You may think this is an obvious question and one that you are able to answer easily. However do you really know why it is important? Have you actually carried out customer research to know what your customers want?
I am always surprised by the amount of people I speak to who genuinely don't know what their customers want or need. Everything that they deliver is based on personal feelings and emotions and ASSUMPTION.
Some people are very quick to 'assume' they know what their customers want and they are confident they are delivering the ultimate online experience for their customers. But are they? And why is it so important anyway? There are many people out there who don't believe UX (user experience) is important. I came across this (below) and really thought this summed up how some people think.
"Let's just ship it", said the co-founder. "Hell yeah!", replied the developer. "Yea, and look how beautiful it is!", said the visual designer. "I'll write a press release and tweet it!", said the PR intern. The UX designer sat there for a moment, and then asked "But what are our users going to do with an upside down church?" UX design is not important. So what if you built the church upside down, it's an awesome church, built out of the latest materials, and it looks beautiful, so your users will figure out a way to get inside. Just have them login with Facebook. Source: http://rosspw.com/ux-design-is-not-important/
Delivering great customer experiences is important to users as great experiences make us happy, and happy customers will return. However, delivering a great experience is more than just simply making your customers happy, it's how the happiness can create a successful business for you. By knowing what your customers want and how they expect to achieve it, can help you deliver the ultimate online experiences which will for you mean repeat business and a loyal customer base. So what are some elements that contribute to making an ultimate experience?
Don't make customers think!
One thing you should always avoid is making your customers think! When customers arrive for the first time on a website, it's important that certain universal components are positioned where they're expecting to find them. Customers gain crucial confidence from a website that follows basic design conventions.
Don't assume customers think like you
They don't! It is important to carry out significant customer research to identify what your customers expect to get from you. It is important to recognise customer behaviours, for example, what they like reading, what is a typical day for them? When do they go online? And what do they like and dislike? Your own behaviours are very different from those of your customers, and it is important to recognise this at the very beginning.
Make it engaging
The single most important thing is, Customer Engagement. By making a site engaging you are more likely to increase time spent on your site and improve your customer loyalty.
Move the offline customer experience online
One thing that always surprises me is why people think that online customer experience is different from offline customer experience why? Are these not the same customers online and offline? Do they not want to buy the same products or find the same information? Do they not expect good customer service online? A very detailed infographic based on some research by Forrester Research shows why we should move the offline customer experience online.
You can see the full infographic herewhich I highly recommend viewing.
To sum it up
Create an ultimate and unforgettable experience for your customers. They will love you for it! And your reward½ customer loyalty, a respected brand, increased revenue and overall customers will love you because it shows them that you care! If you think you need to improve your customers experience than why not get in touch with us and we can have a chat to see how we can create the ultimate experience for your customers!
