So, Getty has opted for an approach that begins by recognizing customers as they log in and interact, but adapts to their preferences, as they do their jobs. We'll be checking back in, in about six months to see how this approach is working.

Getty has continued to streamline the rights management procurement process for the photographs, video clips, and other images the company licenses to professional graphic designers all over the world. If your business involves managing licenses, entitlements, access rights, and/or usage rights, take a look at how Getty has ruthlessly continued to push the envelope from the customers' perspective. Getty continues to be a leader in making it easy for customers to do their jobs, and, as a result, is a leader in transforming digital rights management and entitlements.