Good user experience means the user is able to do what they came to do without hurdles or delay.
Requiring users to take unnecessary steps or wait to move forward causes friction in the user experience.
Where there is friction, you lose people – because friction equals frustration.
I had a stellar example of how friction creates user frustration recently working with two different brokerage firms.
At the first, I found the feature I wanted to add and clicked ‘apply’. 30 seconds later I was approved.
At the second, I logged into the website and found I needed to complete an application to have the feature added to my account. It was a fillable PDF, which created an expectation that I could fill it out online and then submit it. But the checkboxes didn’t work properly. I could check all to boxes or none of the boxes, but could not choose just the appropriate one.
So I had to print it out, fill it out, scan it, upload it, and submit it. (Just a little bit of friction in that process!)
Their reply to my submission: “We usually respond within 5-10 business days, but lately, things are taking longer than usual.”
Guess which experience left me feeling good about the process?
Your prospects and customers want it to be easy to do business with you. When you reduce friction, you delight.
Know, like, and trust
It comes down to the old marketing adage “know, like, and trust.” At schools and childcare centers around the world, parents need to know, like, and trust the people they are leaving their children with. School administrators want to know, like, and trust the businesses that help them provide exceptional services to their enrolled families.
The onboarding process for new customers is one of the first places they really get to know you.
We like each other better when our processes make life easier. We trust each other more when the solution solves the problem.
Reducing Friction
Sometimes, improving the user experience can be simple. Do you invite people to sign up for emails on your website? Take a look at what you are asking them to enter. Do you really need both first and last name? Eliminating even one element of data entry reduces friction.
Are there other things you are asking for that may provide helpful data about the prospect but are creating additional friction? So many times I’ve been curious about something and clicked ‘Learn More.’ Before you know it, they are asking seventy-eleven questions, without giving me what they promised. The questions create friction and mostly I abandon the process rather than persist through the friction of all the questions.
Where could you improve user experience on your website?
Anytime you are unclear
Lack of clarity makes the reader pause and creates a disruption in the thought process. It also raises questions, putting trust on shaky ground. Disrupting the flow of their thoughts opens a space for disconnection.
Anytime you do not follow standard operating procedures
When there is a standard expectation for website behavior, such as boxes that look like they should be clickable, your website needs to meet those expectations. Do you have highlighted text or boxes that look like they should be clickable but aren’t? Do all your clickable links work as expected and take the reader to the correct next step? Being unable to move forward as expected can result in visitors simply clicking away.
Anytime you do not deliver what the user expects
Does a ‘learn more’ button take them to a page that seems unrelated to the information they were reading before they clicked? Does the page have a suggestion for the next action to take when they get to the bottom? If they are ready to buy, is it clear how they would take that next step? Do they need to ask for a quote, request a meeting, or agree to a phone call? Does your webpage make it easy to know what to do and easy to ask?
Your website is not the only place to look for friction.
User Experience with your email messages
Your email engagement is also a place to look for friction. Anytime the purpose of the email is not clear from the subject line, open rates are likely to go down.
Improving the user’s experience on your website and in your email sequences can help address problems like lack of traffic or traction on your website, website visitors that don’t stay, and leads that don’t convert. A user experience audit of your website or email sequence can help identify places where unnecessary friction is lowering results.
By improving user experience in your emails and on your website, you can increase traffic on your website, increase the time visitors spend on your website, and improve your ability to convert visitors to paying customers.
Reach out if you’d like some help with that!