Customer satisfaction has fallen to its lowest level since 2015, according to research from the Institute of Customer Service. The report also found that almost a third of customers prioritise ‘excellent service’ when purchasing goods or services, even if it costs them more. This is why improving your online shopping experience has never been more important.
A whopping 60% of online shoppers will abandon a purchase due to a poor website user experience, according to 2023 research by Storyblok. If you’re seeing your conversion rates take a hit when customers are partway through browsing or, worse – at online checkout – this may be the reason why.
Excellent service makes customers happy and increases the likelihood they’ll return. This is why offering a personalised, streamlined online experience is a critical part of reducing churn rate.
Mike Davies, Head of Marketing at telephone answering service company Face For Business, says: “A lot of work goes into creating a website that engenders the brand to the customer. However, by following a few simple steps, you can create a unique experience for customers, regardless of your website’s look or design.”
Here are Mike’s ten tips for keeping customers on-site and getting them through the checkout process with ease…
1. Site optimisation
“Aim to keep website load time to a few seconds or less. Oftentimes, your greatest threat isn’t a competitor, but a user’s patience,” says Mike.
“The back button is a readily available option if your website loads too slowly. If that happens, they will go elsewhere.
“This is also true for mobile users. According to Google’s Mobile Usability Report, 74% of users are more likely to go back and visit websites that work as well on mobile as they do on desktop. This isn’t surprising given how much browsing is now done on smartphones and tablets.
“For businesses, it means building optimised websites for mobile and desktop to guarantee maximum performance regardless of a customer’s network connection.”
2. Implement a user-friendly website design
“According to research by Nielsen Norman Group, visitors will leave a website within 10-20 seconds if they cannot find what they are looking for.
“Successful eCommerce sites readily signpost internal pages that customers will most likely visit. This means using user-friendly language to direct customers around your website in as few clicks as possible.”
3. Make it Personal
“‘Personalisation’ on a website can mean a lot of different things. For one, you can offer product recommendations based on previous purchases, thereby tailoring the content a user sees and making it more relevant to them,” Mike advises.
“This personalisation can also occur offsite. Offering discount codes, promoting sales and reminding customers when a product is back in stock are all great ways of ensuring that they keep coming back.”
4. Reduce abandoned carts
“To increase eCommerce sales you must identify the obstacles preventing people from buying from your store. Tracking and managing your platform’s shopping cart abandonment rate is a crucial step in this analysis,” says Mike.
“Isolating and utilising the relevant metrics in your analytics will allow you to repair poorly functioning or broken sales funnels.”
5. Make it easy for customers to contact you
“Customers have short attention spans and have no patience when it comes to hunting down your phone number or email address,” Mike warns.
“Their impression of your business will drop dramatically when their time is wasted searching for something that should be easy to find in seconds. Therefore, always keep your Contact Us page in a visible place such as the footer and main navigation menu, and add calls to action across other pages on your website that guide the customer should they wish to get in touch.”
6. Add a live chat widget
“Did you know that around 83% of customers say they need more support when buying online? Worryingly, they also say that it currently isn’t available much of the time,” Mike reveals.
“Responsive support like Live Chat instantly alleviates this by putting customer support agents behind your website to answer any questions directly that customers might have.”
7. Include customer reviews
“Reviews are an essential resource for customers when making purchase decisions. It provides an authentic way in which to aid and advise customers, allowing them to determine if the product will meet their needs.
“Providing an onsite space to review products provides a level of transparency which signals that your products and services are of high quality.”
8. Provide an FAQ page
Mike also advises not to underestimate the classic FAQs, saying: “An FAQ page is a critical element of your brand’s online customer service strategy. Your customers will come here first when they have any concerns.
“This page will streamline the customer support process by addressing common queries, thereby reducing the volume of repetitive questions received through other channels. The transparency of an FAQ also engenders trust in your customer.”
9. Upload high-quality product content
Mike adds: “High-quality content describing your products and services will greatly improve the user’s experience. This is an exercise in quality over quantity.
“You should also use high-resolution images to provide a clear representation of your products – – this boosts customer confidence as they know exactly what they are getting.”
10. Offer free shipping
Finally, Mike finishes with a last suggestion of how to entice many customers over the line: “Free shipping is a powerful incentive for customers.
“Even a small shipping fee can deter purchases, but free shipping, particularly for inexpensive items, often seals the deal despite potential price adjustments,” he says. “When customers receive a favourable deal they are less inclined to seek alternatives.”
