5 TIPS TO BOOST CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ON YOUR INSTITUTIONAL WEBSITE IN ORDER TO REACH YOUR TARGETS
Group overview, offering promotion, employer branding…
Although its use is primarily targeted to representing a corporation, an institutional website also represents a great commercial tool that will directly attract revenue. Very often, a new client relationship could get started on a corporate website. To neglect its important is a mistake often made. Expertime /Open gives you 5 Customer Experience tips to transform your website into a powerful marketing and commercial tool.
1 / Convert your leads into clients
A website always represents a great marketing et commercial tool. The interface has to be designed and developed with converting visitors into qualified prospects in mind.
The user should immediately understand what the offering, the brand, product or service positioning as well as to understand how it would benefit him.
A “good” institutional is built based on efficient browsing scenarios, with call to action buttons to answer prospects’ expectations. The conversion funnel starts from the homepage and is not limited to action pages (such as contact us or store locator pages…) which very often represent the final stage of the browsing experience.
2 / Integrate a blog that is useful to your audience
It is pointless to focus on having a large volume of “corporate” pages when the “we are the best” era has already ended. Nowadays, it must be proven and not only stated.
To have a company blog that is consistently updated with new and relevant content shows a high level of expertise and an ability to inform in a useful (and free) manner. Companies invest time in producing online content to push highly added value information to their prospects and customers. We will find texts, tutorials or even richer contents such as videos, infographics…
To be efficient from a marketing standpoint, the blog must be within the corporate website, rather than on a secondary platform. That way, the end user will be able to directly contact the company.
There are many functionalities that can smoothen up the online experience: links redirecting to the relevant webpage, content lazy load or even reading time.
3 / Respect user and usage expectations
Based on target users.
Whatever aim the website has got, it must be built around user demand. UX and UI represent the foundation of a successful website. Understanding user expectation is key to design and implement the right functionalities and to adapt the ergonomics of the site.
Responsive, obviously.
Nowadays, websites are mostly viewed on smartphones and tablets. To neglect the “Responsive” aspect of it results in 2 consequences:
- A deceptive experience for the mobile user who will quickly leave the site.
- A bad Google rating as it openly take responsiveness into account to establish its ranking.
Responsive design is now widely used as it technically became more accessible. Mobile experience is continually improving with more and more advanced motion design for example.
Simple, efficient and handy
Whether the site is visited using a laptop, a smartphone or a tablet, the display and execution speed, the smoothness and simplicity are key. More often than ever, the user browses for micro-periods (in a waiting room, while commuting…). The user wants to save time by getting the relevant information, service or product right away. The user should also be able to keep browsing on the website at another time without feeling like restarting from scratch. Beyond its aesthetics, the website should integrate useful functionalities and bring added value. Whether simple or technically advanced, the functionalities will allow the user to achieve his goals.
Data collector but…
When used the right way, data can help creating a personalized relationship with its audience. In a context where people are rather suspicious about data usage, its collection as well as its management require transparency, expertise and security. Controversial cases about data represent a strong influence on the public opinion about this sensible question. As a result, the UE implemented RGPD, which is now a reference in terms of data protection. It influences the conception of a website, specifically around data collection (consent opt in on a contact us page for example) and management.
Secured
The use of HTTPS protocol has now become a norm and is expected from internet users. Google now highlights in its results website that are “not secured”. HTTPS is part of the criteria taken into account in natural referencing and the potential positioning of a website.
4 / Engage a discussion
The era of conversation with brands has started and websites have to comply with it. It is difficult to only propose text content on a website, although it still needs to be there to improve natural referencing. With the rise of robots, the perspectives of having a more interactive experience on a website are opening. Interaction through conversation for example, via a chatbot for instance allows website owners to create a more direct and permanent relationship, which goes beyond the text only static content.
5 / To foster constant evolution
A website is never totally completed. It requires a critical eye on interface and interactions proposed to the user in order to have constant improvements.
Several solutions can help reaching this:
- AB testing to create several versions of a same page and evaluate which one works best;
- Eye tracking, which reveals hot and cold parts of a page or functionality in order to make it more impactful;
- Statistics (Google Analytics for example) to get accurate data about the site usage and track traffic evolution.
These solutions will help make your website a tool that is more and more efficient, for yourself as well as your visitors.
Want to improve or create your website? Get in touch!
