UX Design and Client Loyalty: Best Friends Forever
How good user experience design will help you keep your customers
You probably landed on this page because someone from your team or an external critic suggested that:
- Your product’s user experience sucks (just like that and it hurt to hear!)
- Unless you improve A, B and C, your existing customers will leave you for your product’s competition (ouch!)
OR
3. You are about to build a product or a service platform and you understand the value of great UX Design in today’s market.
Whether you’re offering your customers a website, software or any product, the objective of UX Design is to generate an enjoyable, seamless experience for them. Think Starbucks app or Duolingo website.
But how does this relate to the ever sought-after Client Loyalty?
Obvious right? The better the user experience, the more customers love using your product, the better chance they stick around.
Let’s break it down.
A bad design will drive customers away
A company usually tends to build a system that will cater to the online customers.
However, often, when this system isn’t that well designed, it happens that it damages the relationship between the said company and its customers.
People’s perception has changed, and what other customers have to say when guiding them is more important than companies that are screaming for their attention.
The customer will always be right
You can find out a lot about an app from the reviews and ratings. This gives the consumers the power to make a break the entire reputation of a company, solely based on online reviews.
Just look at the App Store or the Play Store, and look at all those poorly designed apps.
Take a better look at the reviews section, and you will find that a lot of people are complaining about an app not working, or about the design being flawed and making even the simplest of tasks more complicated.
Keep your old pals around
Even though many people tend to gravitate toward getting new users, that old saying that says it’s cheaper to keep your existing customers happy, than getting new ones, is surprisingly correct.
This will speak to the UX design directly, and there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Are you working on solving the right problem?
- Does your design present a solution to the problem in the best possible way?
Custom experience feels VIP
Users have come to expect customization as a standard, not a luxury. You need tools to learn about the users’ goals for their loyalty program.
Some may want an economy car with more free rental days, but others will want that convertible rental for a special event.
This information should be used to track and show the users where they are on the path to achieving their goal.
Predict what the next move is
In general, keep an eye on your competition. What features and services are the next logical step in your area? Be the first one to do it!
Your product is an ever-evolving thing and the minute you become stagnant, you lose customer loyalty and business.
In terms of UX of your product, try to predict your user’s literal next step.
For example, a lot of companies have partnerships nowadays, which include transferring loyalty points between them for redeeming rewards.
Make them apparent, and make a seamless interaction. If you’re flying to Miami, for example, you can use your airline miles to pay for the rent-a-car service.
A great UX will create strong advocates, and drive customer loyalty
The best type of customers to have are advocates. Are you cultivating them with the online experience? There are many ways to drive advocacy with UX, but social engagement and referrals are the most important ones.
Social engagement means that when a user has a positive interaction, they’ll share it with the world. If they can’t, your UX is causing you to lose advocates. Create a way for people to be able to share the interactions, such as sharing content, engaging with your brand, and making purchases.
Referrals are also important since when one of your customers refers a friend to your brand, they have a certain seal of approval that goes along with that. Referrers have actually taken a stand on how they feel about the experience that goes along with your brand.
Get your marketing team to meet your UX experts
Why?
The actual role of a marketer has grown over the last few years. There is a shift in the skills that a marketer is required to master, and marketing through the UX is one of those skills.
Traditionally, the user experience has been bonded to website design.
However, the user experience is actually any touching point that allows your customer to interact with your brand, before they’ve made their first purchase, and are in the consideration phase.
This includes the on-page experience, the ads you display on the web, as well as the functionality of the e-mails you’re sending out, even those t-shirts you sent to your users a few days ago.
The user experience is about much more than design at this point. It is time for the marketers to get familiar with the world of UX when they want to apply it to their campaigns.
The more they mesh together the UX and marketing, the better overall experience your customer will have.
Have more advice on retaining client loyalty with good UX Design? Leave your comment below!
