How To Incorporate Customer Experience Practices Into Design

Customer experience (CX) is one of the most critical aspects of your website, and what customers remember long after they’ve clicked away. Creating a personalized and positive experience for consumers shows them you care about gaining their business and keeping it.

In a survey of online marketers, the majority felt adding customer experience to graphic design was the most critical factor driving success into 2019. Instituting a few changes for a more positive CX isn’t rocket science. A few key practices make a big difference. Here are 10 ways to create a better experience through your website, store and print graphics.

1. Embrace Transparency

More than 50 percent of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand with transparency on social media channels. Transparency should be part of your overall company culture. If you make a mistake, own up to it and explain how you’ll fix it for your customers. If you make a significant change, inform your loyal clients of the change and why you made it. Transparency builds a sense of trust between you and your customers.

2. Start With Internal Policies

Your employees are the face of your brand — if you treat them well, it will show. If you want your customers to have a fantastic experience with your brand, treat your employees well. They should love working for you so much they’d never consider going elsewhere. The best UX/UI designer on the team will have their choice of employment. If you have a great policies, they will stay and design amazing customer experiences. Employees who enjoy their company and feel appreciated become the best brand ambassadors imaginable.

3. Offer Navigational Signage

For your brick-and-mortar stores or at trade shows, add navigational signage to make the customer experience seamless. For example, if your customers go through a series of steps after entering your store, clearly label each stage in the process. Think about signage — both hanging and on the floor — to direct your customers and make their experience easy.

4. Add Multi-Channel Experiences

We live in a digital age where people have a device with them at all times and stay connected 24/7. Consumers want multiple ways of interacting with brands, even if they mainly visit a local branch of the company. Banks are an excellent example of businesses that have had to adapt to a multi-device, omni-channel experience.

5. Gather Feedback

Improve your customer service and the overall CX by gathering feedback from your current customers. Pay attention to any complaints and fix issues in the purchase process. Actively seek input through polls and questions to your existing customers. Ask what they love and what needs improving.

However, once you see patterns of complaints, you must then act to fix issues within your brand. If 80 percent of your customers complain delivery time is too slow, and you don’t take steps to fix the problem, you risk losing those customers.

6. Go the Extra Mile

When stories about outstanding customer service are going viral, it’s almost always because the company went far above and beyond what people needed or expected. If you have a regular customer who already loves your brand, look for opportunities to personalize your service a bit and thank them for their loyalty. They are likely to tell others about their experience and expand your reach.

7. Speed up Response Time

A powerful improvement to your CX comes when you speed up your response time. In a survey, researchers found customers’ No. 1 complaint was response time. Even if they’ve only reached out with a fundamental question, if the customer must wait for a response longer than a few minutes, dissatisfaction sets in. You’re sending a message that you don’t care about the customer’s time and how long they had to wait for a response.

8. Know Your Audience

How many times have you heard this advice? Experts repeat the information to know who your target audience is because it impacts where you market, how you market and how you meet the needs of your customers. If your audience is mainly millennials, you know your mobile experience had better be up to par. If your audience is primarily baby boomers, they want the interaction of a real person on the other end of the phone or in person.

9. Find Your Personality

Whether designing for online or a print ad, it’s important to understand the personality of your brand and how it speaks to your target audience. Your brand personality comes through in the wording you choose and your brand’s color palette. If you sell party supplies, you want a young, fun vibe and not something overly serious. Find your personality as a company and make sure it shines through everything you do. People want an experience, so give them one.

10. Map Your Customers’ Journey

When a customer lands on your website or walks into your store, where do you want them to go next? Take time to map out your customer’s ideal journey from Point A to Point B. Using A/B testing tools, you can optimize your design for a better customer experience. The goal is to remove obstacles and distractions, so the customer remains focused on the task at hand. Mapping the customer journey looks different for different types of businesses, so think through the goal and take steps backward from there.

CX Changes Your ROI

Good CX strategies result in better return on investment, or ROI. Implement changes as you notice areas to serve customers better. Devoting time and energy to nurturing the relationship between your brand and your customers pays off in loyal return customers and word-of-mouth advertising.