Defining the core metrics to improve online customer experience and ROI

For individuals and businesses alike, attracting traffic to your website is one matter that is complicated enough to achieve, let alone sustain. One could spend thousands of pounds every week on Google Ad Words to achieve increased visits and higher click rates. However, this does not necessarily translate directly to sales conversions, nor people actually reading through the content of your website and understanding the product or service you are selling.

To achieve tangible results from website and app visitations, the customer experience of your online platform must be optimized. Put simply, the customer experience is your customers’ perceptions of how your online business treats them, which has a direct impact on their buying behaviour, loyalty, the likelihood of recommending your product to others, and ultimately the business’ revenue. Providing a top-quality customer experience has become vital for businesses to create a positive buyer-seller culture and retain customers, especially now that companies are conducting more and more of their day-to-day customer interactions online.

Here are some of our tips at Dotsquares for identifying, optimizing and measuring the impact of your customers’ online experiences.

1. PRESALES
The presales process lays down the foundation of your online customer experience. One of the most important aspects of your website any business or individual needs to sort out is its user-friendliness. This involves regularly reviewing your website from an outsider’s perspective and ensuring it is easy to navigate, aesthetically appealing and informative. This involves a seamless and efficient shopping experience and checkout process so as to encourage and maximise sales conversions at the baseline level.

Furthermore, to meet the bare minimum of this stage of the consumer journey, the products must be displayed with good-quality photos, useful information and visible pricing. These basic features encompass an attractive UX (User Experience), and are essential to satisfy so that customers have meaningful, practical and valuable associations with your product and website.

2. SALES
One of the most important factors that impacts the culture and influence of a business is the degree of customer personalization. If the website publishes content, product offers and even ads that are relevant and interesting to the user, there is a higher chance of repeat visitation, click-through rates and ultimately purchases.

Another key function of the website is the product support that is available to them during their time on your website. Implementation of a live chat functionality, product support pages, FAQs, review posts and forums increases customer engagement, and boosts the credibility of your product and brand.

Needless to say, investing in publishing regular email newsletters is one of the most effective methods to increase and retain customer visitations and conversions. To build consumer trust and optimize conversion, websites should have an active blog page and email newsletter that publish educational and compelling content.

Nowadays, it is practically essential that all websites are mobile-friendly; that is, they are visibly and functionally compatible on users’ mobile devices and tablets, so that customers can shop at the tips of their fingers on-the-go.

3. POST-SALES
Lastly, but certainly just as important as the presales and sales processes, it is critical to check in with the customer after their purchase to see if everything is going smoothly. This window allows businesses to offer exclusive discounts, announce new products, measure customer satisfaction and loyalty, which in turn gives them the opportunity to continue to improve their services and engagement.

By satisfying the above three checklists, businesses and individuals will have a much better chance of gaining increased conversions, enhanced engagements and long-term customer loyalty through their online platforms. Defining and meeting these core metrics will ensure that the very foundations of one’s e-commerce and other online operations are set up in a way that is already well on-track to success.
Source: https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/ecommerce-customer-experience/
Blog By: Lauren Hamilton,
Sales and Marketing Specialist at Dotsquares