Customer experience starts before a potential customer makes contact with you and your business with a view to ordering goods and services. These days this may be done entirely via the internet, using website searches and through online purchases.
So, if your business is online, make sure you make the right impression when attracting new customers and seeking their business. Here, Anne Williamson from Customer Love, discusses five ways to improve your customers’ experience if you are offering goods and services online.
Make sure to review your online information. If you are using acronyms and trade words, make sure to spell them out and explain them and make it easy to understand what it is you sell. Speak in plain English as you don’t know who is looking at your website.
Despite that the purchaser of a product may be a technical buyer, they may require approval from someone who isn’t technically minded.
Sure, you may have witty titles for your menus, but if a customer struggles to find what they are looking for, they could leave and go to your competitor’s website.
List products, services, your about information and contact details clearly and avoid over-complicating your menu.
Put the search bar at the top of your website and learn the search terms and words that your potential customers are typing in to find what they want on your website (you can set this up in Google Analytics).
If you offer an ecommerce website or sell online, rather than taking a customer all the way through the order process and then adding delivery at the very end, be upfront about delivery costs. This is why many people choose Amazon, as they know exactly what the costs are before adding the items to their basket.
If you have a high percentage of abandoned baskets or a high bounce rate, this could be the reason.
You may prefer customers to send an email, but your potential customer may be wanting an instant answer and prefer to call you or chat online.
Display different ways a customer can contact you clearly on your website or social media platforms and monitor how your enquiries come in each and every 30-day period.
Many people will “Google a business” to find the phone number, so don’t lose a potential sale by not offering the ability to call. And make sure they find you when they Google.
Once an order is placed, make sure that you explain to your customers what happens next with regards to how long delivery will take, is the item being delivered by courier, etc.
Finally, think about websites you enjoy purchasing from and analyse what it is about them that makes the experience a great one. Are there ideas that you could implement on your website?
About the author
Anne Williamson has been involved in marketing for over 30 years, always with a focus on customer relationship building. She operates Customer Love, a consultancy that works with businesses who are looking to increase customer retention rates and develop improved customer relationships.
Customer Love is a member of Boost & Co – Boost's private sector business support partners.
Anne is also the author of ‘Are you a one-night stand business?’ and she holds a CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing.
If you’re looking to grow, scale or start your business, use Boost; Lancashire’s Business Growth Hub. We offer a range of funded business support services. Call our Business Support Helpdesk on 0800 488 0057 to find out more or complete our enquiry form.
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