It turns out that more and more customers are willing to pay higher amounts for better and more memorable experiences with a brand, products, or services. Being able to spark unforgettable emotions in your buyers is the key to winning their hearts. This is when online customer experience comes into play. What exactly is it and what can you do to succeed? Keep reading to learn more!
Online customer experience – what is it?
Have you been asking yourself “what is online customer experience”? Probably most business people have.
In a nutshell, the term online customer experience is used to talk about all the experiences and emotions of customers who come across your brand or interact with it. So, when talking about online CX it’s crucial to mention both the process of browsing your company website, following your social media channels and finalizing transactions in your online store.
All these elements perfectly summarize the online customer experience. What is the most important? Emotions and perceptions of potential customers. If your business is characterized by top-notch online CX, it means that people are able to easily place orders, contact your representatives, access necessary pages, or information, and complete the customer journey. If it’s not the case when talking about your store, and your page navigation is frustrating, or cumbersome, it’s a sign that you should work on improving online CX.
Customer experience vs online customer experience
Since you already know what online customer experience is, it’s time to discuss the discrepancies between CX and online CX. Is there any difference, or can these terms be used interchangeably?
It’s crucial to mention that it’s impossible to separate these two concepts, as they’re closely related. While customer experience focuses on in-store interactions and activities that take place in the physical world, online customer experience is more about inspiring trust and building relationships with potential customers in the online world.
Improving both traditional and online customer experience requires appropriate skills, knowledge, and consistency across multiple channels.
Why does online CX matter?
According to the research, even 67% of customers are willing to pay more for high-quality services. Moreover, with all the probability buyers will choose your market rivals if you don’t provide them with top-notch, smooth services.
Outstanding online customer experience is what can help you engage and attract customers for longer. It can also bring numerous benefits to your business, including:
- Reduced customer churn rates
- Greater brand image, awareness, and equity
- Higher customer retention
- Higher customer lifetime value
- Reduced operational costs.
What can you do to refine the online customer experience?
Knowing what online customer experience is isn’t enough to succeed. You should also test different solutions that can help you improve the quality of your digital services. By following a few simple steps and strategies, you can ensure that your brand will evoke positive feelings in buyers:
- optimize your website – make sure that your page loads fast, as users who have to wait longer than 2 or 3 seconds are likely to leave the website and choose your market rivals instead. Compress images, get rid of unnecessary plugins, implement lazy loading if needed, and ensure that your website is both user and search engine friendly.
- create transparent, engaging content – taking care of page loading time isn’t enough to succeed. Once users enter your website, they should find there something that will engage them. Create valuable, diversified content that catches the eye. Communicate in an attractive, yet transparent manner. Click baits won’t bring you profits in the long run. Use headers and titles that actually summarize the content. Otherwise, users who enter your page and see that it has nothing to do with the meta description and title displayed in the search results will quickly leave it.
Online customer experience – what is the takeaway?
Knowing what is online customer experience and why it matter is the first step to success in the digital world. When trying to understand and improve the online customer experience, it’s crucial to put yourself in the buyers’ shoes. Before implementing any changes or investing in costly campaigns, think about elements that are important to you as a customer. The chances are that your target audience pays attention to the same exact functionalities.
Want to learn more about improving the online customer experience? Check it out!
