Have you noticed that many markets are facing increased competition these days? Customers have their pick of top companies for excellent products and services. That’s not to say lower-ranking websites can’t offer top products and services. However, if a site is ranking low, there may be some customer integration and engagement issues. This is why creating a user-friendly site is crucial.
Improving the customer experience (CX) is a great way to get more site visitors, increase revenue, and beat out the competition. But how can you improve the CX on your own website?
We’ve put together some methods you can use to escalate your customer experience!
What is CX?
Customer experience (CX) is a bit like UX in that it leaves a customer with a certain impression of the brand or business. Their impression is based on their interactions with the site. For instance, if a customer has a poor experience, they may not return to the site in the future. The customer may also have a poor opinion of the company.
A site with excellent CX ensures its customer has a wonderful experience with the site from beginning to end. Everything is geared to increasing customer comfort and satisfaction, including processes, product/services, delivery, and customer service. Sites that have a high CX can expect a high level of customer satisfaction, loyalty, and improved business.
Why is CX So Important?
Think of it this way. What happens if a customer has a difficult time navigating a website? They feel their time has been wasted; they may feel confused and more. The customer may then simply decide to leave without completing their tasks. We’re talking about site abandonment (bounce rates). High rates of site abandonment are an indication of poor customer experience.
On the other hand, customers who have a great experience on the site will feel satisfied and happy! Those browsing your website have a higher chance of following through on tasks, which can lead to increased sales and revenue. What’s more, satisfied customers are more apt to return. Your business benefits from increased revenue, credibility, and a great reputation. These work to bring in even more traffic to the site, which may result in more sales.
These are the reasons customer experience is vital to your website.
How to Improve CX?
Here are some methods that can improve your site’s CX:
Prioritise Speed & Usability
Nothing is more frustrating and annoying than a slow website. With the advancements in technology, customers expect a site to load quickly and be up and running most of the time. Customers will not wait for a site to load. If the site takes too long, the customer simply leaves for a competitor’s site, where they can get things done quickly and easily.
Your website must load quickly in order to avoid abandonment. What’s more, a site that’s too slow doesn’t rank in the search engines. So, be sure to optimise your site loading speeds to improve CX and make search engines happy!
Create Compelling & Unique Content
Another way to increase customer experience on your site is to create compelling and unique content. Content continues to be king, so the sites with the best content will win out every time. When customers find the information they need, there’s a tendency to spend even more time on the site. In addition, compelling, unique content can increase a site’s traffic, too.
Create content that fills these goals:
- Provides comprehensive information
- Information is useful to customers and site visitors
- The content must contain accurate information
- Don’t forget to make content that is visually appealing (videos and images)
- Content must be helpful
- Site content needs to answer the customer’s search engine query
Content that fulfils these aims will be successful and bring more traffic. It will also increase CX and drive engagement with your website.
Focus on Navigation
Another way to increase CX on your website is to focus on navigation. Site visitors should be able to find and access all the pages on a site quickly. They shouldn’t have to hunt for the navigation menu unless the information they require is in a sub-menu. Sub-menus should also be easy to find.
Customers who are on a site and have trouble with navigation will quickly leave. This is the reason site navigation is so critical.
When looking to improve navigation, it can be helpful to put yourself in the customer’s place. What type of designs work best to make the browser more accessible and faster?
It’s OK to be creative with navigation menus; however, make sure the menus are located where customers expect. And ensure the menus are easy to find.
Add Personalisation
Every customer is excited to visit sites that personalise their experience. Why? Because they feel catered to and understood, which can lead them to become loyal customers.
Personalisation may include listing products the customer has reviewed in the past. It may also include how many times they’ve visited the site. Customer personalisation can also take the form of making it easy for them to log in.
Other personalisation options can include:
- Letting customers create a wishlist (and share their list with others)
- Offer personalised deals and recommendations (based on past purchases and search history)
The key is to ensure customers feel the site is personalised to their experience. This may encourage them to purchase again in the future and even recommend your site to others.
Make Sharing Easy
We touched on this in the last section; however, customers greatly appreciate the ability to easily and quickly share something with others. You might think of this as a form of free advertising.
Savvy customers no longer want to take the time to copy a link and then share it. So, make sure to include social sharing methods on your site. Sharing is faster and easier, which means more people hear about your products and services. You can reach even more people if customers can easily share links from your site.
Allow Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is another great way to improve customer experience. You give customers the ability to share their experiences with your company. You also have the chance to learn about the solutions customers need and want.
Summing It Up
We’ve outlined several methods to increase CX that are easy and fast to implement on your site. Increasing your site’s customer experience not only makes them feel valued and satisfied but also can lead to increased traffic and additional sales.
Use CX to beat your competitors and meet your customers’ expectations by improving your site’s CX.