Giving Your Customers The Online Experience They Deserve

Customer experience is a phrase we hear all the time at the moment. Impressing clients is no longer just about providing top-quality products and services. It’s also about ensuring that every customer enjoys a positive experience. If you’re on a mission to dazzle your customers and enhance your brand reputation, here are some tips to give your customers the online experience they deserve. 

Making your website work

Billions of people all over the world have access to the Internet. The average US adult now spends around 24 hours per week online, and the growth of the web has undoubtedly impacted consumer trends. More and more of us shop online, and we also use the Internet to source information, to locate businesses, and to read reviews before we buy. Google alone handles more than 40,000 search enquiries every second. If you run a business in 2019, there are few things that are more important than designing a website that works. Even if you don’t sell products online, having a website can make the difference between gaining and losing a customer. If you’ve got a site, and a buyer is looking for the services or products you offer, they can find out more about your business, get an idea of prices, and locate contact details to enable them to call you, email, or even pop in and see you. 

Creating a fabulous website isn’t always an easy task, especially if you’re not a seasoned pro in web design and you have limited knowledge of user experience. If you have a website that is dated, tired, or uninspiring, it’s wise to consider working with a web design agency to spruce up the aesthetics and ensure that it’s easy to navigate the pages and fulfil objectives. The way your site looks is hugely important, especially as users will form an impression within seconds. However, it’s also critical to focus on the structure and navigation of your site. You want potential customers to be able to access important information, make a purchase or find the answer to a question in a matter of seconds. Ensure that your site is slick, and use research techniques and analytics to organize categories, create landing pages and make sure that your site is user-friendly. 

Research plays a key role in enhancing the usability of your website. If you’re not familiar with research techniques, you may have questions. What is card sorting? How can I use feedback to improve performance? What other kinds of methods can I use to analyze customer behavior patterns on my site? Card sorting is a technique that is used to determine how customers organize and categorize items, for example, products on display in a virtual store. Using this method can give you an insight into how to present your pages and how to make it easy for customers to find specific products. In addition to card sorting, there are several other methods you can employ to improve customer experience, including specific page analytics and questionnaires and online surveys. 

Impressive features and innovative extras

Once you’ve created a functional, beautiful website, you can turn your attention to adding features that will enhance the customer experience. When you’ve got a potential buyer browsing your pages and taking a look at your products, you want to do everything possible to encourage them to take the next step. Whether this means adding an item to a cart and making a purchase, calling a store, signing up for an email list, or following you on Instagram, it’s important to push the customer in the right direction. You don’t want to use aggressive tactics or the hard-sell. Instead, you want the online experience to do the legwork for you. Think about what your ideal buyer is looking for, and what kinds of features and extras will appeal to them. If you run an online clothing company, for example, and your target demographic is young women, think about how they spend their time online, and what types of add-ons would impress them. You could create fabulous blog posts about new trends with links to products and catwalk videos, you could provide an interactive outfit builder, or you could invite customers to get involved in forums with fellow fashion enthusiasts. 

As well as going all-out to impress customers and ensure they enjoy the time they spend on your website, it’s also wise to consider using features to eliminate potential problems. If your research shows that people tend to abandon their basket before buying because they have questions about sizing or returns, for example, create an FAQ section, set up a live chat channel, or link to questions other customers have asked. 

Customer interaction

Have you ever been shopping online and stumbled across an issue that made you think twice about buying, or have you had trouble with an order in the past? If so, you probably wanted to find an answer or a solution as quickly as possible. We spend more time than ever online, and we have become accustomed to living in a world where almost anything can be done quickly. As an online business, you need to be able to deal with issues swiftly and to use your website and your social media to keep in touch with customers. If you’ve got questions to answer, people have sent emails to you, or you’ve shared a post that has attracted a lot of attention, interact with your clients and make sure channels of communication remain open at all times. If you use social media, live chat, and emails, you can respond to queries rapidly and reduce the risk of losing a sale, but you’ll also build stronger relationships. 

If you sell products online, or you have a website to promote your business, it’s essential to consider customer experience. Shopping online is no longer just about putting an item in your cart and checking out. Many web users want more, and they’ll choose companies that go the extra mile to make browsing and surfing fun and hassle-free. 

Image credit:  Pixaby.com

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