By Linda Bustos
It’s Partner Thursday! Today’s post is contributed by “Working in the tech and digital strategy industry, new platforms or user interfaces don’t intimidate me. But, if I’m fumbling through something, wondering what menu items do or why others were excluded, how will that affect the experience of someone who isn’t as familiar? Even for a tech-savvy person like me, it needs to be intuitive.”
The Fix: Common Usability Best Practices, User Testing, and Customer Service Strategy
Everyone wants to be cutting edge with their apps and websites. It needs to be ‘sexy’ and ‘next generation.’ How often do we forget that there are usability best practices that need to be maintained to ensure the best user experience? In transactional worlds such as commerce, the goals are ease of use to gather information to inform the buyer, and then ease of use to actually execute the purchase. Don’t introduce new menu designs unless you are willing to test and implement the changes that benefit the customer. Always perform user testing before rolling out a change, or conduct A/B testing to see how you can improve the performance or use of a feature.
Inevitably there will be someone who will just want to know how someone can help them. If the digital properties a brand leverages to explain the uses and features of a product aren’t apparent, it should have an army of well-trained, patient people ready to field questions and complaints, create tutorials, and provide support. A poor digital experience may be easier to overlook, but a poor customer service experience will likely cost a brand.
Any new development of a digital touchpoint needs to be fully vetted and tested among the existing environment. And while a brand can gain a serious competitive advantage by working with the experts, a great way to exceed customer expectations is to know any experience needs more than an app.
Via:: Get Elastic eCommerce
