A visit to your company website is often the first contact that a potential client has with you. In a way, they are considered a customer to your website even if they don’t buy anything, and their experience on your site matters.
On the flip side, as a consumer yourself, how do you react when you have a negative experience on a website? The page keeps timing out, you click links that take you to weird places, Error 404 pages abound, and the content is irrelevant to your search. Would you really trust that company with your business? Probably not.
In fact, the Harvard Business Review cites research that indicates 50% of web visitors will exit out of a page if they have to wait 10 seconds or more for the page to load.
Here are a couple easy ways to provide a positive customer experience for visitors to your website:
Navigation refers to the structure of the website and how easy it is for people to click and travel to and from the various pages on it. Often there is a navigation bar at the top of the page that has buttons/tabs like Home, About, Blog, Contact, etc. That bar allows visitors to easily identify the main sections of the website and click on the content that most interests them. Make it clear to visitors where they can find the type of information they are looking for by labeling it clearly and concisely. It’s also important to make sure that visitors have visual clues as to which parts of the site are clickable and which aren’t.
Include this type of navigation bar on all pages of your site, not just your Home page. Imagine you are on the blog but now want to go back to the About page. Without the navigation bar, you wouldn’t necessarily know how to get there.
Make content relevant to the reader. Clearly define why the information you provide is important and how it affects them. Successful websites are very focused on the customer. At Uncle Jake Media, when we design websites, we put ourselves in the company’s clients’ shoes. What would they want to read or see on a homepage? What are their pain points or challenges and what content can we provide that would help offer a solution?
By looking at a website through the lens of a customer, we can provide a better customer experience for visitors, instilling a sense of trust. That positive experience could then convert a visitor to a paying customer, which is the goal of business, after all.
Are you interested in making sure your website is customer-focused and provides a positive customer experience? Contact us today.