And it will never be, because exactly when you think you got it right, the damn rules change. Because people’s needs and expectations change. Can you deal with it?
As long as you accept that, you’re in for a hell of a ride trying to reach Nirvana. Or something close to that. It’s called user experience design!
No matter what you do, looking back at it will make it seem like a patched, old fashioned contraption that needs more magic fuel every day to keep on keeping on.
Here’s the good news though: there’s room for improvement! This is what we’re trying to do here: make it better, grab more with less.
Aim higher!
Look, experiences take place. You can’t control that and the only way to stop them from happening is to put your business on hold.
Serendipity can happen on the website looking for information or via the app, trying to buy a product. It can be for a client or a mere visitor that will later share it with a friend. It could be when asking for support, angrily, on the phone or in the shop with a sales assistant trying to figure out the the new service you found out about from the TV commercial.
It can be using your flashy 100K smartphone that can make small diamond burgers, the dating service with the awesome matching algorithm behind the 30 min long onboarding survey or the hammer that lacks the V shaped head that helps remove nails, making you wonder why you haven’t spend the extra buck to get the other one from the competition.
Something happens because there’s an interaction with your brand, your identity, the way you act and react on all those channels.
Your product ? The digital and human assets, they way they work as a whole and provide value for your users. It’s not just the thing or the service you offer, it’s the ecosystem that breathes the mission you had set when you originally came up with the idea.
It can be smooth and sweet or it can lead up to frustration and anger.
You can choose to let it play as it will and hope for the best, or you can try to diminish the possible damage. Notice I didn’t write “take control”. That’s because you can’t hope to do that. Not yet.
You can make a list of the intel that the visitors are often looking for and put it closer to the main entrance of the website.
Do your best to offer all the information necessary for the user to shop for the right product, yet let it be a gradual process so it doesn’t feel busy.
The Indian company’s employees, that you’re outsourcing support to, are properly trained and understand basic English – the language your clients speak?
Make sure your customers feel like somebody is listening to them and doing its best to sort out the issue, not going bored & tired through a live survey to class this problem asap and run home. Shape up a relationship with your customers and your employees as well.
Nobody said it would be easy or that magic happens overnight. It’s a story that takes the right shape and color when looking back and linking the dots into a path.
Your product has a life of its own and it’s up to you to grow it healthy and happy. One step at a time.
