Optimizing Customer Experience: Usability and Search

Look beyond the product.  At the end of the day, you’re trying to solve the problems of your end customers. You’re trying to create value for them in your "digital branch". For distributors, your digital branch is much like a physical branch, It requires a location, a customer base, staff members, inventory, and return on investment (ROI) potential, Your digital branch factors in these elements while also focusing on making the online buying experience easier, convenient with a wider product selection and fast delivery. What support and enhancements surround your digital branch's offering and how do those distinctive interactions foster your brand and engage your buyers?  By optimizing the usability and search experiences in your digital branch, you are creating value in the customer experience with your brand and your digital branch.

USABILITY

Usability is the degree to which a website is easy to use and the customer is satisfied with the use. Your buyers have very low tolerance for poor performance and slow speed. They seek quick access to easy-to-view information on such areas as products, pricing and customer service. When asked to name the key attributes they look for in a B2B distributor, 35% of buyers in a recent survey cited offering particular brands and products, 28% cited pricing details and technical data, and 27% said fast customer service (Source: Forrester Consulting).

Buyers are willing to repurchase from a supplier if that supplier offers transparency, personalization, service, and competitive prices. Above all, your buyers want to know the price they’re going to pay for something. They don’t expect to jump through multiple hoops or wade through several conditions to learn their actual price for a product.

A usability analysis should examine the following issues:

• Personalization – how well is the journey an integrated, personalized experience? Consider price, content, product recommendations, reminders, alerts, segmented emails and other parts of the experience.
• Mobile view ability – Are you using a responsive design, which adapts the layout of an e-commerce site to the size of a shopper’s screen, including smartphones, tablets and PCs?  Do you employ easily tap-able buttons, such as plus and minus signs for quantity selection, or require the buyer to pinch and zoom? 
• Site Performance - what is the page load time on your site (desktop and mobile)? Are your images optimized for quick download? Fuzzy images will result in poor brand perception.

Having an integrated personalized experience moves beyond basic usability. You probably have a history of what your buyers have purchased. You may know where they live and to which branch they are closest. By using this information to deliver targeted content and promotions, you are personalizing their experience and making it a more positive one.

SEARCH

One of the most important elements in customer experience optimization is your site search. Customers visiting your site must be able to locate products of interest easily through navigation or search. Your search should deliver relevant products quickly. Here are the major considerations when evaluating your site search: relevancy, discoverability/ findability and efficiency of the search.

Keep in mind, there are some important design factors to consider. For example, the search box should be located above the fold somewhere easily seen and found. Also, ensure that it is included on the 404 page as a primary element of the page to recapture visitors who may have lost their way.

A search audit should answer the following questions:

• Efficiency: Does your site search offer fast, visual, dynamic auto complete results?
• Efficiency: Does your site search experience expand queries to include synonyms and acronyms? Mis-spelled words? Your online businesses can drastically reduce failed searches with type-ahead autofill, data-driven spelling correction, and “Did you mean?” prompts.
• Discoverability: Can your visitors easily narrow the search based on the facets in the left navigation?
• Discoverability: Does your search show similar products based on their selected refinements?
• Relevancy: Can you adjust – boost or bury -- the search ranking based on key factors like in-stock availability, branch location or price?
• Relevancy: Does the search experience extend to your entire site: store locations, blog, about us? Content from non-product pages also delivers a richer, more intelligent experience.

There is great value in understanding what people are searching for – how do these correspond to your top sold products online and overall, Are there product searches for items that you do not carry? What is the experience when visitors search for an item and do not find it? 

Why is delivering relevant search results important? It encourages exploration and discovery and leads to increased conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Ultimately, search results that are in context, enable buyers to achieve their goals quickly.

Key Takeaways

• Design: Build a consistent, easy to use site that meets your customers’ needs and expectations.
• Usability: Ensure your site renders quickly on both desktop and mobile. Optimize image size and resolution.
• Site search: Ensure that buyers can find what they are looking for.

SUMMARY: A consistent design and usable experience are essential for clearly communicating with customers to give them the confidence to buy – whether they are online or in your branch with a smartphone in hand. Having a customer experience strategy will inform your design, usability and search and put your company in a better position to make a smart investment and design decision that delight customers and serve the business.