Thedigital customer experience has become a key conversion factor. Today, over 80% of consumers seek information online before making a purchase. To capture their attention and accompany them through to the act of purchase, your digital device (website, social networks, mobile app) must meet their expectations at every stage of the journey.
At the risk of missing out on a major tool for improving the customer experience, and therefore transforming leads into customers! Are you one of these brands? To help you find out quickly, we've put together a checklist of customer expectations that your digital device must absolutely meet.
Here are the 5 fundamentals not to be overlooked.
1. Clear product information
Your digital device must above all respond to the searches of web users preparing a purchase.
This is of course if they're searching for your brand or products, but also if they're doing a more generic search on the types of products you sell.
80% of Internet users say they use the internet to get information before buying a product or service... a score that reaches 87% in the Paris region and 92% among professionals and senior executives, according to a study carried out by Ifop in December 2014, entitled "The impact of e-reputation on the purchasing process".1
Consumers need to be able to find rich, relevant information about the products or services they're interested in on your website and through your social networking pages. Information that will help them make the right choice, whether online or in-store.
Most websites fulfill this "duty to inform" and present their products and services, but is this presentation really useful and does it contribute to conversion? Is the product sheet sufficiently complete, with a structured argument and concrete elements? Is the price clearly displayed? And if not, is there a redirection to a quote request? Can visitors easily access informative content to help them make their decision (customer reviews, product tests, use cases, etc.)? For an e-commerce site, are delivery and return conditions visible and easy to understand, including from a mobile browser?
Enhance product data sheets to improve the digital customer experience
A simple description accompanied by a standard photo is no longer enough. Today, the key tooptimizing the user experience lies in the ability to accompany the customer in his or her projection: to make him or her understand the concrete benefits of using the product, to create an emotional bond, and to guide him or her through a fluid and engaging digital customer journey.
With this in mind, the product sheet shouldn't be a point of arrival, but a lever within a more global digital strategy. It can be enriched by complementary formats such as video tutorials on YouTube, themed blog posts shared on social networks, or inspiration galleries on Pinterest. All of this content supports a structured conversion tunnel, fed by an effectiveCRM and a logic of continuous personalization.
Finally, by combining these elements with a customer satisfaction-oriented approach and omnichannel customer service, you multiply the chances of accompanying the user at every stage of his or her reflection, and thus transforming him or her into a loyal customer.
Discover our white paper CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE :
Why should your company get involved?
2. Contact customer service quickly
Having a contact to easily reach customer service in the event of a question or problem seems obvious... and yet, on some websites, it can be a real obstacle course! So much so, in fact, that we sometimes wonder whether this is deliberate! It's not enough to "hide" the telephone number or e-mail address of the after-sales service to avoid questions and complaints. On the contrary, there's nothing like it to fuel customer impatience and irritation!
Particularly today, when the multiplicity of possible contact channels has made it essential for users and customers to have an easy and immediate way to reach a brand.
"While online shoppers are attached to traditional means of contact, they nonetheless want to have a choice when it comes to customer service," explains a CCM Benchmark / iAdvize study dated April 2015.2
E-shoppers are particularly aware of the usefulness of real-time assistance methods to help them during critical phases of the purchasing process: problems at the payment stage, stumbling blocks when identifying themselves or filling in the order form.
Facilitate online customer assistance to smooth the purchasing process
Let's not forget: more often than not, when a customer visits a brand site, it's not just because they want to buy or find out more about a product, it's because they're looking for help. The first step in helping them is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section, which, if done properly, will prevent a number of calls to your customer service department.
In the same way, being able to download documentation on your products or access tutorials (video or not) will avoid a certain number of direct calls or solicitations on social networks.
Set up an omnichannel, visible and responsive customer service
Ideally, you should give customers a choice about how to contact you, and specify this clearly, as IKEA or Michel et Augustin, for example, do on their contact pages.
Once these basics are in place, you can offer a means of reaching your customer service department directly: e-mail, telephone, chat or social networks. Make the available channels immediately visible and easilyaccessible. Explain clearly who will receive the e-mail or who will pick up the phone. Confirm that a request has been received, and say how long it will take to process. In most cases, this "pedagogical" discourse is enough, or goes a long way towards lowering the tension level ofan unhappy customer!
Finally, don't neglect social networks. If you have a presence on Facebook or Twitter, make sure that the person in charge of these accounts (ideally your Community Manager), can quickly forward requests internally, according to an efficient and formalized process to enable a rapid and relevant response, and a shared and "historicized" follow-up. You can also create a Facebook page or Twitter account dedicated to after-sales service, so as not to mixengagement conversationswith customer service conversations.
3. Benefit from all services from a cell phone
In 2016, offering a "mobile-friendly" version of your website has become an indispensable prerequisite. Why is this? Because 1 in 3 of the world's population is now equipped with a smartphone.
More importantly:
"Traffic from mobile terminals has recently overtaken that from computers : today, more than 50% of Internet searches are carried out from a mobile terminal (smartphone or tablet).3
Half the time, your customers are looking for your products, consulting your site or your online content from their personal phone!
And there's nothing more frustrating on a mobile device than a site that's heavy and long to display, with tiny buttons that are impossible to click... So it's become difficult to do without a site adapted for consultation from a mobile device, all the more so for e-tailers.
Optimizing mobile navigation for a smooth customer experience
Meeting this customer expectation means paying particular attention to the hierarchy of information, the image formats used, page loading times and the ability to carry out key operations (such as online payment or downloading high value-added content) from a cell phone.
Search engines (such as Google or Bing, for example) now offer specific tools that enable you to quickly and easily test your website's compatibility with mobile devices.
Responsive design or mobile application: which is better?
Not everyone has the opportunity or the means to create a second version of their website, specially adapted for consultation from a mobile device. The simplest, most effective and least expensive solution is to design your main site in "responsive design": its content and presentation will automatically adapt to the device used.
You can also offer your customers a mobile application. This must offer real added value in relation to your website, and in particular provide solutions to customer needs in a mobile context. In order for it to be downloaded and used, your customer must also find an interest in using it on a regular basis. If the service offered by your application is a "one shot" service, then it's best to set it up on your site in responsive design, optimizing the SEO of the page linked to this service.
4. Find your nearest sales outlet
Your website, whether an e-commerce site or a showcase site, must act as a bridge between your online presence and your physical presence.
Before making a purchase on the Internet, over 77% of 18-24 year-olds say they will evaluate or try the product directly in a store. This figure rises to 79% among 25-34 year-olds.1
Conversely, before making an in-store purchase, 73% of French people surveyed consult online consumer reviews on blogs, forums or consumer websites.
In short, physical sales outlets and websites are more closely linked than ever, and do not cannibalize each other.
Connecting website and point of sale for a consistent customer experience
It is therefore important to provide a list of your points of sale, or if you don't distribute your products yourself, a list of your distributors. Ideally, and in keeping with the logic of presence and use in a mobile context, helping your customers to quickly locate the point of sale closest to their current location represents a real value-added service.
Geolocation and mobile services: helping customers find your store
You've probably already geolocated your stores on Google Maps. But today, in addition to giving you access to a complete, interactive map of your stores, it's also useful to be referenced by the many mobile applications that allow you toautomatically receive a store's current promotions on your mobile when you're in the vicinity (Groupon City Deal), or to collect points/bonuses when you enter a store (Shopkick). Or compare prices for the same product in all the stores selling it near your current location (Géocompare)!
5. Benefit from a personalized and, if possible, "enhanced" experience
When customer information is clear and structured, contact is simple, mobile navigation is optimized, and store location is made easy, a major differentiator for your site will be theintegration of "personalized" functionalities.
Personalization: a powerful lever for enriching the digital customer experience
Acknowledging your customers as they enter the site by greeting them by their first name, or prioritizing product offers in which they have already shown an interest, are all ways of re-creating"proximity" online.
My FeelBack, for example, thanks a person by their first name and mentions the name of their company in the message it displays after downloading one of its white papers.
Create a unique customer relationship with customized features
You can also offer content that adapts to the customer's profile and browsing history, send a personalized message with a specific promotion following a "cart abandonment", or create areas reserved for "premium" customers, giving them access to value-added content... or create areas reserved for "premium" customers, giving them access to value-added content...
Or offer a "different experience" through original design and original messages, as Michel et Augustin's site does so well.
Or simply offer them the chance to subscribe to a themed mailing list, enabling them to receive key information in advance (launch of season ticket sales for a soccer team, for example).
Features like these enhance the user experience, enable you to fine-tune your performance even further and, above all, have a strong emotional impact on your customers .
But before you consider deploying this latest stage of the digital rocket, don't forget the fundamentals detailed in this article: to generate the "wow" effect by anticipating your customers' conscious expectations, you first have to meet their first expectations on the must-have points!
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- The impact of e-reputation on the purchasing process, IFOP, December 2014
- Online shopping behaviors and customer engagement, CCM Benchmark - IAdvize, April 2015
- Uses and expectations of hyper-connected French people, Google - IPSOS, 2015
