If you are building a customer centric internet business then aiming for the best customer experience when designing a website is something you can’t avoid. Having a fantastic customer experience is one of the keys to making the visitors of your site become customers.
The better their experience, the more often they’ll return and convert into loyal customers. And having lots of loyal customers mean business growth and lasting success.
5 Elements For Improving Customer Experience
1. Search. Even if your website or blog is easy to navigate, some people want to be able to find their information instantly. Google makes it easy with Google search, where visitors can search your website or the internet right from a search bar on your website.
2. Contact information. It’s recommended that you place your contact information on every single page of your website. Putting it in the footer makes this easy. Also, make sure your contact information is consistent. When local search engines index you, they’ll look at the address on your website. If it’s inconsistent, your local search results won’t be as strong.
3. Categories. One of the most common mistakes is to design a website that you think is attractive, without paying attention to navigation and logic. Look at the keywords your audience is using. Create clear and understandable buttons and categories for your content.
4. Fast. Large images, video files and other graphic files can really slow down the speed on your website. If it takes too long for a page to load, visitors are going to click away. Optimize your images and graphics so they load quickly.
5. Browser compatibility. Often people design websites based on their current browser. They don’t take into consideration that their customers may not be using Internet Explorer. In fact there are some browsers people use. Focusing on only one can mean 75% of your visitors are having a poor customer experience. Make sure your website is compatible with the most popular browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera and Netscape.
Other common mistakes include broken or missing links, poor formatting, or text that is difficult to read. All of these will have an effect on your customer’s experience. Take the time to plan your website on paper before you start designing a website.
Pay attention to websites you like and why you like them. What makes them effective? What enhances your customer experience? Put those tactics and strategies into practice and you’ll have visitors coming back to your site again.