How to Improve Customer Experience Strategy in Web Design
Constant technological developments have led to businesses shifting to electronic mediums since the 90s. E-commerce has since then continued to grow and evolve with each passing day.
It has paved the way for various opportunities, such as web design, web content and management, email marketing, SEO, online promotion, and more.
The reach of the internet and technology has become so vast that it makes up a pivotal part of business altogether. Today, your online presence can undoubtedly make or even break your business.
Web design has emerged as one of the most crucial features of the business, especially so for the eCommerce industry. It can impact your audience by invoking various emotions and helping them take the initiative.
Your web design can get them to remain on your page and know your business better or leave and turn to your competitors. Thus, your web designing process must be carefully planned and passionately executed to leave lasting impressions on the audience and achieve brand loyalty.
Studies have shown that most people prefer beautifully designed content over plain and simple content. It is, therefore, essential to keep this in mind while preparing a website as it represents your business to the world.
Highly-engaging and appealing web design is necessary to attract and retain customers. To get a better understanding of the importance of web design today, let us have a look at some of its benefits:
- For leaving a good first impression
- Building trust with customers
- Achieving a competitive advantage
- Boosting revenue
- For improved search rankings
- Creating brand consistency
The entire world today practices e-commerce business. An excellent website for a company has become mandatory to increase sales and improve customer experience.
After all, the customers will get to know your service from the information you put on your website. Therefore, web designs are crucial for making them understand your business and marketing your service.
Take note of the following point in choosing a web design for your website to improve customer experience:
Table of Contents
1 – Appearance
Attractive and appealing web design is mandatory to build a good impression on your audience. The design must also be easy-to-understand to prevent misunderstanding and confusion.
If the users find your website dull or too cluttered and confusing, they will lose interest in visiting your website further or know about your organisation.
Also, think of colours that will grab visitors’ attention. They play a vital role in evoking feelings, both positive and negative. Pay attention to your target audience’s age groups, likes and interests when choosing colours for your web pages.
2 – Visibility
Your homepage should have all the critical details of your website. They should be easily visible and accessible to visitors.
Simply put, you must ensure the visitors find what they are looking for in your website without difficulty.
Avoiding complicated web designs is a must while creating your website. This will help in preventing confusion and make the overall process smoother. No one will like to use a complicated-looking website with the haphazard placement of information.
3 – Accessibility
It is important to note that the more user-friendly a website is, the better the customer experience.
No customers would like to visit a website that is difficult to access and use. You also need to ensure your customers can access your website from any device and utilise your service from anywhere.
This will help increase their convenience, encouraging them to use your services more. After all, the ultimate goal of your website is to provide assistance and make it easier for customers to access it.
4 – Images
Images are powerful tools that can quickly grab attention and send messages clearly and promptly.
You can use images relevant to your business for your website for better impact. Choosing original, professional and creative photos can enhance your website’s impression.
You can also optimise images to maximise the load speed and minimise wait time. The images used must be aligned with your organisation’s goals and values. Using impressive photos will act as an extension of your brand.
5 – Navigation
A website that is easy to navigate is an essential feature of a good website. A clear design with visible and adequately-placed details will help them browse through various sections effortlessly, improving their chances of returning for more.
With proper planning, your audiences will navigate their way into taking positive actions that will benefit the business.
The design must be created to guide them quickly to take adequate steps without confusion. That is why you need to make sure the details of your site are visible and easy for them to navigate without fail and conveniently as well.
6 – Visuals and typography
Visuals and typography play a key role in designing your website. Original and creative visuals with a unique font style will give your brand a particular image.
These visuals will help customers easily differentiate your brand from the rest by standing out. It will help you grab customer attention and facilitate branding and customer loyalty in the long run if consistency is maintained.
Using visual features in designing your website can help people understand what your website is all about, even with a few words. Therefore, consider this when designing your website with visual elements and typography.
7 – User Experience
You can use many features in your web designing process to provide a meaningful and relevant customer experience.
Adding customer reviews will reflect how you value your customer’s needs and opinions. Keeping customer experience as your priority in designing your website is crucial to creating a successful website.
By using more simple yet valuable tools, you can make your customers feel like they’re cared for.
Such methods will show how your brand can provide the services your customers are looking for in the easiest and most-effective way.
8 – Customers’ needs
Understanding what your customers want is a prerequisite for designing an efficient website. Pay attention to what customers are looking for from your site and services.
That is why extensive research is imperative for this purpose. Many factors like age, likes, interests, trends, and more come into play when appealing to customers.
When designing the website, careful analysis of such elements must be carried out and implemented.
Also, it is essential to remember that some customers might just be checking your site for the first time to check out what your business is all about.
Giving a great first impression becomes essential to make a significant impact on them.
9 – Logo Design
You must already know that having a logo for your business is necessary. All business websites have logos to represent their brand.
It is what gives your brand identity and separates it from the rest. The logo can adequately reflect your business and the values it upholds. Also, make sure you have an eye-catching and creative logo design. It can also be simple yet professional at the same time.
10 – The content organisation
It is essential to have your content organised systematically for ease of information gathering by customers.
Easily accessible and visible content must be the goal of any website. Categorising your content into separate blocks is an effective way to prevent confusion and improve customer experience.
Each block will show the category you want to include in your website in a clear and organised manner, making it convenient for consumption.
Your website content should be well-aligned with your business goals. Since it will be the virtual representation of your business to your customers, the details you provide should be presented with clarity and remain suitable for your business.
With a well-designed website, you can make a professional and profound impact on your customers.
They will not just get to know about your business and your services from your website but also your values as well. Therefore, it is crucial to have a well-designed website to portray all these essential features appropriately.
Attention to all the details you put on your website is essential to convey the message more clearly.
Small details like your homepage, contact details, legal information, etc., should be easily accessible and visible to your website visitors.
It is essential to maintain originality and creativity to market your services and brand through your website.
Technical details like products having separate links with product details are a must. Although your website deals with marketing your business online pretty well, we suggest you use traditional tools like Business cards to boost your business offline.
Whatever the methods used, your ultimate goal must be to improve user experience and engagement through your on and offline marketing platforms.
Why do you need to have a well-designed website?
Effective website design is the key to marketing your products to your customers in the most effective way.
Promoting your business and creating a good brand identity is possible with the help of proper design.
All in all, it can help you grow your business and reach a wider audience significantly.
A user-friendly website can give a pleasant experience to the customers, making them want to use your services more.
You can keep your web design creative yet straightforward and convenient simultaneously.
A well-designed website is attractive because it is simple and has the information your customers are looking for in the right places.
Complicated and difficult-to-understand websites can leave customers confused and conflicted.
Although service is the prime focus of your business, a good design can aid in that matter.
That is why most well-designed websites invest their resources in visual art and more audio-visual methods to engage their customers.
The customers can easily understand your service according to their needs through such methods.
Elements discussed above, such as appearance, clarity, typography, colours, images and visuals, etc., are very important when creating a website.
We suggest you take note of the points discussed above on customer experience when designing your website.
How To Improve Customer Experience
2020 brought with it a complete overhaul in the world of business. People across the globe were panicking not only about the virus but also about strict lockdown regulations, and they frantically turned towards companies to provide them with solutions.
Companies worldwide had to adapt rapidly to the demands of the Covid-19 crisis, and every single one felt the impact of changing customer expectations.
And those companies that delivered a rock-solid customer experience thrived in this environment. But the businesses who failed in this department? They were on a sinking ship.
This is why people are terming 2023 as ‘the year of the customer.’ The rapid shift in consumer expectations means that new-age customers no longer see a good customer experience as a privilege.
Instead, the new-age customer expects a good customer experience from the get-go. So, what are some ways to improve customer experience this year?
1 – Get Up Close & Personal
There was a point in time when personalised customer experiences seemed ‘intrusive’ and creepy. But with the arrival of the pandemic, that time has gone.
Personalisation is the key to retaining customers and creating a loyal consumer base. Therefore, businesses need to keep up with the changing customer sentiments.
The rise of businesses that want to be transparent, ethical, and reliable has considerably increased. Companies that can tailor their CX to fit in with these sentiments build trust and loyalty in the longer run.
2 – Start a Conversation
Consumers are no longer satisfied with emails from computerised email IDs such as no*****@bu******.com. Instead, they wish to have an honest conversation with you.
They want to connect with you, build a relationship and see where it takes them. In other words, they want a fundamental human experience. And that is precisely what you need to focus on providing.
It’s okay even if this occurs through a chatbot on your website, but please do it. All they want is interaction, and as long as you can deliver this, you are sure to have struck gold in the customer experience mine.
3 – Strengthen Internal Communication
It was in 2022 that customer experience finally became a team game. This is the year that companies have to buckle down and provide a great customer experience from start to finish.
Consumers want to be wowed from when they land on your website until they checkout or log out. This means that the marketing team works on customer experience and almost every team across the board.
Internal communication between teams must be on-point, straightforward, and smooth-flowing to see tangible business results such as customer retention and loyalty.
4 – Show Some Empathy
During the Covid-19 crisis, businesses finally realised the power of empathy. They understood that reaching for an empathetic compromise with their employees was a driver of employee retention and productivity.
Similarly, providing an empathetic customer experience helped build consumer trust and understanding. Therefore, businesses must do away with automated responses and call duration limits.
Instead, understanding customer emotions and providing the proper customer care will be the way forward. Empathy is now a prime metric, and businesses would do well to introduce empathy-specific customer experiences.
5 – Go Digital
The business world has always realised the importance of providing an excellent digital customer experience. However, during the pandemic, everyone truly realised the hidden potential of the virtual world.
Implementing the right digital tools and software will help increase the productivity of your customer service agents and allow you to track your call centre metrics as efficiently as possible.
6 – Step Up Your Omnichannel Communication
If you have been focusing on just one or two channels until now, then it’s time to broaden your focus. No longer are consumers coming to your website to look for solutions.
Instead, it is the time and age when you have to go to your customer and show them what you offer. As such, omnichannel communication can be make-or-break for your business.
WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram – pull out all the stops and use everything possible to connect with your consumers.
7 – Prioritise Agent Experience
If there’s anything that we have learned in the past year, it’s the fact that employee experience is just as necessary as customer experience.
This is why businesses must ensure that their customer service goals are met and that the service agents function to their best capacity.
After all, they are the primary contact points between you and your customers. This is why focusing on the overall employee experience of your agents would be the best way to ensure happy and satisfied customers.
8 – Provide 24/7 Customer Service
It is always essential to take care of your customer’s requirements and satisfy them with your services. To achieve this, you have to be in touch with them 24/7.
There are two methods by which you can contact your customers. One way is to set employees to work in different shifts to be more convenient to handle customer issues at the earliest.
The other way to offer customer support is by setting up chatbots which will be helpful to assist the customer queries through automation that does not require human efforts 24/7.
Customers will only be satisfied if we provide them with our best service. Otherwise, they will have more options to try apart from ours.
9 – Offer free trials to customers
Customers might be confused regarding its usefulness whenever they buy a new product. Because once they purchase that product, they might not get a refund or can’t exchange it if it is not satisfied with their requirements.
They will lose their money during such situations and need to repurchase a new product, making them more expensive.
Therefore, to avoid such scenarios, it is better to provide them with a free trial so that customers can use our product without hesitation and try it for the trial period. They will be confident to buy it if it is adequate for their requirements.
10 – Gaining insights from feedback
Customer feedback plays a prominent role in understanding their issues and requirements. It will be more convenient for us to devise more effective solutions at the earliest by analysing their genuine feedback, which will make customers use our products with much confidence in the future.
Feedback systems will help us examine what customers think of our products and their areas of improvement.
Some customers might be more comfortable filling out feedback forms instead of informing directly to the concerned people because they can share their thoughts more openly while using feedback forms.
11 – Personalising customer experience
Customers want products that suit all their requirements more precisely since we have many options available outside to find the most appropriate product among them.
Therefore, it’s imperative to understand their wants and needs so that you can position them more accurately in front of them.
There are different ways to recognise your customer essentials by thoroughly researching them, understanding survey results, and analysing customer journeys.
12 – Rewarding your loyal customers
Usually, customers will look for products that cater to their needs; otherwise, they won’t be interested in buying your products.
Customers might purchase your products because of their unique features or their value for money. Therefore, you should have a good idea regarding your product features and how they are correctly placed among your target customers.
If you can satisfy your customers with any of the above, you will be on the right path for the growth of your organisation.
Aside from that, It’s also essential to make sure that customers repurchase your products. Otherwise, it won’t help you reach your business to new heights.
One of the best ways to enhance your customer experience is by surprising them with attractive rewards to motivate them to stick to your product in the future.
Whereas, if a customer is not getting any benefits from your services, they will choose your competitor’s product.
Hence, making them feel like a unique customer from your side is essential to convert them into loyal customers.
13 – Identifying customer pain points
Customer pain points imply the issues they face while using your product. This might lead to an increase in customer churn rate.
Usually, customers want their product to work more efficiently than other products available in the market. Otherwise, they will not choose your product. Therefore, you should be more sensitive while handling customer requirements.
In addition, some of the customers are very sensitive to minor errors that happen while using your product. In such cases, you won’t get a second chance to correct those mistakes and make them satisfied.
Hence, it is essential to identify the customer pain points early and develop suitable solutions to overcome them with your efficient services.
14 – Train your customer-facing team
As customers, it’s equally important to take care of your customer-facing teams because they will be dealing with your customer’s requirements at the end of the day.
Hence, you can’t make any excuses in training your employees to grow your business to the next level. Also, it is essential to keep your employees motivated to open up about their suggestions and requirements.
It will help you identify customer requirements since they are in direct contact with customers and will understand customer pain points better than anyone else.
Aside from that, it is also better to constantly engage with your employees to make them feel that they are an essential part of your business. That will motivate them to come up with an extra effort from their side for your company's growth.
15 – Educate customers
Customers don’t need to be completely aware of your product and its features which will gradually create a gap between you and your customers.
You should avoid this to make a compelling image regarding your brand among your customers. Your product might have fantastic features compared to your competitors, but the issue is that it’s not known among your customers.
The only way to overcome such a scenario is by making them aware of your brand through different marketing techniques.
16 – Ask for customer preference
In this competitive world, no one will be interested in buying products that are not beneficial because there are a lot of other choices available around us.
Therefore, it is better to come up with unique and practical effects for your customers, which is not easy to achieve in the short term.
Hence, it’s better to understand your customers’ requirements and then develop a product that will provide them with unique features while comparing it with your competitors in the market.
Customers will have an exact idea about their requirements. Hence, they will analyse each available product in the market and select the most suitable one for their needs.
If they are unsatisfied with the purchased one, they will look for the next option, which will adversely reflect your churn rate.
To overcome this, you must ensure that your product meets customer needs by interacting with them and asking for their suggestions and valuable feedback.
Wrapping Up
Add to this concoction the fact that a single bad customer experience is enough for customers to turn their backs on your company, and you will realise that customer experience is paramount at this point.
2023 is a whole new ball game. We are dealing with a consumer base that is not only highly
aware, but also highly demanding.
Therefore, catering to the new-age consumer is a priority that no business can ignore. However, you know what to do if you wish to retain your customers for the long haul.
Remodel, adjust and reform your customer experience to adapt to the changing times.
Author Bio: Vismaya works at SurveySparrow, an omnichannel experience management platform, as a product marketer and an engineer turned writer. She found her way into marketing quite accidentally. She is passionate about blogging on customer service/ workplace-related topics.
Top 10 Books on Customer Experience
- Kalbach, James (Author)
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- 436 Pages – 12/29/2020 (Publication Date) – O'Reilly Media (Publisher)
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- 106 Pages – 02/21/2024 (Publication Date) – Game Changer Publishing (Publisher)
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- Dixon, Matthew (Author)
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- 256 Pages – 09/12/2013 (Publication Date) – Portfolio (Publisher)
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- 199 Pages – 03/31/2022 (Publication Date) – Elizabeth Dixon (Publisher)
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- 344 Pages – 04/19/2021 (Publication Date) – Lioncrest Publishing (Publisher)
- Watkinson, Matt (Author)
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- 240 Pages – 12/06/2012 (Publication Date) – FT Publishing International (Publisher)
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- Pine II, B. Joseph (Author)
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- 368 Pages – 12/10/2019 (Publication Date) – Harvard Business Review Press (Publisher)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Gibson, Gina (Author)
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- 124 Pages – 02/29/2024 (Publication Date) – Think Forward (Publisher)
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- McKain, Scott (Author)
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- 160 Pages – 06/20/2023 (Publication Date) – Forefront Books (Publisher)
- Clatworthy, Simon (Author)
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- 266 Pages – 08/20/2019 (Publication Date) – O'Reilly Media (Publisher)
Last update on 2024-05-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
