In order to build a successful website, you need to put your customers first.
After all, your customers are the ones who will be using your website, and it is these users that you will need to impress.
But how is this done? How do you optimise your website’s customer experience? Let’s take a look.
Consider your audience’s objectives
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What do they want to achieve when they visit your website? Of course, you want them to make a high-value purchase, but they may not want to do this straight away. Perhaps they want a free trial so they can get to grips with your business’s offerings. Maybe they want to connect with the service and support offerings of your team. Or it could be that they want to purchase an add-on to a product they already own.
Considering these objectives is crucial when building a successful website. Remember, the customer is in charge here — you can guide them in the right direction, but, ultimately, you need to cater to what they want.
1. Create paths of least resistance when building a website
Once you know your audience’s objectives, think about how they will get there. Your website’s customer experience hinges on providing intuitive and convenient paths for your customers on the way to their objectives. To make sure this is the case, you need to road-test the journey from first contact to goal completion.
Is the process short and streamlined? Is it free from bottlenecks and constrictions? If not, you may need a redesign. If your website sends customers on a wild goose chase through different pages and menus, many of these customers are going to get frustrated and head elsewhere.
2. Get to know your customers
The analytics features provided by Google and your content management software (CMS) offer a wealth of useful information and insight. This will tell you where your customers are coming from and what they are trying to achieve from your website. It will also tell you to some degree who your customers are.
With this insight, you will be able to develop a winning website — a website created with your customers in mind. Remember, different customer segments will want to achieve different outcomes, and you will need to cater to all of these use cases.
3. Listen to your customers
Getting to know your customers is important, of course, but you also need to actively listen to what these customers have to say. Encourage feedback at every stage, and take the ideas you receive very seriously.
Even with the best will in the world, sometimes you may miss something during your testing. Customer feedback may illuminate the areas that you overlooked during your website design.
Always keep the customer experience top of mind when building your website
Whenever you develop your website or add functionality, remember to put the customer first.
This is the key to building a successful website.
Review the customer journey on your website regularly – your website has so much to tell you!
