cultureblog

What kind of additional value or experience do you provide to your customers? This is a question that everyone in business should be asking themselves on a daily basis. With the amount of competition out there anything extra that you can possibly do will help you get a leg up. The funny thing is that many people feel that creating a unique experience to their customers on-line is not an important part of their business model. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only is it important to take pride in your on-line business, it’s a necessity. When potential customer’s visit your site do they leave feeling like they wasted their time or do they leave feeling as if they just experienced something fun, entertaining, educational, or unique. When they get these great experiences they are more apt to not only stay on your site and buy, but also to return and refer their friends and colleagues onto your business. First impressions are so vital to the interaction with your customers. If you had lights out in your store or chipped paint would you leave it that way or would you take pride in your space and invest in improvements so that your customers enjoyed their overall experience. Walt Disney got his inspiration for Disneyland when he used to visit the carousel on the Santa Monica Pier. He was always fascinated with the way it looked at night. When all the horses would be jumping up and down with all the lights twinkling and the music playing he found the carousel to be magical. When it stopped he noticed that only some of the horses actually moved and that the paint on them was chipped and worn down. From this he developed his vision for Disneyland, that all the horses would jump and there would be no chipped paint.

Lastly, in order to create that great experience you can’t stop visually, there has to be great functionality and flow. Just as you wouldn’t crowd your store with racks and shelves that are hard to maneuver around you shouldn’t want your on-line business too overly busy and cumbersome. The flow of it should be easy for the customer. Easy to find information and have questions answered, easy for them to get to specific product pages and most importantly easy for them to check out. So much business is lost abandoning the cart because your visitors find it tedious and difficult to look at and navigate through your site. Think back to anytime you have been in a purchasing situation, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The ones that gave you the best experience, you usually feel good making the decision to buy. The ones that gave you the bad experience you usually regret making that purchase. The two go hand-in-hand. When you add something more to the buying experience you not only will add to your revenue stream but the more repeat business you will receive. Remember that the investment you put into your online presence will produce the type of return you receive.