How Your Online Design Can Influence Customer Loyalty – UX Matters
Some apps and websites are easy to navigate. You glide through your online experience without a hitch. No friction. No frustration. Easy-peasy. Clearly, UX matters.
We are all inclined to buy products and services when the experience is seamless. Conversely, we avoid cluttered, complicated buying experiences, especially with other options.
Companies want their customers to engage with your digital product or service and have a smooth experience accomplishing what they came to do.
This approach wasn’t as central before as it is today. Many companies didn’t take the extra steps to consider how users felt using their app or site.
Today, many companies conduct their business primarily online by providing customer service or deploying digital solutions. User experience matters more than ever.
UX or user experience plays a critical role in the customer journey and business growth. Companies that invest in improving their website’s UX saw an 83% increase in their KPIs (key performance indicators). Furthermore, 70% of online shoppers will abandon their carts if they have a terrible user experience.
Defining UX and WHY UX Matters
User experience relates to the person’s attitude and emotions when interacting with a product or service. The design intends to create something that provides meaningful experiences for users. Factors that influence good user experience include design, usability, and functionality.
For instance, if your business is on an app, the experience you provide will determine whether a user will continue using the app. That’s why companies always look for innovative ways to improve UX since they know it differentiates them in the marketplace. 25% of users will stop using an app after one use due to poor UX design and performance.
Gain Loyalty by Providing a Positive User Experience
Users who have a good experience will remember a particular website they used. A platform with good UX design will make products and solutions easy to find and make moving forward to the next task seamless.
Factors such as these are accompanied by having a good understanding of your customer’s perceptions. When you place yourself in someone else’s shoes, you recognize their needs. However, you can go beyond making assumptions by creating the persona of your target audience. Having one-on-one meetings and posting online surveys is the best way to gain insights into their needs, concerns, motivations, behavior, and interests.
Many companies will bring consumers to a focus group setting or virtual focus rooms to observe a consumer using their site. How easy is the navigation to follow – do prospects get stuck because directions aren’t clear, or do your choices confuse them?
Knowing your audience is how you’ll tailor your UX design to eliminate pain points and deliver optimal experiences. In turn, you build customer loyalty, especially if they find your product valuable. In a KPMG survey, 74% of respondents reported that product quality is the most influential factor when building customer loyalty. It isn’t a surprise that UX matters.
Designing With the Customers in Mind
One aspect that some companies miss out on in UX design is usability and presentation. While your product should be practical and functional, appearance is essential.
Suppose the look of your medium is cluttered or not aesthetically pleasing. This experience could impact prospective customers’ perception; if they feel too many choices and too much friction to get through your process, they’ll leave.
An aesthetically appealing app or site is one of the many challenges UX designers face in the design process. People associate a product’s quality and usability with its appearance. Think how you feel when you walk into a restaurant or a store—aesthetics matter.
When users log in to an app in the virtual world, their first impression is visual.
Consider mapping the customer journey to fulfill your customers’ needs. You can design with the customer in mind by identifying your key touchpoints. Therefore, it’s possible to make every interaction as seamless as possible, eliminating clutter and unnecessary steps.
Once you’ve identified those key touchpoints, you can use wireframing to prioritize the customer-centric elements of your design.
Furthermore, 55% of companies utilize usability testing to evaluate their product further. When you employ user testing, analyze heatmaps, and apply A/B testing, you quickly iron out the kinks in UX design.
Transparency Wins Customer Loyalty
People want brands to be open about their business. So, the more transparency your product or service has, the more likely you are to earn loyalty.
Consider striving to share information about your products, services, and offers. These factors include details such as clear descriptions and company background. This way, the users get to know your company better.
Good UX design involves making sure that information has proper placement and functionality. For example, some brands customize their links to ensure the customer is fully aware of where the link takes them.
Another factor to keep in mind is being transparent about the data your company uses. It’s critical to use UX design in a way that helps with customer awareness. If you use cookies, divulge that information in the header or footer or a pop-up so customers know how their data is used and why sharing it improves their experience.
Creating an Excellent UX Design
Many companies know that good UX design takes investment.
The bottom line is that poor user experience can negatively impact your business, costing you customers and extra money. When improving user experience and customer loyalty, remember to map out the design process from beginning to end to understand how prospects interact with your digital properties.
Think of shopping in a store where the experience was enjoyable. Merchandise is easy to find. Sales assistance was available but not obnoxious or pushy.
Online, customers and prospects want the same thing.
How is your online user experience making it easy for customers to buy from you?
Guest Post Author: Zac Amos is the Features Editor at ReHack, where he writes about cybersecurity, information technology, and other tech topics.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Photo by Uday Mittal on Unsplash
