The rationale for doing a Customer Experience Audit

The aggregate of all contacts a person has with an organization, regardless of the touchpoint, is referred to as customer experience (CX). It begins with a consumer's first touch with a brand and continues throughout the product purchasing process, as well as after-sales customer service, until the product is abandoned.

During its first year, Amazon spent 100 times as much on customer service as it did on advertising. So, if you believe in the value of CX and want to learn more about how people perceive your business, an experience audit is the perfect place to start.

This type of analysis will give you a comprehensive picture of how customers and prospects interact with your brand, allowing you to figure out how to increase CX in the short, medium, and long term.

An experience audit is a powerful tool for analyzing CX because it allows you to:

  • Using "objective eyes" to examine your solution for potential bottlenecks and weaknesses in interactions;
  • Identifying improvements and opportunities;
  • Identifying future strategies that will be sustainable.

Why is it required to conduct an experience audit?

Here are some reasons why you may need to consider carrying out an experience audit: 

  • It's been a few years since you launched your e-commerce or website;
  • Data shows that traffic in many places has fallen or is on the decline;
  • In the first place, your e-commerce or website was never evaluated or associated with CX;
  • Your company does not have any internal CX resources;
  • In your current working techniques, a user-centered approach has not been a natural element of development, requirements, or testing;
  • Your solution does not meet your expectations and does not deliver a suitable return on investment;
  • Your solution has a high ranking, yet it converts poorly;
  • You'd like your solution to expand in accordance with your business strategy;
  • There are now new user flows (paths used by users to perform tasks);
  • To enable new methods, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) demands adjustment.

Based on numerous areas such as design, communications analysis, and content, an experience audit is designed to help you figure out where you are now and how you can swiftly improve (both in the short and long term). As a result, it's intended towards companies who already have a strong digital presence but want to keep improving.

What does a CX audit entail?

The type of experience audit you select should be tailored to your individual requirements. You can either follow the complete process from beginning to end or pick and choose from the parts below that you believe are the most important.

  1.  Customer Journey Map 

  • Determine the points of contact you have with your consumer, how they contribute to the various stages of the purchasing process, and how to explain it;
  • Conduct client interviews to learn how real people interact with your website;
  • Examine the entire suggestions for improvements, not simply where a "purchase" button should be placed or whether you should work more with video on YouTube, but the client emotions that need to be addressed;
  • Discuss your target market, including the demographics of individuals who shop.

  1. Data 

  • Make a list of the data that is currently available (Goggle Analytics, Clickstream analysis, conversion analysis and more);
  • On a broad level, draw inferences based on this;
  • Make recommendations about how to deal with data in the future, including what sources should be included and how the data can be tracked over time.

  1. Channel 

  • Map out your digital platforms, including social media, newsletters, sponsored marketing, and more;
  • From a purely analytical standpoint, draw conclusions about what works well and what doesn't. Ask what media brings in the most traffic and, in conjunction with step 2 above, try to figure out how much money an organic and paid visit brings in;
  • Take, for example, marketing automation. What kinds of communications can be automated, and what kinds of repeating mechanisms might we discover?
  • Make specific suggestions for enhancements. What is now underutilized, what seems senseless to keep doing, and what should be added?

  1. UX  

  • Draw a diagram of the current solution;
  • Working with expert UX designers to review your present solution based on the most essential business and use cases is a great way to start;
  • Identify crucial components such as key pages, elements, and interactions, and base your work on best practices for existing interactions and design concepts.

  1. Content  

  • Create content based primarily on the Customer Journey Map and the essential pages identified by the UX and data research teams;
  • Focus on content in three areas: communications prior to buy (channels identified by your data research), communications during purchase (material on the actual site), and communications after purchase (order confirmations, delivery notes, communications during the physical shipment phases, newsletters and more). Examine canceled orders, abandoned carts, retargeting, and return and handling as well;
  • Create many fake shopping trips and document them with either random individuals or yourself, commenting on what you see and what you believe should be improved.

 

The approach you employ for your customer experience audit should be practical and successful, allowing you to rapidly discover modest improvements that will make a difference and give you a better idea of what you should aim for in the long run.

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