What makes a customer want to return or buy from a brand again and again?
What makes this brand stand out from their competition?
There are many answers to these types of questions — they’re great, they read our minds, and they listened.
Above all, these companies choose to focus on their customers and their interaction with the product or service. They crafted a memorable user experience because they listened.
Everything in our daily lives requires a form of interaction with some entity; whether it’s brushing your teeth or ordering coffee at Starbucks. As users put these tools in actions, we determine the success of the results from the experience.
Let’s Break The Word “User Experience” Down.
A “user” is a customer that is going use a system or service provided to them in order to take action.
An “experience” is someone initiating an interaction at any given moment.
Putting the words together, the customer defines the single experience through interacting with a product/service at the moment.
The customer will determine whether he or she will continue to use the product or move on to another. If it does not the solve a problem or serve its customers than intended to, then the company’s intent has failed for the moment.
Here’s An Example Where An Event Did Not Serve Its Customers
It is important to think about the customer’s journey from when they first discover you, go to the venue to buy or attend the event, when they leave, maybe unpack their product, and refer their friends and family to how memorable of a time or product they have.
To give you an example, my graphic designer and I attended a paid outdoor evening social gathering. The goal was to meet and network with other business minded people. It was going to rain that evening, but we did not know what time it was going to rain.
We arrived an hour into the event.
The organizers checked us in, and we made our way to the outside pool area where the event was being held with bright neon lights shining over on our right. Now, keep in mind that since this is a business casual event, no one was in the pool.
In this event, people were wearing semi-formal suits and dresses. While avoiding falling into one of two 3.5ft deep pools, we maneuvered our way through the crowd in an attempt to speak with someone at the event.
Five minutes later, with no luck, we shuffled our way out of the crowd and into one of the VIP areas with two people sitting in the area.
“Great start!” I exclaimed as we did a meet and greet with the people there.
As the four of us sat, facing the crowd by the pool, my graphic design was passively waiting to see if someone would fall in the pool.
Crafting A Memorable Brand Experience
Good user experience allows people speak about a moment with other people so a community can is built around it.
When you craft a positive and memorable experience for your customers, your company to stand out from the rest.
If there are certain objections that will interfere with an experience of a customer, then do not wait. Decrease the risk of someone having to remember you being misrepresented.
The last thing you want your customers to remember you as is ‘the event that had a person fall in the pool while it rained.’
Regardless of any event planning or product design, figure out what is best for your customers attending your event and how customers are going to get that computer you bought without having to break it if they live 16 miles away from home.
Research is important at the beginning and having backup plans.
Ask for Feedback so You Can Create a Successful Identity and Brand.
There is always room for improvement with products and services. Be the listener of your customer’s voices! See what is working for them and what is not.
In a sense, we are all user experience-ers or interaction designers. We perceive the world and our experiences through our surroundings. Think about the last time you had an awesome experience and did you think it served you.
“What do you feel after using this product/service?”
“Were you satisfied with the results?”
The answers you receive will help you determine how you to improve your services and products to better the experience of your customers. To do that, it starts with the company.