Love at first sight is not something which is limited to teenage romance anymore. Technology has fast adapted to it and beautifully so!
For every new website created, the bar is raised higher for how to better the user experience for every second spent. User experience plays an important role in creating customer loyalty – the act of pulling the customer back to the site not only for its products and services, but also for the ease of engagement it entails.
Good customer interaction is the basis of a good business. Though user experience is primarily related to web design or interface design when it comes to technology, it is much more than that. Yes, user experience is also about customer service, the easy of use of the product and the overall satisfaction you have with a brand.
Customers love a simple and clean website or mobile app, which delivers what they are looking for in the first instance and then surprises them with its other unique offerings. The Amazon portal has convenience as the core of its user experience online, which it is now being able to translate offline as well with the checkout-free stores. An engaging and simple user experience can go miles ahead in building great customer loyalty for businesses.
Few essentials of what comprises a good user experience are:
The first look
Every time you fall in love, the face is always the first thing you see. The look and feel of where you take the customer once he is interested in your product or services matter exponentially.
Right from the placement of your brand identity, menu, colors, readable fonts, to the product offered being readily available and in front of the user without much hassle, goes a long way in assuring the customer and building trust of getting what he wants in the first place. Ensure that the desired outcome is right in front of him every time the user is looking for something.
Ease of navigation
The look is not complete without the smooth flow of moving around the interface.
It is imperative for the user to not get lost while going through your products on offer. While your list may be very tempting to spend hours on the website, the final act of purchasing should happen with the right call to action at every stage. This requires the entire site navigation to be constructed keeping the user buying behavior in mind and knowing well in advance their most likely next set of moves.
Technical Simplicity
Technology that makes a user back off, because its complicated or is an unfinished process is the perfect example of how user experience was not considered. This affects the buying behaviour of the user.
A website should be tested multiple times for broken links. It should be responsive in the sense of being used across platforms, devices and browsers easily. It should be fast – 3 seconds is all the airtime your user will give you and after that, they will leave if your website does not load up. The lesser the number of clicks from buying a product to checking out to pay are small things, but go a long way in delivering good user experience.
Technology is not complicated, it’s the way it was used that makes it complicated.
Create A Habit
Customer loyalty is generated from a habit forming culture which comprises of more things than one.
Engaging a user to come back multiple times, giving value for every time he is on your site and giving the user an exciting moment in the form of checkout rewards or coupons or a sample product makes the user move from being just a buyer to someone who believes they are investing their time and money in your products rather than just buying them off the shelf.
Hidden Treasures
Customer loyalty is not just about a user coming back at regular intervals, but equally remembering your website and invariably promoting it to others. (Psst .. learn more about Inbound Marketing)
You can make a user happy with giving him what he wants to buy or making him think this is what he wants to buy. But customer delight or user delight in this case, requires efforts beyond the usual. Invitation to review products, assessing what they might be further interested in, loyalty points, buyer badges are just few things which leave the user with coming back for more. Empower them to do more than just buy your product or service.
As a business owner or marketer how can you ensure the right user gets the right product through your website?
- User Research – Ensure that you have all the right keywords in place for a user to get to your website and find the exact product
- Content which connects – The communication should be consistent for a user to know and understand your offerings in the first time itself.
- Keep it fresh and alive – Adding new products and features basis the demands and analysis of buying trends is only going to keep you on top of the mind. Every interval of adding something new should be defined, be it the products or category or features.
- Personalizing the store – While you will never know who the user really is, it is important to make him feel he is already a part of your business. Set stages for all user interaction and movement being awarded. Instant gratification goes miles in creating good reviews and experiences.
- Engage Engage Engage – Let every user know of what you offer and in turn get them involved. Referrals chain lasts longer than a random visit, and repeat purchases are only going to strengthen your vault. All your website should have prompts leading to these actions.
Customer loyalty needs value creation. User experience encompasses many areas which lead to ensuring a user comes back for repeat purchase, is interested in what you have to offer every time you mail them, does not shy away from experimenting because the trust factor is high and is genuinely talking well of you in the digital world.
Is your business website delivering all of it yet? Talk to us if you would like to know how you can leverage the power of online for your business.
