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53% of mobile website visitors leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load,¹ 37% of online shoppers dislike being forced to create an account,² and 22% of consumers are annoyed by digital content that isn’t relevant.³ Thus, today’s customers expect their digital experiences to be quick, easy, and tailored to their needs.

With customer expectations at an all-time high, how can your brand rise to the occasion? Here are three tips for improving digital customer experience.

1. Trim the fat

Don’t you just hate it when you click on a “Buy Now” button only to be taken to a long-winded product description? What about when you’re required to supply your phone number, mother’s maiden name, and blood type just to download a free whitepaper?

Ok, that last one was excessive… but you get the point: reduce the number of hoops through which you ask your customers to jump.

That includes skipping the scenic detour in your calls-to-action (CTAs). In other words, take the customer directly from point A to point B. “Buy Now” means add to cart and begin check out – not visit the product’s landing page.

Speaking of checkout, if you have an online store, walk through the steps you’re asking potential customers to complete to make a purchase. Eliminate any steps that are unnecessary and streamline those that are cumbersome. For example, you might consider a single sign-on integration from PayPal to speed up the checkout process.

When offering freemiums like free eBooks and whitepapers, make your forms as bare bones as possible. Form fields for first name, last name, and email address should suffice for lead nurturing. If collecting more information is absolutely necessary, consider introducing those form fields post-conversion on a thank-you page or asking for the answers in a follow-up email.

2. Be consistent

For customers, transitioning between mobile, desktop, and tablet should be a seamless experience. While people are creatures of habit, most aren’t device loyal. Therefore, the best brands optimize digital customer experience across all devices.

The same goes for channels – display ads, social media, email, etc. Amazon is a prime example of a brand that successfully achieves this.

Amazon’s email marketing is practically a mirror image of the online retailer’s own website. The similarity in look, feel, and functionality is by design so as not to interrupt the email-to-website flow. Remember: interruptions in user flow can kill conversions!

3. Anticipate customer needs

While you probably don’t have Amazon’s recommendation engine, you do have access to behavioral data that can be leveraged to anticipate the needs of your customers.

For example, consider your customers’ purchasing histories. If you notice customers tend to order the same items together, consider creating product bundles or sending follow-up emails upselling the related recommendations.

If you spot a trend like customers tend to order every three months, consider implementing an automated email reminder sent three months after each purchase.

If customers tend to reorder the same items time and again, considering offering auto-ship, subscription-style fulfillment options.

Depending on your brand, a quick analysis of your customers’ behavioral data can reveal similar insights and spark new ideas worth testing.

In conclusion, improving your digital customer experience really boils down to streamlining, standardizing, and thoughtfully personalizing the ways in which consumers interact with your brand.

For more tips and best practices like these, download our free guide to digital marketing:

Sources

¹ Think with Google, 2018, “Find out how you stack up to new industry benchmarks for mobile page speed”

² Amazon Pay, 2018, “The Baymard Report Series: How forcing sign-ups drives down sales”

³ MarketingProfs, 2019, “The Most Annoying Things About Brands’ Content”