Customer Experience, or Customer Experience, refers to the perception of the brand by users, based on the interactions they have experienced with the company. In the area of eCommerce, this experience can both build and completely break the customer-brand relationship. Thus, a CX audit is essential to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise that lead users to go through the purchase path.
User needs and expectations
When running a website or online store, a lot of attention is directed towards getting traffic to the site. However, this is not all. Given that branding and revenue growth are the main goals of most businesses, you should also focus on conversion aspect of this movement. Users must therefore be persuaded to take actions that will benefit the company.
One of the elements that every company should pay special attention to is sales funnel, symbolizing the roadwhich must be overcome by the customer in the purchasing process. Its beginning is getting to know the brand, the product, and the end — the completion of the transaction. If it is successful, the consumer will gain confidence in the company and quite likely to return in the future.
However, if at any of the stages the user decides not to take further action, it is necessary to look at why this happened. In order to be able to identify the reasons why the customer did not want to continue the adventure with a given brand, it is worth betting on the Customer Experience audit, that is, his experience on the site.
Positive customer experiences — what are they?
Optimal Customer Experience is meeting the needs and expectations of customers, and above all — Taking their opinions seriously. The opinion of users is an indispensable help in building and developing a brand. Understanding consumers is the first step to solving their problems and helping them along the way to the fulfillment of the purchasing cycle.
Ensuring a positive user experience means, among other things. identification of factors that affect the decrease in the quality of service when interacting with the brand, their elimination or minimization. This applies to both the loading speed of the page or online store, and the after-sales service.
Remember that if the customer is satisfied, they will not stop supporting your brand. It is quite possible that He will even promote it. This will certainly translate into an increase in sales and revenue of the company.
What is a Customer Experience Audit?
A Customer Experience Audit is a complete assessment of customer interactions with a brand and ways of perceiving it. It takes into account the most important points on the consumer's purchase path, from the search and selection of the product, through interactions, to the sales process. Customer Experience Audit includes:
- checking the conversion of the site,
- checking the statistics of clicks,
- conducting interviews with clients,
- control of social media,
- examination of abandoned baskets,
- examine the experience of returning the product.
In the case of limited time, it is good to concentrate on the most important elements of the activity. These include customer interviews and control of site click and conversion statistics. This can allow you to obtain the most important information, that is, to know the amount of return on investment.
Basic steps for conducting a Customer Experience Audit
1. Keep documentation of the customer's purchasing cycle
Customer Experience Audits will not be effective when they are not carried out before study of the stages of the consumer life cycle. This is the basis for carrying out further audit steps, which will allow a detailed analysis of the progress of the optimization of activities.
It can, of course, be assumed that there is a general group of stages of the purchase cycle, that is, the time before sales, as well as the time after sales. In each company, however, the products offered are unique, and variables that must be taken into account include the geographical location of consumers and competition.
2. Identify the points of contact of the customer with the brand in the sales cycle
The customer goes through several stages of the journey during the familiarization cycle with the product. However, this is not all. Along the way, he encounters many points of contact with the brand, which have a huge impact on his perception of the road he takes.
The second step of an effective Customer Experience audit is therefore a detailed documentation and inventory of all these points of contact between the customer and the brand. These include, among others. email and direct mail, product samples, social media, trade shows, invoicing, product use, after-sales activities.
3. Evaluate the impact of brand touchpoints on the user experience
Every moment a customer comes into contact with a given brand has some influence on the consumer. It may be up to him to take the next step or give it up. So keep in mind that individual experiences with the brand This can result in both positive and negative consumer decisions.
4. Check the level of customer satisfaction and compare it with the most important values for them
It is worth remembering that customers can be very satisfied with the involvement of the online sales team, and at the same time it may have absolutely no impact on their decision to buy goods. It is therefore good to consider whether the support they receive in the purchase process and the guarantee of receiving a full-fledged product are sufficient. Perhaps the consumer will find a cheaper alternative for himself elsewhere.
It should not be overlooked that the price is also important in the purchasing process. How to convince potential customers to make a purchase in a particular online store? A proper Customer Experience audit can provide answers to key questions about the purchasing process. Why should a user leave their money in your store? What can convince him to choose a place of purchase?
5. Bet on benchmarking and regular audit
What you need to pay special attention to is planning A long-term strategy of action. An optimally conducted Customer Experience audit can show many elements that need to be modified. Without establishing a mechanism for evaluation and benchmarking, this is almost impossible, which further affects the increase in the risk of failure to win more customers.
The Customer Experience Audit is intended to be a comparison of different customer experiences at each stage of the purchasing cycle and to show the level of satisfaction of the customer group. By summing up the individual results, you can get a measurable effect, determining the customer's feelings.
In addition, evaluating individual elements of the user experience can give insight into the mechanism of action that leads to error correction on the customer's journey through the purchase path. The Customer Experience Audit is not only a checklist, but above all constant analysis of the influence of the brand on the decisions made by users.
When is a CX Audit Necessary?
The Customer Experience Audit should be carried out, among others, at the moment when:
- the store or website has been in operation for some time,
- data analysis indicates a decrease in traffic at different stages of the purchase path,
- the store or website has never been tested in the direction of Customer Experience,
- focus on user experience has never been a priority and part of development,
- the solutions implemented so far have not brought the expected results and return on investment,
- previous changes do not translate into an increase in conversions,
- in the area of SEO, it is necessary to introduce modifications that will allow to support the new strategy of action.
The Customer Experience Audit aims to help the situation of the company at the moment and suggest what steps should be taken, for his position to grow and strengthen. Changes in design, content analysis and communication can have a very positive effect on the perception of the brand by customers and strengthen their position on the Internet.
If you want to know a little more about running a business on the web, take a look at other articles, where you will find a lot of interesting information. Need an effective usability audit, UX/UI design, or in-depth web analytics? Get in touch with us!
