How On-Screen Guidance Can Improve Your Customer Experience

Do you value your customers’ time? This might seem like an obvious yes. But unless you provide a seamless and efficient online experience, your customers might feel differently. Time is a valuable commodity, and customers have little desire or patience to spend it searching your site for the products they want. In an increasingly competitive business landscape, finding innovative and effective ways to improve customer experience is essential. That’s why many companies have turned to on-screen guidance to provide a more satisfactory customer journey.

Consumers are demanding simplicity and ease of use

Online shopping is becoming the preferred mode of purchase for many consumers. According to Pew Research Center, 79% of Americans now shop online. Among active online shoppers, G2 Crowd found that over 51% of Americans would rather shop online than in stores. The growth of consumer activity online has transformed the traditional understanding of the customer experience. Today, omnichannel consistency is integral. Creating a smooth customer journey means visitors should be able to easily navigate your site or app and find the information they are looking for. According to a survey from Deloitte, online shoppers place the highest value on the following factors when deciding to make a purchase:

• Price transparency (80%)
• Convenience (78%)
• Clarity and usefulness of product information (67%)
• Ease of navigating the website to research or purchase products (60%)

Addressing each of these factors is critical to efforts to improve customer experience and boost long-term customer retention.

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Why more companies are seeking on-screen guidance solutions

Guiding the customer through their journey is critical to providing the best service. McKinsey found that increasing customer journey will increase overall customer satisfaction by 20% and revenue by 15%.  Using on-screen guidance on your website is one of the best ways to provide a seamless customer journey. Real-time prompts and support improve customer experience by helping customers quickly access the information they need while shopping or using a service. In this article, we’ll take a look at how on-screen guidance can improve customer experience.

1. Allow potential customers to easily access information

Making it easy for consumers to find the information they want is critical to providing a fulfilling shopping experience. The research phase of the shopping experience is all about finding the information you need and sifting through products you don’t want. Sites that make it too difficult for customers to access what they want end up driving customers away. Simplicity is so important that 74% of customers will switch brands if they find the purchasing process too difficult. If customers can’t find information on the products or services they want, or complete checkout easily, there is a risk that they will leave the site. Digital solutions that provide contextual, on-screen guidance prevent this from occurring by eliminating barriers to information. Based on certain contextual factors, these tools provide tailored prompts and support to swiftly guide your visitor’s to their desired destination.  

2. Teach your customers how to use your site or service

Requiring your customers to sift through technical instructions and FAQs to access how-to information doesn’t make for a high-quality customer experience. On-screen guidance enables brands to improve customer experience by minimizing user friction and guiding customers through any process with minimal research from them. Tips can be as simple as a pop-up that tells a user what a button is for or how to fill out a form. Giving customers instructions decreases the hassle that comes with learning how to use an unfamiliar function.

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3. Provide faster customer support

Responsive customer support is a prerequisite to providing an excellent customer experience. While on-screen guidance cannot replace the value of human-to-human support representatives, it can add an extra layer of efficiency for customer concerns. For example, if a user gets confused about how to navigate your site or use a particular feature, the user can instantly summon the guidance support tool to view specific instructions. Rather than leaving the site, unable to complete a task, the user can do what they need to do.

Set your customer experience apart with on-screen guidance

Supporting users with on-screen guidance ensures that they can always find the information they need and complete purchases with optimal efficiency. Building a customer experience that makes the customer journey both pleasant and seamless will reduce the risk of customers leaving out of frustration and improve customer loyalty significantly. Now that online shoppers expect nothing less than a first class customer experience, on-screen guidance goes a long way.