Providing a successful customer experience can be one of your most important marketing and product development tools, helping you to stand out and succeed in today’s competitive market.
Before someone decides to browse a store, many factors are taken into account almost immediately whether or not they’ll continue. The layout could be too messy, the salesperson unfriendly, or the store just does not feel inviting enough whether in its design or offerings.
On the other hand, if you are greeted by a friendly salesperson who is willing to help you pick the best product based on your requirements and solve any queries you may have during the process, you leave the store feeling happy, which is a satisfying customer experience.
First impressions can often happen within the first minute and subconsciously, and this is true whether a customer is shopping online or offline.
What is customer experience?
Customer experience is the perception customers have based on their interactions with a business, such as the examples above. If you’re in the eCommerce business, you already know that having a great product isn’t always enough to survive in this climate.
As the eCommerce business continues to grow, online stores need new ways to make their customers shop from them on a recurring basis. Product quality alone is no longer enough to attract and engage customers. It can be much more valuable to deliver an overall great experience – which can improve brand loyalty and customer retention, as well as encourage more positive reviews!
As we’re all aware, customers’ expectations today have dramatically risen, and shoppers now expect 24-hour customer service, cheap or free deliveries, and prompt feedback to queries, amongst others. Because of this, store pages must offer value, function, and consistency for consumers through tools such as personalization, a mobile-first strategy, data protection and an easy and clear checkout.
It can be much more valuable to deliver an overall great experience – which can brand loyalty and customer retention, as well as encourage more positive reviews!
Here are some tips to creating successful customer experience in your online business:
1. Delight or reward your customers
Organizations that understand the importance of retaining customers work hard to provide a seamless and satisfying customer experience to their existing buyers. Some ways to delight or reward your customers are through customer loyalty programs, sending free gifts along with the order to your most loyal customers, or even as simple as sending out personalized thank you emails depending on the volume of customers you have.
2. Good Customer Service
Today, customers expect quick responses to their requests for support or queries. Leaving a potential customer waiting can make you miss out on a sale. A good chat response rate and quick response time can make all the difference to your store. Good customer service can also turn a negative review into a positive one, decrease return requests, as well as increase customer retention rate. address each query and review whether positive or negative on your store page and also social media sites.
3. A Mobile-First Strategy and Better Touchpoint Impressions
For most customers, the website is the first impression the shopper has, and more and more online sales are taking place on a mobile device. It is important to ensure that the interface of customer touchpoints are optimized to improve experiences. The slightest hiccup, whether it’s poor website design, low quality images, or broken links, can turn off customers for good. Having a good store design and optimizing it for mobile use could help you to better connect to your shoppers.
4. Personalization
Customers want to feel valued and want their shopping experience to be easy, so it should come as no surprise that personalization is a key component in the recipe for eCommerce success. If you want to delight your customers, each buying experience should feel as if it’s tailored for them. Get to know your customers and build on these to create a personalized shopping experience – providing content and offers that are actually relevant to their interests, or suggesting related items or similar products.
5. Data Protection and Data Privacy
The eCommerce industry handles and has access to a lot of consumer data. Because of this, protecting consumers personal data is one of the most important requirements for eCommerce retailers. Online shoppers are concerned about their personal data, which can often include sensitive information such as their address, phone number, credit card information, and more.
6. A Quick and Easy Checkout
Last but certainly not least, the checkout process is vital to the overall success of every eCommerce platform, and the final step in creating a successful eCommerce experience. Online shoppers are particularly sensitive to the checkout process, which can make or break a sale. eCommerce merchants should make their checkout experience as easy and intuitive as possible, offer different payment methods, and think about the payment plans you offer your customers.
Providing a stellar customer experience through your eCommerce store helps you stay ahead of the game, and remains crucial to keeping your current customers and gaining new ones.
