Website Usability - more important than you may think

Now this may sound fairly obvious, but usability and the creation of an excellent website user experience really is very important. And probably more important than you may realise.

Most marketers will understand the value in ensuring their website is usable, particularly if they are the owner of an ecommerce website; it impacts basket abandonment / completion rates, conversion rates, brand perception, lead generation, etc., in fact, pretty much every aspect of the success of your business online is affected by the quality of user experience your website offers.

However, the impact of your user experience does not end there…

Recent research has revealed that the last 12 months has seen a significant increase in the number of consumers who will share a bad online transactional experience on social media sites (13% - up from 8% in 2008).

But is this really a big issue? The same applies to a poor offline experience – a consumer will tell people about it. Not ideal, but there’s little that can be done to eliminate this, right?

Wrong. It really is a potentially BIG issue and one that won’t go away, particularly not if what is shared has a viral element to it, such as the renowned Virgin / Richard Branson complaint letter. Although much debated as to its authenticity, the letter is undoubtedly a brilliant read and a clear example of how a customer complaint shared online can reach a large number of people in a very small space of time.

The potential for a dissatisfied customer’s online gripe to do damage to your business is far greater in the digital world; and given that, according to the same survey referenced above, 74% of online adults said negative comments read online have an influence on whether they will do business with a company; marketing and brand managers should be investing heavily in their consumers’ online experience.

Now let’s for a minute imagine that your brand has done everything it possibly can to ensure a problem-free, intuitive and satisfying user experience… what next? We can assume that the very unique individual characteristics of humans mean that you cannot please all of the people all of the time, therefore it would not be presumptuous to expect a number of dissatisfied consumers, regardless of the perfection achieved on your website.

The best way to check up on these consumers; because stats also show that they’re as likely to tell others about their complaint as they are to tell you; is to monitor brand buzz. Brand buzz monitoring allows you to tap into all of the online mediums a consumer may use to discuss your brand, giving you visibility of the general public feeling about your brand and providing you with the opportunity to respond to specific comments – potentially negating the impact of the complaint and even publicly gaining trust in your brand in the process – Carphone Warehouse is great at doing this!

So this post is ending on quite a different topic to where it began, but validly so. Your website’s user experience is more than just about the directly attributable numbers. It’s about ensuring the best possible user experience to achieve maximum customer satisfaction. And then engaging your target audience in real conversations.

Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Twitter @JocelynKirby