Top 6 Ways To Improve the Customer Experience

The customer experience is one that you want to make a top priority in your business. The smoother and more streamlined the customer experience, the more a customer will want to continue working with you or buying from you.

And since customer retention is cheaper than customer generation, this is something that should be very important to you and your business.

So what steps can you take to improve the customer experience in your business? And how can you pinpoint the areas that aren't working? Let's take a look at the top six ways to improve the customer experience with your digital marketing strategy.

1. Conduct a customer experience audit.

Have someone on your marketing team take the time to go through the customer journey from start to finish. If there is anything that is difficult and could potentially drive a customer away, make a note of it so you can come back and fix it to improve the overall journey.

Test everything a customer could potentially use, visit all of the webpages, use all of the links, go through all of the funnels, and make sure that everything works the way it should.

Then focus on the things that don't work, or the things that could be made better.

2. Customize your 404 page.

There are a million reasons a potential customer could land on a 404 page. A link may have broken, a configuration in your website may not be working correctly, an old post or page may still be linked to somewhere on the internet, etc.

And while you want to fix these errors whenever you can, sometimes it's not always possible to find every link online that links to an old or broken page.

So instead of being frustrated about this, you should customize your 404 page so that (a) it softens potential frustration at being taken to a broken page and (b) you give them other page options.

Most websites and themes allow you to customize your 404 page so that you can post information on it other than the fact that they've landed on a page that does not exist. For example, you can change the standard "We're sorry, the page you're looking for does not exist" to something more personable, like "Oh, how embarrassing! We seem to have lost this page!"

Then you can list a few other pages they may be interested in, like your products/services, your about page, and your contact page.

3. A/B test everything.

The best way to determine what works best for your customers is to test variations of literally everything. Every signup form, every opt-in offer, every sales page, etc.

Take a look at the ones that are converting best to know what your customers prefer. Without testing, you might have chosen the low converting one to place on your website and not even realized how many potential leads and customers you were missing out on.

4. Send out a customer feedback survey.

The best way to figure out what works best for your customers is to ask them outright. And you can easily do that by creating a customer feedback survey and sending it out to your email list, sharing it on social media, and posting it on your website or blog.

Ask questions like "Rate the process for doing X." and "What is your favorite way to purchase a product?" so you can understand how your customers like to do things online or when working with a business. Getting this data straight from the horse's mouth is incredibly valuable and can allow you to implement best practices for the customer experience within your business.

5. Improve your lead magnet.

What is your current method for generating new leads? Are you offering a white paper or a case study? Are you doing free consultations? Free audits or strategy reviews? A free trial?

First of all, if you're not offering something for free in exchange for an email address or contact information, you need to start. This is the most powerful way to bring new leads into your business. Because people want to put their money towards a business they trust, offering something valuable for free to show what you can do for someone is essential to gaining that trust.

If you are already offering some type of lead magnet, take a look to see if you can improve it in any way. How well is it converting? What is another type of lead generating tactic that you could try instead to see if it converts better with your audience?

6. Personalize, personalize, personalize.

People want to feel special, and they'll love your business if you make them feel special. There are many different ways to do this.

If you ship physical products, make sure to personalize your packaging in some way. Put in a letter signed by the CEO or founder. Include fun confetti, colorful packaging, or use other creative ways to package their product. This makes opening their new purchases even more fun and rewarding.

Whenever you're having an online interaction with a customer, always be sure to call them by their name. Through any social media conversation or email, insert a name wherever you can.

And in your email marketing, you can insert merge tags that will automatically fill with each contact's name. This is a great way to make your audience feel like you're speaking directly to them, even when you're sending out a mass email.

Improving the customer experience is the key to generating and retaining as many customers as possible. Utilize these six strategies for maximizing your customer experience throughout your website and across your entire business. Contact us to learn more about how we can help.