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We have all spent countless unnecessary hours entering and updating information on various online services, but few companies would admit that their services are among these sources of people’s frustration. Nevertheless, perhaps you should evaluate your service from the customer’s perspective and determine whether your company’s online service is one that makes the customer run out of patience.
I recently had this experience during a holiday trip since I hadn’t had the time to book downhill skiing lessons and lift tickets for my kids in advance. During our drive to Northern Finland, I went online hoping to quickly take care of these arrangements. As you might guess, it didn’t turn out to be so easy after all.
As I looked for tickets and registration forms, I found myself jumping from one page to another, and the services I was looking for were not located on the pages that the links pointed me to. Even contact information was hard to find, and I actually ended up calling directory enquiries. I managed to book the skiing lessons, but I wasn’t able to pay for them until we got to the ski resort.
After this frustrating experience, I decided to do everything I can to prevent other people from spending their precious time on their holidays on things that get on their nerves.
If you are an online service provider and you have felt a pang of guilt reading about my experience, here’s what you should do:
1. Focus on the problem that the customer is trying to solve
Your customer always has a reason for visiting your online service. Help the customer find a solution to their problem as quickly and effectively as possible.
2. Make buying easy regardless of the channel
Determine the customer path of your service and be actively involved in digital customer encounters. Most customers start from Google, move to your website, download user guides, read product information, chat and finally make the purchase. Make the process of buying your product or service as easy as it can be.
3. Take advantage of the data you have on customer behaviour
Are you familiar with your customer’s movements online? Has the customer been on the verge of buying a product, only to interrupt the process for some reason? Think about the potential reasons that could have led to this outcome, and test different alternatives.
4. Sort out your visibility on search engines and invest in product searches
For most people, the buying path starts from a search engine. This means you must invest in your findability on search engines. You also need to conduct tests to ensure that your product searches and product information work as they should. All information must be easy to find, even on mobile devices.
Keep in mind that the user of your online service is a human being who wants to minimise the time spent on the service so they can enjoy their holiday or the company of their family, for example. You need to provide the customer with an easy, quick and enjoyable buying path with no bottlenecks.
At Solteq, we can help you understand your customer better. We have taken steps to increasingly engage end customers, retail networks and retailers in the development of online services by means of various focus interviews. This enables us to develop services even more in line with customer needs.
We look forward to working with you in developing a pleasant and quick purchasing experience for your customers.
Usability, Customer experience, customers, eCommerce, Online services