Increasing Loyalty Through Exceptional UX
The number one type of customer that a business should want at any time is a loyal one that keeps coming back. The urge to have loyal customers is the reason companies put their effort on customer retention. Loyalty is a fickle thing in the world of business, whether it’s retail or business-to-business. And you can lose loyalty in a second to an unfavorable interaction. Given the access available on the Internet, many companies are starting to realize their site can be negative if not managed properly.
A User Experience Is as Critical as a Salesperson
In the old days, the salesperson was the central face of the business to the public and customers. Today, the digital seller is very often the company website. Unfortunately, if a site is slapped together with no real thought on the experience, then customers feel like just another face in the crowd. That doesn’t bode well for high sales activity. Admittedly, there will be some general interaction at times; everybody goes to a bar once in awhile to feel like they are part of a crowd. But that’s not the kind interaction that builds a real relationship.
Building Blocks Starts With a Foundation
Good web design experience first gives a user reason to come back for more; it becomes valuable to him or her. Everything from navigation to ease of access in finding the information contributes to the user experience. The more intuitive the site is, the more the customer enjoys. They then have a reason to act on any suggestion or call to action to culminate the experience. This action then releases chemicals inside the brain making a person feel good as well as creating a memory about the experience. No surprise, every time a person has the same need, they remember where they found the site and go back to it.
Your Competition is Not Sleeping
The problem is that there are a lot of useful websites, and some are selling the same thing as you. That competition means that new experiences can pull people away, ergo why user loyalty can be fickle. To overcome this problem companies have to revamp their web design periodically to provide a reason to come back. This logic allows users to think through why loyalty is a better choice than leaving for something different. This idea is not new psychology, loyalty-building has been around for decades. The Internet and company websites are just the latest version of customer loyalty-building, and web changes happen a whole lot faster than other business environments.
Don't Be a Disappointment
The last thing any viable web design should be doing is making users feel frustrated, lost, disappointed or worse: neutral. If they walk away without any impression at all, the company website may as well have been a blank screen. It’s like there was no register whatsoever, and all the energy spent creating it was a waste of time. Unfortunately, wasting time is all too common with sites designed to have a presence but no plan.
When built correctly, a good web design experience works like a funnel. It starts broad and refines the user’s experience to a better and more precise activity the more they engage. And all that activity combines into a call to action, i.e. a sale, to reach the full experience realization. Understanding the psychology of UX makes a website stand out from the rest, and builds customer loyalty going forward.
