Improving the customer experience
There is intense competition today when selling online, with e-commerce companies fighting each other by offering discounts and free offers to potential customers, all in the hope that offers will maintain customer loyalty and improve the customer experience.
In fact, it’s today’s rule where customers expect to be spoiled, and you can’t blame them for expecting it either. One study suggests that 71% of shoppers think they will get a good deal online compared to buying from a retail store.
Here are some effective ways to improve the customer experience on the website, to encourage customers to increase spending on your e-commerce portal.
Ways to improve the customer experience on your website
Identify your brand
Even if you’re not a big company with the resources and means to spend it on innovative marketing, you can still look interesting and impress your customers if you put your creative skills to work.
To determine the brand personality you want to own, it makes sense to ask yourself questions about your business. A few simple questions can give you the inspiration to shape your brand personality.
Here are some questions that will help you identify your brand:
- What makes you special?
- Is there a specific component or feature that makes you special?
- What do you want customers to think about you?
Think about the products or services you sell, is there a way you can find a unified theme? Develop this idea to create a brand personality.
Make downloading the website faster
Now, this is a vital step to improve the customer experience on websites. Taking a few more seconds to download your website may mean catastrophic revenue implications. In fact, let’s hit you with some numbers here, a one-second delay at the time the page is loaded may mean:
- 11% fewer page views.
- 7% loss in transfers.
- 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.
The numbers above are huge. Actually, it’s catastrophic. This means you have little time to impress your potential customers, who will leave your store if you can’t get their attention.
Another study suggests that more than 47% of customers expect to download a website in less than two seconds and that 40% will abandon the page if it takes 3 seconds or more, a more terrifying statistic.
Focus on design aspects
Content is king and design is the queen, mix it in the best possible way to improve the customer experience on the website. Here’s why you should think about it.
You may have the most valuable content available on your website, but if it’s in designs that can be considered modest at best, you’ll never inspire your customers to take action.
Gone are the days when users sign up to the minimum when it comes to the user experience. People like to wander around stylish, modern and gap-filled websites. A small spelling error can kill you if it’s not verified for a long time.
Using the wrong color or misplacing can make a big difference to the distinct eye. Adobe says 38% of people will stop browsing the website if the design is unattractive.
Look for designs in the same position as you encounter as modern, don’t take long to download, contain all color charts, include modern design elements on the website and make sure they’re used only to improve a customer experience.
Some other indicators you should keep in mind when it comes to site design and planning are:
- Make sure that contact information with the company is prominently visible in many places
- Your logo must be visible regardless of the pages on which the potential customer is present
- Get a comfortable eye design
- Make sure that the colors used do not distract but only support content
- Encourage people to compare products
Make site navigation easy and smooth
Reduce unnecessary clicks on your website and you don’t have to use features such as automatic scrolling or random pop-ups that spoil your potential customer’s experience.
Customers should find it very easy to navigate your website and be able to find anything they want in a jiffy.
Some large companies say that more than 47% of website visitors review the company’s products or services page before exploring any other section. The ease of using your site goes a long way in helping your customers get a great experience.
The ability to make mobility smooth is to organize the site and create as many categories as possible. Visitors will be upset if you make it difficult for them to cross the site and don’t help them find what they want. Remember that one of the bad customer experiences on the website is able to distort growth.
Make sure the content on the site is first class
Even if not, customers pay attention. A small spelling error may be enough to make there a problem between the “target market” on social media.
People are unlikely to trust a company that makes fundamental mistakes including information or spelling. Although there are tools you can use to mitigate any errors, it is best to set a professional linguist to meet your needs.
Also check the grammar of your website version. They must be error-free and simple enough to understand in one reading. Divide the content you want to write into simple ideas and then draft them accordingly.
The website version should not be nice either, the more interesting the better. In content, tell your customers how your product can make a difference in their lives. Good content is undoubtedly a great way to improve the customer experience on the website and achieve more sales.
Enhance your customer service
Customer service has been and will continue to be central to providing the perfect customer experience, whether on websites or stores, regardless of channel. You don’t have to take care of them personally every time as was the traditional method.
Today, most customers prefer a self-catering customer support system or whatsapp chat bot, where they can follow certain guidelines and troubleshoot themselves. This not only unloads your employees and reduces customer service overheads, but also saves the customer the trouble of waiting on the other end of the line for a representative to attend.
FAQs also facilitate self-service, which is why you should make sure that a particular part is not bombarded with unwanted information. Make sure the FAQs are at the heart of the topic.
Your online business will work if you make it a point to satisfy your customers with the best products and after-sales service available. But the customer’s experience on the website while purchasing must be smooth enough for the customer to come to your online store over and over again.
Your website is the primary source of information for your potential customers and, in most cases, is also a point of sale. As a responsible company that wants to thrive, you want to make sure customers enjoy visiting your online store. If this is what you need in the end, you need to make dedicated efforts to improve the customer experience on the website.
The happier you keep your customers, the more they will come back to you and recommend you to their friends, as well as bring more customers to you. Simple things like responding quickly to customer service emails can get your customers attracted to you because customers always expect the highest possible level of service.
