3 Hacks to Creating Digital Experiences as Frictionless as Floating Through Space

3 Hacks to Creating Digital Experiences as Frictionless as Floating Through Space

Frictionistheenemy

Brands must consistently deliver frictionless experiences to build trust and loyalty with this digital-savvy bunch. But friction gets in the way of achieving this. And it’s a surprisingly costly enemy.

of online customers who experience a dissatisfying visit are less likely to transact from that same site again.

of dissatisfied online customers will purchase from another site.

It’s never been harder to satisfy digital consumers. They’re more informed, more connected, and more impatient. And, more selective with their discretionary dollars.

Hack #1Make it Count

Target the Right Metrics that Show Business Impact

You don’t improve what you don’t measure.

But with hundreds of site performance metrics and business KPIs in the data universe, how do you know which ones to focus on?

We recommend using Onload as a core benchmark for understanding customer friction.

/ What is Onload?

It’s the average time required for the server to completely load all content on a page. Everything from JavaScript, CSS, images and more. And since Onload is supported by all browsers, you can measure how different browsers impact site performance and customer experiences.

An ongoing analysis of millions of user sessions across hundreds of websites show faster Onload contributes to higher conversion rates and revenue.

Pro Tip:

As a starting point for any Continuous Experience Optimization improvement, calculate Optimal Page Speed, or the ideal Onload time for a page to achieve the best return in revenue.

One of the largest U.S. online retailers, for example, discovered hidden issues with their content delivery network (CDN) and tag managers created customer friction costing them nearly half a billion dollars per year.

MILLION

in friction quantified for a single online business.

Copyright © 2023 Blue Triangle / +1 (877) 258-3107 / sales@bluetriangle.com

/ We even have a vital bonus for you. (Hint: It’s in the name.)

Witnessing how site visitors and Google view your digital experience used to be elusive, like a rare Sasquatch sighting. But with Core Web Vitals (CWV), that’s exactly what you can do.

Pro Tip:

Google Lighthouse is a free tool you can use to test and measure Core Web Vitals. Real User Monitoring data can provide you with even more actionable insights to improve these metrics for better results.

CWVs not only influence the customer experience, but also have a powerful impact on your site’s performance and revenue. They affect your organic search rankings. So, if your site has poor CWVs, Google will use it to deprioritize your search rankings. Meaning less traffic and customers to your site.

Optimization outcomes will vary from site to site and from one page to the next. Product pages, for example, can see a 40% to 50% lower conversion rate when comparing users that experience a 2-second Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) versus a 4 to 5-second LCP.

Hack #2Experience the Journey

You’ll be surprised to discover how visitors actually use your site

There are so many touch points along their journey. If they experience friction at any point, customers will abandon your site and go to a competitor instead. This will lead to an unbelievable amount of missed revenue.

So, we recommend experiencing first-hand your customers’ journey. How?

First, identify your most critical pages. You could use customer journey and page volume analytics to figure out what those are.

Next, pick out your top converting and non-converting paths and run synthetic scripting along each of them. For the technical folks, this would mean creating a Selenium Script.

Pro Tip: Ideally, your top pages should be pinged with synthetic measurements every 5 minutes to detect issues. But 15 minutes is okay too.

Pro Tip:

Basically, multi-step, real browser monitors will drive synthetic traffic to your site and follow the paths that real visitors take. These scripts should run at least every 30 minutes, or faster.

Hack #3Create a Culture

It’s no secret that different stakeholders in your business have different priorities. So, how do you bring them all together to focus on optimizing the customer experience?

By changing the conversation around performance and experience and relating it to revenue and business outcomes. This will help create a company culture of Continuous Experience Optimization.

A good starting point is tag governance.

Now, this won’t be as easy as implementing a tag manager solution and calling it a day. True, you will need the right technology, but it will also require planning and collaboration.

Pro Tip: One of the most important success criteria for optimizing tag governance is having buy-in across every level and department in your company with a vested interest in the customer experience.

So, we recommend creating a Tag Governance Committee with diverse representation across your company, from:

/ Engineering

/ Product | eCommerce

/ Marketing | Advertising

/ Digital Analytics | Tag Management.

/ Creating a Tag Governance Committee

Strategic planning is crucial to successful tag management and governance. Each team and department have their own priorities. But, a Tag Governance Committee can drive business value for the entire company. It will allow your organization to extract as much value as possible from optimization projects for maximum ROI.

These Tag Governance Champions should meet regularly to gain alignment on all tags and optimize them to prevent revenue-robbing friction from hurting your business and customer experience.

If You Only Remember One Thing

If there’s only one thing you take away from these 3 hacks, it’s this:

Customer experience and revenue should be at the forefront of all the data you’re collecting.

Why? Because frictionless customer experiences will be more important than ever in 2023 to build customer trust and loyalty. Which can translate into more returning customers and revenue down the line!

Marketing eCommerce / Product Analytics / Tag Manager Owner Engineering

About Blue Triangle