Businesses use all kinds of excuses for bad customer experiences. But no matter how much they try to validate their actions, lousy customer experience is bound to kill even the most successful business. This article will teach you how to improve online customer experience so your customers keep coming back for more.
Do you remember the last time you were a customer somewhere and you left with a smiling face because of the service you received? That feeling is what your customers always want when they visit your business. Customer experience refers to the perception your customers have after they interact with your business. What people think about your services forms your brand.
When customers leave your business happy and satisfied, it forms the beginning of a good customer relationship. Happy customers mean a higher chance of converting loyal customers for your business. Satisfied customers are also marketers without pay, because they are more willing to share positive experiences. They are likely to promote your business through word of mouth and give you positive reviews online.
Is your customer experience up to standard? If you can’t confidently answer yes to this question, then this article is for you. Continue reading for effective ways to improve your customer experience.
Customers will always have suggestions, questions, or concerns. You need to always be available to address your customers’ needs. Being able to interact and respond to customer queries shows that you care about their concerns. An excellent way to do this is by implementing a live chat box where your customers can easily reach out and ask for help. The live chat feature offers a connection between you and your customers, which can result in higher conversion rates. Customers are looking for prompt responses to their queries, and there’s nothing preventing you from ensuring that.
An awesome website is essential for improving customer experience. A website that is easy to navigate and accessible has limited clicks and provides automatic loading features.
For your business to achieve this, you need to invest in good search technology. Providing your customers with an easy way to find your website is essential for improving your customer’s journey. Being able to easily explore and interact with your website increases the time your customers will stay on your site, which increases your conversation rates overall.
On the flip side, poor navigation can cause customers to look elsewhere.
When it comes to customer experience, it’s not what you say that matters, but how you say it. You might be trying to deliver a simple message, but without intending to, accidentally phrase it in a rude tone. Even if you didn’t mean to sound hurtful, it can still negatively affect the customer’s feelings if it’s perceived in that way.
You need to consider your customer’s emotional well-being when communicating with them. Create that emotional connection and make your customers feel important.
Most of the online customer experience is created from their point of view. When they become emotionally attached to your business, they will connect their feelings to your products, which shapes their attitude and decisions. When your business figures out the best way to connect and harness these emotions, it will undoubtedly put you ahead of your competitors.
Customers are usually very impatient and having a website that takes ages to load will be a huge turn-off. Customers will not wait around for the website to continue loading if it takes more than 3 seconds.
Your customers need to have a pleasant experience when searching for anything on your website, and the only way to ensure that is by improving the loading speed. When it comes to loading speed, don’t forget your mobile users since many people use their phone to access the Internet. Mobile functionality and a faster loading time works hand in hand to improve your customer experience.
Feedback is an essential aspect of creating an online customer experience. Giving your customers the freedom to interact with you and give their feedback is the beginning of creating a successful relationship.
Feedback doesn’t have to be positive all the time. You also need to see what customers didn’t like and work towards making necessary improvements.
To get feedback, you can create a comments section on your website or give the customers a chance to leave reviews on what they think about your services. You can also send follow-up emails and invite customers to take part in surveys so that they can share their experiences.
Making things complex will not do your business any good as customers won’t linger on your website to try to figure things out. Customers have zero patience and their attention spans are very limited. When they have to spend a lot of time finding their way around your business or website, impressions will drop and they will switch to competitors who are offering a much simpler interaction.
You should, therefore, strive to make things easier. Streamline your online customer service and make every process — from calls to checkout — straightforward and easy to follow.
No matter what kind of business you’re running, customer experience is something you cannot ignore. The perceptions your customers have about you ensures their loyalty and distinguishes you from your competitors. Remember, it’s not about the kinds of services or products you offer, but how well you present it to them. Exceptional customer experience will always encourage your customers to come back, and that’s how your business will succeed.
Hardik Oza is an SEO practitioner with more than 9 years of experience. He works at PeddleWeb, an internet advertising company in India. He shares his thoughts on additional publications like SEMrush, Search Engine People, and Social Media Today. Follow him on Twitter at @Ozaemotion. Image by Cyber Rabbit from Pixabay.
Dan Gingiss is a customer experience keynote speaker who helps unlock your team’s potential by fostering a culture of remarkable experiences.