Trending December 2023 # Multiplying Apple’s Store Count Isn’t The Sweet Solution To Customer Experience Many Hope For # Suggested January 2024 # Top 15 Popular

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Since Apple announced that Angela Ahrendts is passing her role as senior vice president of Retail to longtime leader Deirdre O’Brien, many Apple enthusiasts have arrived at the conclusion that the company’s stores are in dire need of radical change. Valid complaints of low appointment availability, slow service, and overcrowding have inflated themselves into an online meme that Apple store visits are becoming as unpleasant as the DMV. One of the most commonly prescribed antidotes is to “just build more stores.”

Critics argue that by simply growing its store count, Apple can solve capacity issues and make a better retail experience. On Friday, my colleague Ben Lovejoy echoed the sentiment, saying, “Open some more damn stores! Can anyone explain to me why Apple doesn’t do this?” Sure.

The Statistics

Let’s begin by looking at the facts. Apple currently operates 506 retail locations across five continents, around half of which are concentrated in the United States. While over 500 stores might sound like a lot, it’s roughly half the number of locations Best Buy operates, and a tiny fraction of the 28,000+ Starbucks locations worldwide. Many countries have no Apple Store at all. Apple’s retail team of over 70,000 employees handles the traffic of more than 500 million visitors per year.

In a December 2023 press release announcing a new Austin, Texas campus, Apple stated it “plans to add more stores and reimagine the customer experience at many existing retail locations across the country.” Another press release this past January announcing the rollout of 58 new Today at Apple sessions noted, “Apple is upgrading the existing fleet of stores with design elements that greatly increase the store’s Today at Apple sessions and capacity.”

How will these changes manifest themselves? History sets a clear precedent.

In 2023, Apple added nine store locations (designated with a new store number) and rebuilt or moved 17 existing stores to larger and more modern spaces. 24 stores received facelifts by losing their Genius Bars in favor of Forums and Video Walls. Each of these 50 changes are detailed in our comprehensive 2023 Apple retail field guide. In 2023, Apple plans to create 70 new Forums, meaning a slightly faster pace of progress can be expected. As of publication, just one location has a set completion date.

The Architecture

So why not just crank up the dial? Advocating for a rapid expansion tragically discounts the Goliath effort that goes into opening a modern Apple store. While you might be content with a fleet of the modest mall shops of the iPod era, Apple certainly is not. The company has repeatedly said it thinks of stores as its “largest product.” Just like new iPhone features are implemented with cautious consideration, Apple’s retail development adheres to similar uncompromising scrutiny in site location and building design. Even if Apple decided to double its store count today, the results would not begin to show for another 2-3 years.

If you’re not able to visit a contemporary Apple store completed in the last year or two, fire up the Apple Store app on your iPhone and browse through the list. Even the lowliest store remodels demand more attention to detail and architectural prowess than flagships of years past. As older designs shake out of the project queue, the minimum standards will only rise. Take a look at the nine wholly new locations opened last year:

These are the kinds of new stores Apple opens now, and nothing less. Asking for a significant uptick in store count is asking Apple to churn out an endless quantity of award–winning landmark destinations. If you subscribe to the notion that retail is a product, asking for more modest stores is like wishing for Apple to compromise on hardware quality. A decade-long news cycle of doom and gloom in the retail world has endlessly proven that to be average is to die.

The People

Scaling store count also puts a strain on talent and training qualified employees. In the wake of Angela Ahrendts’ departure, some have called for Apple to roll back its community initiatives and become entirely service oriented. It’s not going to happen. Today at Apple is a huge part of Retail now, and it won’t just disappear. Would Apple have spent the last 25 months renovating the most coveted commercial property on Fifth Avenue in New York City to be more suited for sessions if this wasn’t a key part of the strategy?

At many new locations and in major markets, Apple offers exclusive Today at Apple performances and events in addition to the normal catalog of sessions. Beyond the 3,000+ Creative Pros already specialized in teaching sessions, constantly scheduling new original content requires local teams of program producers and vibrant communities of skilled artists willing to share their work. Scaling store count means building a global network of talented event planners to staff performance venues.

Pragmatic Thinking

“We are now opening fewer, larger stores so that you can get the full experience of everything that’s Apple,” Angela Ahrendts said just last month in an interview with Vogue Business. Betting against official company language is rarely productive, even when the person that spoke it will soon be succeeded.

As the rate of store openings falls, the rate of store closures may also rise. Apple shuttered a store for the first time in 2023, and has since then closed seven more locations, including one already this year in Japan. All of these locations were either massively outdated or out of alignment with the future of retail.

Assuming the company’s global store number will hover just above 500 for the foreseeable future, we should encourage Apple to apply razor-sharp focus to the strained support and service offered at existing locations rather than stretch already exhausted resources. Outside of stores, enhancements to the Apple Support app and improved software ease of use can reduce the support burden across the board.

A ballooning footprint results in neglect and deterioration. Pruning the branches helps every store thrive.

Follow 9to5Mac’s retail guide for in-depth coverage of the latest Apple store news.

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Customer Experience Statistics For 2023

Increasing competition across all industries means that customer experience is more important than ever if you want to stand out for the right reasons

Customer experience (CX) is more important than ever. With competition increasing, the digital world making it easier to make purchases and consumers less likely to be swayed by brand loyalty, CX can make all the difference between a conversion and a lost customer.

To better help you understand what CX in 2023 looks like, we’ve gathered some recent statistics from customer experience research. These stats should help you benchmark your performance, better understand current consumer expectations, bear in mind where CX is going in the future and stay one step ahead of your competitors.

87% of CX, marketing and analytics professionals say CX is important

With customer experience being a key part of converting customers and bringing them back, it’s probably no surprise that 87% of marketing, CX and analytics professionals say that customer experience is very or extremely important to their business.

However, despite the benefits good customer experience provides, there is still 11% who say it is only somewhat important and 2% who say it is not important to their organization at all.

What makes it even more surprising that it is not important to some recipients is the fact that 61.5% understand that poor CX can lose customers, 52.5% say a big risk is a damaged brand reputation, and 43.3% are aware that it can mean they lose repeat business. Essentially, businesses need to be prioritizing customer experience in order to mitigate any potential risks to their business and their average customer lifetime value.

79% of marketers say the aim of a CX strategy is to improve retention

As with any aspect of marketing, you’ll get the best results from the work you do on customer experience if you have a strategy in place.

Of those marketing professionals who have developed a strategy, 79% say that their primary objective for it is to improve customer retention/satisfaction. This means that the vast majority understand the benefits that CX can have on their bottom line.

However, CX strategies are about more than just ROI, as 58% also say they want to increase value/reliability to users while 30% want to increase data-driven personalization with their strategies. While these aspects can improve conversion, they are ultimately customer-focused, which is what your CX strategy needs to be in order to be successful.

33% of consumers tell people about a bad experience with a brand

While the fact that consumers are so connected can be positive for companies, as you are able to market to them across different platforms, it also comes with its downsides. This connectivity means that customers are now more likely to share the experiences they have had with brands – both good and bad.

Just over a third (33.7%) of consumers tell friends and family about the experience afterward either in person, via email o on the phone. While more people (36.7%) share their good experiences in this way, it is arguably the negative experiences that people keep talking about.

Consumer trust is declining across industries

One thing that is making customer experience more important than ever is the fact that consumer trust is declining across all industries. With growing distrust around issues like data, brands need to do what they can to ensure that CX at every touchpoint is delivering in order to build trust with their customers.

All industries that are analyzed for the Elderman Trust Barometer show a decline in consumer trust in 2023 compared to 2023. Although the technology sector is still the most trusted at 75%, this is a decline from 2023’s 79%. The entertainment sector has also seen a noticeable decline in trust levels, falling by 4% in 2023 compared to 2023.

With this trend affecting all sectors and industries, CX is more important than ever, meaning brands need to address their strategies in 2023 to avoid the loss of consumer trust affecting them.

Customer experience and marketing are becoming more aligned

When looking at priorities for organizations in the year ahead, a clear alignment between marketing and customer experience is apparent. Strategy, processes, and technology are working together across marketing and CX in order to deliver greater personalization and improved journey management.

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This is shown by the act that 32% of mainstream organizations are prioritizing social media engagement and analytics, suggesting that they are doing more to talk to consumers on the platforms they use. On top of this, a further 28% said that targeting and personalization are priorities for the year, as well as customer journey management (27%).

However, less than a quarter (24%) are prioritizing customer data management, which is key to delivering great CX and accurate personalization.

Making customers feel valued is important to CX

So, what do customers want from brands? According to an Ometria report, 59% of consumers want brands to offer them promotions and perks that they don’t offer everyone else. While general offers can help encourage engagement and further conversion, personalization delivers a better experience and will keep consumers engaged for longer.

Other ways to make consumers feel valued include only contacting them about promotions or products that are relevant (49%), sending relevant content after a purchase (49%), asking for customer feedback (49%) and sending relevant product recommendations (46%). This shows that personalization is a huge part of good CX in 2023.

Customer feedback collection is the most effective tactic for improving CX

Bearing all of the above customer experience statistics in mind, exactly how can you go about improving the CX your organization offers. Realistically, there is no template for the perfect CX strategy as every business is different. This is why you need to go right to the source.

Some 57% of marketing professionals say that the best tactic for improving customer experience is collecting customer feedback. Asking customers to complete surveys and rate their experience provides you with valuable insights that are based entirely on your brand and the current experience you offer.

This information can be used to benchmark your performance, highlight what you do well and show you what areas need to be improved. On top of this, you can use the data to better personalize the experiences you provide, which is helpful as 45% say that content personalization is also an effective tactic.

Putting the customer first in this way ensures you are taking the right steps and can ultimately ensure you deliver stronger ROI.

The Benefits Of Using Ai For Improved Customer Experience

Many leaders still recognise the value of AI and machine learning for creating a more personalised customer experience

Integrate Your Data

Effective micro-segmentation requires accurate and complete data. One problem in achieving this goal is that retailers often have several brands, each holding siloed and disparate data. Micro-segmentation depends on a deep understanding of your customers. But you cannot get that with gaps in your data. Any flaws will inhibit your goal of delivering micro-segmented, personalised experiences to your customers. The key to overcoming this problem is to consolidate all internal and external sources into one customer platform. Then you need to make the data easily accessible to your marketers in a simple-to-digest format.

Benefits of Deploying AI

There are clear challenges for retailers in configuring their data for personalisation. However, for most companies the solution is within reach and simply requires modernising their data storage. How can AI help you micro-segment your target audiences? By giving you the ability to achieve these goals:

Share data between all areas of your business, so everyone has access to greater insights.

Deploy visual data transformation to make it easy for everyone to understand data without code-wrangling

Deliver highly personalised customer experiences based on deep data

Recommend products based on data such as consumer purchasing history, engagement on social media, and current trends

Provide product recommendations that use contextual communication; for example, “It’s a cold day outside: try our limited-edition mint flavour hot chocolate.”

Personalisation is the future of retail. But to get it right retailers need fast and easy access to accurate data. Data transformation and AI are leading the way. Thanks to data modernisation and the ability to access insights from large amounts of data quickly, marketers can provide highly personalised messages to consumers that potentially deliver a significant increase in sales. Data-driven personalisation helps organisations optimise resources, like time and money, and instead divert them towards expanding intelligent applications and services. Cloud computing is an asset to decision-makers because it empowers organisations to harness data granularity, leaving out the ifs and buts to drive businesses down the path toward the front- and back-end efficiency.

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In the modern world, every customer belongs to a unique marketing segment. Advances in digital transformation and data modernisation enable retailers to target consumers down to the “segments of one” level and, as a result, achieve greater success. Traditionally, retailers have adopted mass demographic-based segmentation. But retailers embracing the future are using data analytics for micro-segmentation to deliver personalised offers and targeted communications. According to McKinsey , companies that excel at customer intimacy generate 40 per cent more revenue, with real-time personalisation delivering a return on investment (ROI) of five to eight times marketing spend and increasing sales by 10%. Those are big numbers for any retailer, but achieving them is easier said than done, especially with inaccurate data locked in multiple silos. As artificial intelligence-based analytics continues to evolve, businesses can leverage significant amounts of data to create customer microsegments easily, which can harness specific details to segment at an even deeper level to deliver unparalleled personalisation. Yet, despite all of today’s modernisation capabilities, many businesses are still struggling to extract value from their data. Rackspace Technology® AI/ML Annual Research Report 2023 found that only 45 per cent of Singapore IT leaders understand how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning boost marketing effectiveness. However, many leaders still recognise the value of AI and machine learning for creating a more personalised customer experience — with 77 percent of respondents agreeing that it has helped them with customer relationship management. An example of local organisations benefitting from AI personalisation includes Southeast Asia’s leading e-commerce marketplace Shopee . Leveraging data and AI, the platform identifies patterns and insights from browsing and purchase data while enabling brands to deliver distinct shopping experiences. The first two steps in boosting the power of your marketing programs are understanding how to extract value from your data and how to use AI to overcome the challenges presented by micro-segmentation.Effective micro-segmentation requires accurate and complete data. One problem in achieving this goal is that retailers often have several brands, each holding siloed and disparate data. Micro-segmentation depends on a deep understanding of your customers. But you cannot get that with gaps in your data. Any flaws will inhibit your goal of delivering micro-segmented, personalised experiences to your customers. The key to overcoming this problem is to consolidate all internal and external sources into one customer platform. Then you need to make the data easily accessible to your marketers in a simple-to-digest format.There are clear challenges for retailers in configuring their data for personalisation. However, for most companies the solution is within reach and simply requires modernising their data storage. How can AI help you micro-segment your target audiences? By giving you the ability to achieve these goals:Personalisation is the future of retail. But to get it right retailers need fast and easy access to accurate data. Data transformation and AI are leading the way. Thanks to data modernisation and the ability to access insights from large amounts of data quickly, marketers can provide highly personalised messages to consumers that potentially deliver a significant increase in sales. Data-driven personalisation helps organisations optimise resources, like time and money, and instead divert them towards expanding intelligent applications and services. Cloud computing is an asset to decision-makers because it empowers organisations to harness data granularity, leaving out the ifs and buts to drive businesses down the path toward the front- and back-end efficiency.Sandeep Bhargava, Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Japan- Rackspace Technology

Customer Experience – This Time It’s Personal!

Customers now demand personalisation and relevance at every stage of the buying process.

It seems as though every report we read has been written by someone with a different name for the business era that we’re in right now. We’re sticking with Forrester’s 2011 term, the Age of the Customer. However, terms such as the Digital Age, the Social Media Age, the Age of Recommendation, the SMART Age, all seem to be interchangeable.

Whatever we choose to call it though, each name relates to the explosion of technology in society, how it is affecting businesses, and how businesses are being forced to adapt to the new demands of this high-tech era. They refer to the effects that technology, social media, and efficient information exchange are having on product development and marketing. In particular, they refer to a period in which businesses are transitioning to become more agile and customer-obsessed than ever before.

We’ve known for a few years now that relevant content is far more successful than generic offerings and we’ve seen countless reports telling us that emails that are personalised garner far better results than batch and blast campaigns. What seems to have come as a surprise, however, is the extent to which customers have come to demand personalisation and relevance at every single stage of the buying process.

In fact, more recent reports seem to show that a tipping point has been reached. A study revealed that 74% of online customers get frustrated with websites that show content that has nothing to do with their interests. Consumers feel as though they have been pretty clear and consistent with their feedback about what they want from businesses; personalised content, delivered in a relevant way, and their data to be used responsibly and transparently. Choose to ignore this feedback and risk alienating your customers.

The tail is now wagging the dog.

People buy from people, as the old saying goes; but the digital revolution, and the meteoric rise of ecommerce, has led to a situation where we have lost the personal touch. As marketers, we’ve been trained to communicate in the languages of B2B and B2C, but this has caused us to lose sight of how to talk to customers like human beings.

The good news is that we now recognise the need for change and H2H (human to human) communication is replacing B2B and B2C across organisations worldwide. And nowhere demands this change happens faster than the world of commerce.

Since brand loyalty is no longer a given, if you don’t delight your customers, they will find somebody that will. In today’s connected world, brand loyalty only lasts until something better comes along; and once a customer is lost, research shows that 68% won’t return.

As we discussed in the last article, a seamless customer experience is no longer a ‘nice to have’; it is critical to a brand’s survival. The age of the customer means that brand loyalty is more competitive than ever, and 54% of B2B marketers said making customers more loyal was a leading business challenge, a 10% increase from last year.

In the B2C world, companies like Amazon and Netflix have led the charge and trained their customers to assume they will receive a personalised browsing and purchasing journey. This assumption is spreading across B2C and into B2B. Now it seems as though customers no longer notice when you deliver personalisation, they notice when you don’t!

Is it worth the effort?

Business transformation is costly; some businesses are stuck with legacy systems that would take resource and cross-functional cooperation to integrate. So is this all worth the effort?

Well let’s break down the numbers.

UK retailers took £114 billion online in 2023 with 77% of internet users making a purchase, and an average order value of £78.74; and this figure was set to rise to £126 billion by the end of 2023. This figure equates to 27% of all retail sales. Considering that, at the end of 2014, there were an estimated 650,000 retailers online globally (only counting the ones that are generating more than $1,000 pa in sales), a figure that is rising sharply year-on-year, competition for each and every pound off a customer has never been more fierce.

This growth is driven first and foremost by the rise of mobile, or m-commerce, which grew by a whopping 42% in 2023, with 60% of UK retailers having mobile channels.

So, if customers are buying from machines, but expect the human touch, how are successful businesses delivering that? What can you do to stand out from the crowd and make sure that the customer chooses to spend their money with you instead of your competitor?

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We’ve all seen this kind of email appear after we’ve purchased; recommendations for upselling and cross-selling have been part of email marketing strategy for years now – and the tactic still works. So how are businesses capitalising on the success of email personalisation into the rest of their customer experience?

Web and email personalisation topped the list of tech investment in 2023, potentially due to the research showing that in-house marketers who are personalising their web experiences see, on average, a 19% uplift in sales.

When asked by Forrester in their 2023 survey, “What parts of the experience are you personalising?”, 75% of respondents cited website content as their top priority, with promotions and product recommendations being a priority for 55% and 49% respectively.

So have all of these businesses succeeded where others have failed to undergo complete business change and integrate all of their data sources and processes? Hardly! In fact, only 32% of marketers can say that their CMS assists with their content personalisation (eConsultancy/Adobe). Instead, as with the use of marketing automation software to assist with email personalisation, the rise of web content software as an interim business solution has risen sharply, with 60% of companies now using the technology

According to a survey by Harris Interactive, online consumers are “fed up with irrelevant content on their favourite websites.” So think about what a customer sees when they visit your website.

Are you using their demographic data to feed your web content? How about their past purchases, or products that they’ve browsed? If the answer is no, then the chances are your customers are losing patience with you.

Real-time, not rear view

A sizeable 69% of marketers believe real-time web personalisation is crucial, with 80% feeling the same way about real-time email. Marketers are definitely seeing the benefits of integrating these technologies with their available data sources to harvest deeper insights that allow them to create engaging and relevant communications in real-time, rather than after the interaction has passed. These campaigns then feel more like conversations and can be far more contextual; just like an interaction that actual humans would have!

Web management content software can usually handle a whole host of contextual information to feed into messaging, offers and recommendations, including location, age, gender, browsing history, buying behaviour, abandoned carts, even the weather! Customers are far more likely to be responsive to a promotion or recommendation if it is contextually relevant at the time they see it.

Of course, not every customer that visits a website has been before, so the browsing and purchase data would be a touch on the light side. On these occasions, it’s useful to have this type of software to show crowd sourced information, such as trending products and latest offers.

Another reason why real-time personalisation is critical for customer experience is when offers are time or stock sensitive. Customers don’t have much patience for being shown an amazing offer or recommendation, only to discover that the offer has already ended or the product is now out of stock. These technologies ensure that everything that the customer sees is correct at time of viewing, rather than when the marketer sent the email/loaded the web page.

Abandonment issues

Another rising trend within ecommerce is basket and browse abandonment, and there are myriad reasons why it happens, but poor customer experience is often a major contributing factor.

More than 60% of shoppers find it appealing when an online store remembers their personal and payment information and a whopping 81% of prospective buyers are frustrated by companies not making it easy to do business with them. Asking shoppers to re-enter details, mandatory registration, complicated or lengthy navigation, slow page loading, and unexpected costs at checkout are the top reasons for leaving items behind. Analysis can identify the root cause(s) and then these niggles can be ironed out; improving the buying journey as part of your ongoing customer centric strategy.

However, what about the customers who are shopping around, still in the early stages of the buying process, new to your site, or were interrupted before finishing the checkout process? These customers are definitely worth keeping in touch with in order to encourage them back to buy.

Triggering a series of emails to a customer that has abandoned a basket is a tactic that allows businesses to target customers with highly personalised and relevant content.

Commerce companies all over the world are demonstrating massive success rates using retargeting emails. But do the figures stack up to make it worth your while implementing this tactic for your business?

According to Business Insider, $4 trillion was left in abandoned baskets in 2023, plus, taking an average of 34 analytics studies, from IBM to Forrester, the average basket abandonment rate (as of January 2023) is 69.23%.

Just take a moment to consider that figure.

For every 100 potential customers that find *your* website amongst all of the others that they could have chosen; browsed *your* product or service selection; selected something of interest to them; added it to their basket; and then….?

69 of these 100 are leaving without completing the purchase. How much potential revenue are you losing for every 100 abandoned baskets? How much additional revenue do you stand to win if even 10% of these customers return to complete the purchase? What about 20%?

According to eConsultancy, 48.1% of basket abandonment emails were opened, and 33.3% of these went on to purchase. In addition, the AOV was 14.2% higher when purchases were triggered by an email, as opposed to direct sales. In fact, the study claims that every basket abandonment email sent delivers more than $8 in revenue.

The first 12 hours offer the greatest opportunity to convert the sale, so your retargeting should start as soon as the shopper leaves the site. According to a survey by SeeWhy, the average time delay between first visit and purchase is just 19 hours.

Meaningful interactions deliver meaningful results

In summary, customers demand personalised, relevant experiences. They want you to show them that you know and understand them. They expect the offers and products that you show to them to match their needs and wants. They want you to make their lives easier. Which is why 78% of CMOs think custom content is the future of marketing.

Countless studies show that personalised, real-time, cross channel content increases conversions, builds a passionate and loyal audience, improves lead nurturing, keeps your website dynamic, maximises marketing efforts, and boosts revenue.

You can be sure that if your competitors beat you to the punch with the delivery of this critical experience, your customers won’t be *your* customers for much longer.

Enhanced Customer Experience: How To Put Tablets To Use

Tablets are shaping the way customers experience and interact with spaces. They’re no longer restricted to point of sale, but rather make for a smarter, more interactive environment altogether. In retail, restaurant and hospitality settings, every square inch of the space has the potential to be a revenue generator or to enhance the customer experience in some way.

Combined with the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technology, businesses can utilize tablets to simplify everything from inventory and data management to loyalty check-ins and interactive digital displays. The ever-growing options in niche software and apps have put business owners back in control of designing a great experience for customers, one that better aligns with their brand. But with so many options available, where do you start?

With the customer. What problems need to be solved in the space? What processes — whether check-in, marking a purchase or accessing information — can be streamlined through the use of tablets and technology? Where are there opportunities to deepen the relationship and engagement with customers, such as with a loyalty check-in or email sign-up form? The space’s layout, power outlet placement and foot traffic flows will also dictate the placement and type of tablet display used. Here are a few ways tablets are currently being used throughout businesses to improve the customer experience.

The Simplified Kiosk

The kiosk can now fit into almost any environment and serve as an excellent customer touch point. There are now slimmed-down tablet kiosk options, rather than the bulky ones often seen in large, commercial spaces. These can be used to:

Display information about new products, sales or events

Allow guests the option for self check-in or concierge services

Enable self-directed food and beverage ordering

Conduct customer surveys

Streamline event registration and check-in

Provide tour and exhibit information in museums

Manage gift registries

Wall-Flush Mount

Using a tablet as a display is an incredibly valuable and flexible option for businesses, and is fairly easy to implement. In many cases, electricians don’t even need to be involved to reroute power supplies. Thanks to power-over-ethernet (PoE), devices can be powered via ethernet cable, eliminating the need for power cords and outlets. Battery packs can also be used to keep the device charged.

Uses for a wall-mount tablet include:

Conference room booking and calendar display

Information or promotional display

Employee check-in and time tracking

Interactive experiences in lobbies or waiting rooms

Programming or gaming

Maximize the Countertop

Many business owners have already experienced the benefits of a tablet used on the countertop, and not just in retail or restaurant settings. Tablets are now making their way to conference rooms, front desks and lobbies. In addition to the above uses, they can also be used for:

Point of sale (through EMV or swipe technology)

Reservation check-ins

Data collection and control

Audiovisual management in conference rooms

Front desk administration and document signing

Design for Success

While function and purpose should take priority in deploying technology throughout a commercial space, form and aesthetic shouldn’t be overlooked. Ultimately, the tablet and the hardware supporting it have to be user-friendly, sturdy, approachable and appealing, and accentuate the brand’s aesthetic.

With this in mind, focus on simplicity. Customers are intrigued by simplicity, color and innovative design, but they also want interactions to be speedy and efficient. Consistency and authenticity will also play an important role. Select high-quality, durable materials and colors that are consistent with your brand and the experience you want to create — the goal is to create a “wow” experience for the customer.

There are a few other things to consider in selecting the right setup for your environment. Chief among them is flexibility. Is mobility an important feature for you? If so, you’ll want hardware that offers flexibility in terms of design and can be easily moved around the space. As business needs change, so too will technology needs. Aim to future-proof your technology setup as much as possible with software that can be used across various devices that doesn’t lock you into one particular hardware configuration. The hardware and software selection should be able to grow and adapt with your business.

Keep in mind that the technology is meant to enhance the user experience. It should be user-friendly — whether users are customers or staff — and look like it’s part of the environment, not an obtrusive, unappealing addition. It’s time businesses large and small leverage the simplified yet mighty tablet to create smarter, more beautiful environments and give customers what they have come to expect.

Customer Experience Audit – Find The Issues That Are Hurting Your Conversions

You have holes in your funnel to fill – here is how you can fix them

The metaphor I like best in this context is the leaky bucket. The bucket represents your sales funnel, and the holes represent visitors ‘leaking out’ before they should. The implication for your e-commerce business: you need to fill these holes, starting with the larger ones, as fast and as permanently as possible.

But how can you find out where your holes are, and how big they are? Fortunately, you can discover this in a straightforward and cost-effective way by using just three tactics from my ‘customer experience (CX) audit’ toolkit.

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What’s a customer experience audit?

A Customer Experience (CX) audit is a comprehensive assessment of your target customers’ interactions with – and perceptions of – your brand. In general, it considers all of the key ‘touchpoints’ during your customer’s shopping journey, from finding and choosing your brand or product, to interactions after the sale. A digital CX audit is a bit more limited, and typically includes:

Google analytics review

Website conversion review

Customer interviews

Emails review

Secret shopping review

Social media review

Abandoned cart review

One or more visitor polls

Unboxing experience

Product return experience

Do some customer interviews

The first task I recommend that you do in your expedited CX audit is to speak with customers. Yes, I realize you don’t have time to speak with hundreds, or even dozens, of your current prospects and customers. The good news is, you don’t need to. If you have a customer support team you have a nexus point for customer inquiries, complaints and requests, just the kinds of things you need to know as you seek to improve your user and, more broadly, customer experience.

After only working for your company for two to four months your customer support agents will have heard:

The most-asked questions

The most-voice concerns

A whole lot of complaints

They may have even heard some compliments and suggestions. But those are less important to consider, at least initially. To plug those funnel holes you first need to understand the most frequent questions and concerns – the emotion-based reasons your visitors are bailing out, and may never feel like returning.

Follow these steps to get input from your support agents:

Ask your Support Supervisor’s permission to speak with a few agents. When she asks why you need this access, tell her that the support team knows the most common questions asked and issues you need to address, and by discovering these questions you can proactively answer them through design updates. This will result in fewer support calls, giving agents more time to answer revenue-oriented sales calls.

Schedule time with 3-4 of the agents. Ask for both interview time (45 minutes per agent) and observation time (a minimum of 90 minutes per agent). Ask to speak with both phone and chat agents. Assure the supervisor that you won’t interrupt the agents during their calls. Important: Start scheduling these sessions as soon as possible, as setting these appointments typically requires a 2-3 week lead time.

Ask each agent to share the top questions asked and concerns voiced. After sitting them them individually, observe them while they’re taking calls. Probe to learn about the mindset of the customers they speak with. Have the attitude of a curious apprentice. And ask follow-up questions to ensure that you’re understanding the root cause of the issues.

You don’t need to audio record any of your conversations; just take good notes on the key questions and issues you hear. If your company has a chat app installed, ask to see the chat logs from the past couple months. If possible, filter the calls and chat to ‘sales only’ contacts, since it’s these early-phase issues you’ll first want to fix with your design updates.

Estimated time investment: 8-10 hours

Estimated tools investment: 0

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How far your visitors are scrolling

Visitor session recordings

How well your forms are performing

Conversion funnel data

You can also run a one-question poll on your site if you have a key questions to answer (for example, based on something that surfaced during your support agent interviews).

Estimated time investment: 2-3 hours

Estimated tools investment: US $270 (3-month tool subscription; moderate-traffic site)

(Shhh!) Do some secret shopping

Secret shopping – aka ‘eating your own cooking’ – is the kind of secret you don’t have to keep. While you may do it covertly, secret shopping will bring customer experience issues to the brightest light, because you will witness them yourself.

A caveat: doing this shopping may leave a ‘bitter taste’ in your mouth. But it’s better you know the issues now so you can fix them before your site leaks more revenues.

Here how to do secret shopping:

Identify the primary ‘target’ customer for your website. If you’ve created user personas or profiles for your website or brand, now’s the time to use them (and get some more return on that research and analysis investment).

Consciously ‘wear the persona’s mask’ as you interact with your company. Assume the same demographics, mindset and motivations of this person as you do you secret shopping. I realize this can be tricky to do, but do your best.

Start interacting with your brand at the beginning. If your persona would typically do a Google search, do that. Find your brand’s listing in the organic or paid results, and continue from there on to your website. Ask questions you have in mind via chat (if it’s available) and via phone. Keep logs of your discussions.

Note all of the ‘glitches’ in your experience versus what would be more ideal (what would get you to your desired product faster, and in a more satisfied emotional state).

Actually buy one or more of your products. Use a ‘test’ credit card account if possible. Otherwise return the product(s) to get a refund (another interesting process to witness).

Open the box to assess the clarity of the packaging and instructions (including the receipt, who to contact with questions, and how to submit a return).

Touch as many parts of your brand experience you can within a reasonable time (I usually allocate a minimum of 4 hours to this task). Include these aspects of your experience:

Shopping process:

Sales website. Note what on the sales website is unclear or unconvincing (doesn’t persuade you to continue). Note whether the site has a ‘human touch’ to support your shopping.

Online chat. If your website has chat, note:

Typical response time (try a few chats, at different times of day)

How helpful the chat agents are (Are they knowledgeable, responsive, friendly?)

Purchase experience:

Add something to your cart, and start checking out, but stop it after you enter your email address. Leave the site before you buy the item. Note things like:

Within 30 minutes did you get a ‘cart recovery’ email?

Does the site show you ‘wait, don’t leave!’ message when you start to close your browser?

Do you receive any other communications?

Return to the site, then complete your purchase. Notice the issues you encounter from cart through checkout and order confirmation. Answer questions such as:

Do you know who to call with sales-related questions?

Is it clear when your order is complete?

Do you know when you will receive your items?

Post-purchase experience:

Did the company offer to connect with you on social media?

Do you know who to call if you have order-related questions?

How will you get updates on your order’s shipping status?

Note how well the site does – and, more importantly, does not – answer the questions that arise, questions that, if left unanswered, would likely make you, or a real potential customer, bail out.

Estimated time investment: 4-6 hours

Estimated tools investment: 0

Analyze what you’ve discovered