Nobody likes typing and retyping their passwords to log in to a website. It takes time, and it feels tedious. This recognition should carry through to a company’s entire web design.

Businesses are always looking for ways to one-up their customer experience, and a website is a great place to start as we move into the digital economy. 

Understanding Your Customers

Gaining an understanding of your customers is central to creating a predictive and personal website. 

Having a website that remembers the last page a visitor was on, their progress in a course (for LMS sites), posts they were tagged in, posts they liked, recommendations of similar pages they'd like — demonstrates responsiveness to your customer and a great customer experience. Not only will the user experience improve, as they don’t have to navigate the site to get to their destination, but you also increase the dwell time they spend on your website as you prompt them to look at other pages that match their interests. 

Websites are now the equivalent of a shop’s storefront. The journey of ‘entering’ the site — how you greet the customer, how they flow through the site — is similar to a customer’s experience in a retail store. If a sales assistant remembers you, they will usually give you a smile or some form of recognition. Not only does this make the customer feel special, but it also makes them want your services a little more (the halo effect).

With the increase of web browsers, many businesses experience their first touch point with their potential customers through their website. This means it's important to ensure that every aspect of your web design is seamless with the experience customers would get if they were to meet you in person.
 

Action Points

Here are some ideas you can implement on your website: Display a ‘hello’ message when the user signs in to their member’s portal. Put a ‘recommended readings’ at the bottom of blog posts that links to similar content that the user might enjoy. If a user is reading an article, show them the reading progress bar, allowing them to track how far they’ve read (this is implemented by Harvard Business Review).

There are a lot of small adjustments you can make to your website today just to improve the customer’s experience. While these changes may seem small, they add up and subconsciously affect the customer’s opinion and feelings towards your business. Have a look at your site: are there any optimisations you can make to ensure each customer feels special and cared for during their web experience?

Written by Lina Lau, Digital Executive at Step Change

Lina’s natural flair for Java code meant she was presenting theories to her own lecturers before even graduating. A computer science and law major, she brings unique ‘systems meet psychology’ approach to marketing and strategy. Strategic problem-solver at heart, she honed her tech skills by teaching herself how to hack and understanding crypto currencies. Her diverse range of skills and natural love for entrepreneurship and understanding businesses led her to Step Change.