Why sometimes even quality UX is not enough?
At ui42, we design user experience – UX as one of the first agencies in Slovakia. Over more than 15 years, we have conducted over a thousand tests in our UX lab! Therefore we know that UX brings real results. According to the latest numbers a well-managed UX design can even triple the conversion rate. However, this time we will look at the user experience from a slightly different angle. What if the UX design on the website is polished to perfection, but despite that, the sale of the product or service is stagnating?
What's the situation with UX in Slovak e-shops?
Today, user experience is no longer a foreign concept in e-commerce. Many website and e-shop owners sooner or later realize that by removing obstacles that customers encounter while browsing the website, they achieve more conversions. In other words, if they simplify a form, there is a higher chance that more people will fill it out. Or if they remove unnecessary steps in the cart, more customers will complete their purchase.
UIČKOVSKÝ TIP: Do you know the Slovak crowdfunding platform Startlab? With the help of UX, we managed to achieve a 51% increase in the number of new campaigns year-on-year and significantly relieve their customer care department of inquiries from campaign organizers and their supporters. More info can be found in the case study.
However, according to SUXA (Slovak User Experience Association), about half of the websites undergo a redesign without involving the customer. And that's a mistake. User experience is a key parameter in the interaction with the website, from which changes and improvements should be derived.
When and how to address UX?
Let's take a step back – to that sooner or later when UX starts to be addressed. As the numbers suggest, awareness of the importance of UX is still in its infancy in our latitudes. There are several levels on how to approach the improvement of user experience.
At the most basic level, it can be simple testing of a website or application that anyone can do. Just sit down a few acquaintances, let them click through the pages or give them a specific task and observe where the problem occurs. Valuable information can also be revealed by data from Google Analytics (or another analytical tool), where you can see, for example, pages with a high bounce rate. Or available online tools, such as Hotjar.
A more professional view and relevant results will certainly be provided by a specialized agency that deals with UX. Based on various methods that include analysis, UX audit of the current solution, testing, and design of a new UX design, it is possible to correct the vast majority of problems on the website. The highest level of user experience is applied by those companies that even have their own internal UX team.
Why, however, put out fires only when you feel their impact on sales? And what if you've invested in UX, but the results haven't materialized?
UX versus CX. Or what's the deal?
User experience is evaluated in the interaction of the customer with the website or application. However, UX is just one part of a whole that encompasses a much larger set. It is CX (customer experience) – customer experience.
What is customer experience?
CX reflects the perception of the brand as a whole. Shopping across all channels, in the e-shop, app, and even in a brick-and-mortar store, communication with customer service, or even handling a complaint. Did you know, for example, that as many as 97% of customers say that customer service is key to their loyalty to the brand?
All this outlines the overall relationship that the customer forms with the company or brand. And it decides whether they will make a purchase, make another purchase, or leave a satisfied review to recommend the store to other customers.
CX even starts earlier, before it even comes to the development or redesign of the website. What UX often does not address is the actual product itself. Its proper setup, whether it is relevant and whether it meets the needs and desires of the target group. Even how its advantages are communicated, whether they are correctly understood, and how the overall message of campaigns around it comes across.
And that is the answer to the question of why sometimes even a quality UX design is not enough to make the numbers go up. And perhaps the solution to your problem if you have taken care of the user experience, but your business is not growing at the expected pace.
What can CX solve?
Trends in online change. Innovations come and technologies evolve. But what has always been and will be here is the customer. Therefore, it is extremely important to put them on a pedestal and think about them across the entire solution.
CX is implemented:
- in the development of a website or application,
- in the arrangement and placement of objects in a brick-and-mortar store,
- within the sales process across all channels,
- when assembling a product or service,
- in marketing and advertising,
- in customer support,
- in after-sales service,
- in personalization,
- and in brand building.
All this together creates a customer experience that can easily suffer or, on the contrary, take on a positive dimension at any of the points mentioned.
How do we address customer experience at ui42?
In each of the areas mentioned, which we cover as a one-stop shop agency, we involve the customer in the CX processes. We use various qualitative and quantitative methods for this – moderated testing, interviews, focus groups, AB testing, usability testing, eyetracking tools, and the like.
And it is precisely based on a wealth of experience from testing and years of practice that we can guide the client towards a solution even if they have already done the maximum within UX, but the business is not growing as expected. One example was a customer who approached us asking for help in scaling a specific product. Based on the research group, however, we found that it did not make sense to differentiate the product according to the original intention, and thus we saved the client's budget. In the confines of customer experience, we think about the product itself. Even before UX comes into play and we start drawing wireframes.
UIČKOVSKÝ TIP: For another client, Prvá stavebná sporiteľňa, we found out within CX what could be the magnet within a new online product and how to build a campaign in a way that would appeal to the younger generation. PSS eventually took advantage of the benefits that come from a one-stop shop. You can find details about how we solved UX research, website redesign, programming, and SEO for the client in the case study.
CX can answer many of the questions you may be asking yourself right now. For example:
- What is the main motivation for purchasing a product?
- Is the new service relevant to the target group I want to offer it to?
- How to set up, communicate, and sell products in the portfolio?
- How to convince the customer to try the product for themselves?
- How to set up team processes, work more efficiently, and involve a new employee as quickly as possible?
As you can see, CX creates just those invisible threads and connections that are mostly neglected and overlooked. And yet it's enough to catch them at the right moment and focus on the most important thing – the customer at every point of your online business. And that won't change with any trends or technologies. We know something about it, we have 27 years of experience in online.
Are you looking for someone who can look at your website, e-shop, product, or service in a broader context without having to go from one agency to another? Get in touch with us, at ui42 we have all services under one roof, with an emphasis on CX.
