You shouldn’t depend on the quality of the product to attract, engage and keep your customers on your site.
In reality, the quality of products isn’t the primary reason consumers purchase from a specific brand. Instead, in today’s world, offering the best overall experience for your customers who shop online is more important.
We’ll go over all you should be aware of when it comes to creating an outstanding online customer experience by 2022 and beyond to improve customer loyalty, retention, and your customers’ lifetime worth.
What is customer experience?
The customer experience (CX) is anything associated with a business that impacts a consumer’s perception and opinions about it.
The customer experience (CX) is about the relationship between businesses and their consumers. It encompasses any interaction, no matter how short, even if it doesn’t result in a sale. It could be a phone contact with a contact center, exposure to an ad, or something as routine as paying an invoice; each exchange between business and customer builds (or damages) relations. The most important thing is how customers perceive the experiences as a whole, which matters.
The importance of customer experience
Today, customer expectations are higher than ever. So it’s no surprise that a consumer can switch to a competitor if they don’t locate what they’re looking for on your site or elsewhere in the customer journey; the stakes for customer experience are very high. They’re so high that any negative customer experience could turn off an individual customer for the rest of their life and possibly cause an effect that could also impact the perceptions of other customers. Why? Because those who have experienced an unpleasant experience are more likely to discuss it, write a bad review, and then share their experiences with their entire social network.
This is why building brand loyalty is important. It’s been proven that satisfied customers earn an average of 2.6x more revenue for a company than customers who are somewhat satisfied and 14x more revenue than a dissatisfied’ client. Furthermore, it costs brands seven times more money to acquire new customers than it costs to keep a positive relationship with a customer.
Thus, providing a superior customer experience management service is crucial because it’s the best option to ensure general brand loyalty and because it simply makes financial sense.
10 ways to improve ecommerce customer experience
1. Personalize it
Personalization is among the main factors driving customer loyalty ( KPMG). Therefore, personalization is a must for retailers to boost the retention of customers.
Utilize data to get to know your customers better. Treat each person as an individual, and let them feel appreciated.
Here are some of the personalization touchpoints you could test:
- Offer discounts for personal purchases on items or services pertinent to the customer.
- Recognize their location and provide information about delivery to this area
- Showcase the history of the customer by providing an array of suggestions based on items the customer has seen and an overview of recently seen items.
- Contact clients in the language of their choice
- personalize email messages such as a birthday greeting or invite to an online VIP event can be wonderful icing on the cake
Goodreads offers individual reading suggestions to its customers according to their reading habits.
2. Create a user-friendly website
Customers are looking for easy-to-navigate websites that let them browse your offerings and get precisely what they require. Therefore, the online store must be organized according to categories, similar to physical stores. The search function should be simple to locate, and all information should be properly tagged and classified at the backend. When it comes to e-commerce, consumers generally be classified into three categories:
- The ones who are aware of what they would like
- People who are browsing
- For those who require assistance in sorting through your products
3. Cross-sell and upsell
Giving your customers relevant items is a great way to offer a more enjoyable shopping experience. Don’t bombard customers with useless items; instead, provide the items in the shopping cart.
Make valuable offers by using an easy CTA. Also, you should consider whether you can keep your messages as frequent upsells could turn off customers.
By offering discounts of value as well as complementary products, you can draw people to your store online and encourage them to become regular customers.
4. Fast & easy checkout process
Making it easy to checkout can reduce the number of abandoned carts you encounter. Easy-to-use shopping carts should be accessible on every page, and payment should be secured. For example, display the different checkout options, including Paypal, to ensure that your customers don’t go to check out only to find they can’t use the preferred payment method. If you notice a significant abandonment rate, You can swiftly implement an automated feedback system on your site to find out what’s wrong.
One Qualtrics customer implemented the checkout process for their customers on their online store and discovered that they lost thousands of dollars every second after the launch. After conducting a short survey and analyzing the issue, they discovered that it was a simple field formatting issue, which required that dates be formatted in a particular way; however, the error message did not tell the users what they had done wrong.
5. Surprise Your Shoppers!
Buyers of online services like the surprise. It is possible to introduce surprises throughout the buying process to increase the user experience. For example, it is generally recommended to provide free shipping. Enhance the sales of your business by using this method slightly differently. Instead of being overly proud about it, make it a point to mention it when you are at the checkout. This will prompt the customer to return and will help spread word of mouth through their circle of friends.
You can apply this method to recoup the cart that was abandoned too. Instead of sending your customers the usual “We miss you” emails, You can surprise them with incentives to make the purchase.
6. Build a Community
A community is an association comprised of followers or commitment to your brand. It is the outcome of all you perform, represent, and stand for as an organization. The community members are the advocates for your product. Email and social media are among the most powerful methods of building an online community. You can also encourage your audience to leave ratings and reviews on your pages for products.
7. Give product support
As a majority of customers purchase your items online, they require online customer service. Suppose you provide different customer service channels such as live chats, support pages for product forums and forums, etc. You can improve the likelihood of getting answers to their questions. If you provide just one or two support options, and customers don’t have their queries answered promptly, They may look for a competitor with an easy-to-understand website. Like when people seek assistance from a staff member at a brick-and-mortar retail store, customers should be able to communicate with an actual person regarding issues with the product, and a lot of users prefer this method over live chat.
8. Keep an omnichannel customer experience
Customers have become used to the hybrid environment following the outbreak. So, their customer experiences must reflect this – whether in stores or online, on social media or anywhere else. Omnichannel strategies link offline, mobile, desktop tablets, desktops, and every other channel that is relevant to create a seamless experience. Sales, marketing, and support must be available on every channel in order to offer an integrated experience, regardless of the method or location the customer is reaching out to.
For instance, 65 percent of users on social media expect companies to respond to their social media channels just as they would if they inquired through your website. With Intercom, it is possible to make it easier for customers to send messages across all of your major digital channels so that your staff can review, manage, and respond to all messages in an Inbox instead of bouncing between channels and tools.
9. Enhance the employee experience to improve customer retention.
The most effective way to increase the relationship between customer and employee experience is to establish an experience platform for employees. For example, the portal could be an intranet that can send personalized messages to employees and also increase their engagement with your clients.
Start this process with surveys that you distribute to employees. This will allow you to learn about consumer preferences as well as implement engagement programs and other rewards.
10. Give loyalty rewards to stay ahead
A good illustration of new opportunities for sales is the evolving nature of loyalty programs. The study found that 70 % of consumers are drawn to gift cards and loyalty programs during the holiday season, and half of these customers are likely to spend more on purchases than they normally would.
Creating an immersive strategy is the best way to create an optimal customer experience.
Don’t just offer suggestions to customers as part of their loyalty program by analyzing their browsing habits. About one-third of users consider this tactic to be invasive. Instead, develop a more immersive experience that includes predictive selling based on data from users and encourages loyalty rewards and upsells.
Conclusion
Enhancing your online CX isn’t necessarily an overwhelming task – sometimes, it’s just a matter of doing a little investigation, but other times, the need for improvements is obvious. It is important to consider your customer experience just as much as you do your products or brand because it holds the ability to become the primary factor that differentiates between you and your competition. With Intercom, it is possible to assist and connect with your customers through the same platform, from helping them out to making sure they are satisfied.
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