Customer satisfaction cannot be underestimated in business, especially in eCommerce. In fact, 78% of customers stop the purchase of a product due to poor experiences. Yes, it’s that bad. So, if you’ve been wondering why your bounce rate is high – it’s because your users are not getting the right experience.
How do you now ensure your customers have a great time on your website? How do you make them complete their purchases and come back? How do you make them refer others to your website? Well, there are time-tested tricks to excellent user experience. Read on to know them.
7 factors that influence user experience
Before we discuss the tips you can use to improve customer satisfaction or experience on your eCommerce website, you need to first learn the factors that influence user experience. This knowledge will serve as a foundation for any action you’re taking to enhance your customers’ satisfaction. According to the Interaction Design Foundation, 7 factors influence user experience.
1. Usefulness
Whatever you’re offering your user must be useful to them. If your website is not solving your customer’s problems, then they won’t have a satisfactory experience. Any solution you’re offering must fulfill the criteria of usefulness.
2. Usability
How usable is your website? How easy is it for users to achieve their goals on your website? Is their user journey smooth or rough? Usability is an essential factor in creating a great customer experience. Without it, you cannot create a satisfactory user experience.
3. Findability
Your website must be easy to find. Content on your website must also be easy to find. If you don’t have a well-organized and systematic menu on your website and users struggle to find their way, then you’ve failed the findability test. The consequence is a high bounce rate.
4. Credibility
People buy from brands they trust. It doesn’t matter how many strategies you execute to create good experiences for your customers; if they don’t trust your brand, your efforts will be futile. No one wants to do business with a brand that has doubts and uncertainties hovering around it. Build credibility first and let it serve as a foundation for your strategies. Once customers trust you, they’ll be loyal to you. This is a great way to turn customers into brand ambassadors.
5. Desirability
Everyone is attracted to what they consider desirable. Customers will spend more time on a website of a brand they desire. Make customers want your brand and they will be happy just being on your website. When you build desirability for your product, customers will flock there and market it to others.
6. Accessibility
Accessibility is a big deal in UX design. This is because it has been ignored for too long. Many users have been consistently passed over, leading to poor experiences for them. So, UX designers are making it a top priority now. Make sure you tick this box in your quest to create a satisfactory experience for your customers.
7. How valuable it is
How valuable your product (website) is will determine the experience your customers have. If your website delivers great value to your users, their experience will be improved and it can increase referrals. If not, you can kiss them goodbye.
10 tips to maximize customer satisfaction on your eCommerce website
1. Do usability testing
People often ask why usability testing is important in user experience. Usability has to do with how easily your user can achieve their goals on your website. Usability testing is a way to measure how usable or intuitive your website is.
This test is carried out with real users. It can be done for a new website or an existing one. The feedback you get from this test enables you to make corrections and improve the usability of your product, hence increasing customer experience. As you can see, the importance of usability testing cannot be overestimated.
2. Optimize your website’s speed
We all get pissed off by a slow website. In fact, nothing gives a higher bounce rate than a website that drags. When the pages of your website take too long to load, the user becomes discouraged and leaves. It doesn’t matter how pretty and well-designed your site is, if it takes users too much time to get there, you will lose them. To avoid this, optimize your website’s speed; it helps boost customer experience and conversion.
3. Use whitespace generously
Whitespace, also known as negative space, is the blank space on your website. They make text and images stand out. This makes your website easy on the eyes and more attractive to the user. Your content is more readable and fascinating, making users stay longer. They would want to explore other parts of the website and would be encouraged to complete their purchases.
4. Make your sign up pages straight to the point
People’s attention span on the internet is very low. Therefore, you must make good use of their time or they’ll seek alternatives. Your sign up or survey pages should be concise and straightforward. Don’t ask for too much information to avoid frustrating your user and chasing them away. When users sense you’re taking too much of their time and giving them too much stress, they take their leave.
5. Design a clear and attractive call to action (CTA)
Your call to action (CTA) button performs an important role on your website. It lets your users know the next action to take and moves them down the sales funnel. CTAs guide users on what to do on your website, give them information on what they’re about to do and relieve their anxiety. Therefore, your CTA must be well designed to play its role perfectly. A clear and attractive CTA makes the user journey smooth and satisfactory.
6. Make your website pages uniform
Consistency is key in website design. It boosts brand recognition and makes the customer journey easier. Design elements like fonts, colors and writing style should be the same on all web pages. Having different design elements on each page of your website can destabilize and confuse your user, making their experience a poor one.
7. Embrace simplicity
Resist the temptation to impress your users by using grandiose and ostentatious designs. Instead, keep it simple. Make sure your layout is clean and uncomplicated. Don’t use more than three fonts for all your pages. Stick to a three-color scheme at the most; using too many colors is distasteful. Also, use whitespaces as discussed earlier.
Ensure every page serves a purpose. Go straight to the purpose of the page; no beating around the bush. At a glance, the user must know what the page is about and what to do at each stage.
8. Invest in topnotch content
Content is what makes a website; don’t take it for granted. Whether it be text, image, GIF or video, content is what determines if your user will stay or leave. Get a UX writer who would use user research to come up with the right content for your users. When content is well-tailored to the audience, the result is a great customer experience. Investing in premium content will draw users to your site and keep them coming.
9. Make your site responsive
More internet users use their phones. Therefore, making sure your website is optimized for mobile devices is a must. It doesn’t matter how nice your website is, if this population cannot access your website effectively, you’ll be losing out on a lot of prospects. When you have a responsive website, you open your eCommerce website to more people.
10. Request for regular customer feedback
Whether in eCommerce or any other industry, creating customer satisfaction requires getting feedback from customers. This is different from the usability testing discussed earlier. Customer feedback gives you real-time data on your customers’ experience on your site. One way to do it is to share a survey and ask them to rate their experiences. The information you get from such feedback will give you better insights into their experiences and equip you to satisfy them more.
Invest in customer satisfaction and get great returns
Your days of losing customers as a result of dissatisfaction are over. All you need is the know-how and execution. Tips like carrying out usability tests, optimizing your website’s speed, making use of whitespaces, straightforward sign up pages, clear and attractive CTAs, uniform webpages, simple website, topnotch content, responsive site and regular customer feedback work wonders with customer experience.
True, making your customer happy involves a lot of work but it is absolutely worth it. The benefits you’ll gain include enhanced conversion, improved customer acquisition and retention, more sales, increased customer loyalty and better productivity.
Moyofade Ipadeola is a Content Strategist, UX Writer and Editor. Witty, she loves personal development and helping people grow. Mo, as she’s fondly called, is fascinated by all things tech.
