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As we move into 2021, it’s clear that technology has played a big part in the survival of many businesses through the pandemic and into the New Year.
Last month, we spoke about how failing to become more digital-friendly meant that many businesses struggled during the national lockdown periods. This month, we’re tackling another issue that could be just as threatening to your business survival – even in the New Year.
Engaging your customers in your digital products – be that an app, website or other – means that you will likely have a healthy return on investment. You’ve successfully adapted to your customers’ needs, provided them with a useful tool and established yourself as a valuable source of information.
If you fail to engage your customers in your app or website, regardless of whether it’s a new venture or existing technology which hasn’t been updated, you not only risk not gaining new customers but also losing existing ones. Engaging your customers is the key to success in the digital age, so how do you do it?
Here are the 5 most common reasons your customers are not using your app, website or tech as much as you want them to and how to combat it:
Your UI (user interface) is outdated and no longer provides a great UX (user experience)
What used to work for your customers no longer does. What used to look on-trend no longer hits the mark. Attitudes change, technology moves at an increasingly fast pace and your customers expect more over time – so give it to them.
Your UI for your web or mobile app may be slow, dated, use old technology, or not be up to speed with common or emerging design practices which can make for poor user experience. But it’s not all about UI – your UX might not have been all that great in the first place – perhaps customers used it simply because it got the job done – albeit painfully.
It's time to re-evaluate exactly how your digital products serve your customers – what struggles might they be facing? What will make their experience effortless?
You’re not using mobile!
Over the last few months the way we’ve all been interacting with technology has changed. If the contactless year of 2020 has taught us anything it’s that your business needs to be mobile!
Think about how it could benefit your customers - perhaps it could involve contactless deliveries and mobile orders. You could even introduce QR codes or location-aware technology to help your customers enjoy your shop or business in a COVID-friendly way.
Also, think about how your own staff would benefit from mobile devices that integrate more deeply into your infrastructure and promote efficiency. Does your remote team need a secure way to report back information on the go? Accessing a computer is not always practical for some industries who need to communicate quickly, so consider implementing mobile technology for your business.
You don’t have visibility
Being in control of your processes means having access to your data. Knowing what’s happening when or what’s blocking what, can make the difference between being profitable and efficient, or losing money and having unhappy customers.
Visibility of information through a dashboard or web portal can help you make decisions which are based on real events and real data that give meaningful insight on running your business.
What if you could use that data to predict trends or look for patterns? Could improved visibility give you an edge over your competitors?
You can’t respond quickly
After last year, it’s clear that we can’t always plan for the unexpected, but you can adapt and evolve. Businesses that were agile and nimble in their responses to the events of 2020 were rewarded and that’s something we hope many businesses will remember in the future.
Often, it is not so easy to pivot and leverage opportunities as quickly as you’d like – particularly when legacy software may be locked down, too fragile to extend, or nobody knows how it was built.
At Cariboo Digital, we can quickly create a robust, secure, powerful and reliable service to complement a new offering to customers or new capability for staff. With us, you are able to keep your access to your legacy data but have it reimagined in a new up-to-date digital offering.
Your Ecommerce experience is poor
Ecommerce isn’t just about your online shop and the products you sell, customers look for experiences. Creating intuitive, innovative and exciting ways for them to explore your products or services will make for a more engaged customer experience.
Consider implementing additional capabilities that could help a customer solve a problem such as a page, a widget, an AR experience or simply a context driven ‘how to’ video. Build their trust by showcasing your knowledge and conversions will follow. Remember, customers aren’t looking for the perfect hammer - they’re looking to hang that picture of grandma and the kids!
Ask yourself: Is there a way to make the gap between your physical and ecommerce stores more natural? Have you listened to your customers recently and worked with them to find better ways to serve them?
Cariboo can build a product for you that will improve your customers’ experience using your service or buying your products. We can build a new app, either stand-alone or online, that can eventually be managed in-house and be iterated by your business using no-code technology.
We always provide support to any app we supply but it can sometimes reduce TCO, provide non-reliance on a developer and give your business the ability to iterate at will. Of course, we can be there along the way to support, assist and advise and if you ever get stuck, we can make the updates you require.
Please get in touch today for your free 20-minute consultation to hear how we could help your business thrive in 2021.
