Online Customer Experinces

For this weeks post, I will be talking about the concept of 'customer experience'. A necessity when it comes to online shopping and marketing products on the internet. The experience a customer has during their visit to a website could potentially determine future sales or lack thereof.

It is possible that the app or website a customer uses has a few bugs which hinder smooth flow of operations. In doing so, the disturbance could annoy the customer who may eventually stop using the website/app and possibly leave a negative review warning other users.

To help understand the set Antecedents to understand online customer experiences, it would be useful to look at the Framework provided in Rose and Hair (2011)

The framework provides understanding over eight components, the 'antecedents' that play the role in a customers experience and the eventual outcome.

1. Information Processing (IP)

In this, the aspect of processing information, hence the name, is involved. To cater for this, understanding how a customer would process all the laid out information on a website/app is key. An example is of the Toyota.com website I gave last week. Though the website ticked all the necessary boxes when it came to the 5 I's of marketing but when it comes to IP, the website is in form a cluster, with too much information to process right on the homepage of the website.

By possibly having reductions on the homepage and possibly tabbing the links, the website could become more attractive and engaging for the customer.

2. Precieved Ease of Use

Continuing from what I had mentioned for IP, The element of ease is a necessity in today's world. You cannot expect a strong customer flow with a slow loading and uncooperative website/app. As things rapidly develop, it is always possible for customers to find the next best alternative.

In doing so, the Ease of using a website/app could include the simplicity to work it, the lack of steps needed to proceed with transactions, the convenience by which the customer could pay (including payment methods e.g. paypal) and, the engagement the business would have through their website/app with the customer.

3. Perceived Usefulness

This component highly relates to what a business may be offering. Usefulness would refers to the extent by which the business's offers fit in with the customer's daily life.

Going back to the Toyota.com example, it is plausable to say that the majority customers would not constantly be using and engaging with the Toyota.com website unless they are interested in buying a new vehicle or would like to learn more about a vehicle.

The usefulness could, however be seen by the innovations done by Toyota to provide users with apps that relate to there driving, a daily life function for many.

4. Perceived Benefits

Benefits can be seen as the rewards or the provisions a website/app may provide a customer. The more effective form between the two would be the app which would enable users access through their phones.

A benefit could be in the form of a tracker, or bonus rewards (woolworths rewards, 7-Eleven Fuel-lock) etc. This not only make the app useful for the customer but also gives it the aspect of being beneficial for the customer if used.

5. Perceived Control

In general, the component refers to the ability of enabling users to have control over the website/app. In other words, having a grasp over how to run the website/app and perform various functions on it with ease.

Control is very necessary as it distinguishes a users doubt and confidence in how they may operate a website/app.

6. Skill

The skill that a customer may develop in using a website/app will take time and depend upon how frequently the customer might use the website/app. Being skilled at using any form of online platform is not a given as all websites and apps vary from one another. the reliance in this remains on the customers engagement.

7. Trust and Risk

In relation to being skilled and perceived control, the more the customer has a grip over the functions and operations of a website/app, the more likely they are to trust it. The component of risk would remain for new customers as they would be using a new platform, possibly never utilised by them.

The inexperience arising can act as a hindrance and give rise to the risk factor. A big example is that of paypal where new users tend to feel insecure over providing their financial details to a company but those who have been using this provision for long have now developed a trust for it and the risk has drastically dropped.

8. Enjoyment

In other words, How much they loved the website/app!

Reference List

Charlton, G., 2012. Understanding online customer experience: four key trends. [Online] Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/10066-understanding-online-customer-experience-four-key-trends/ [Accessed 1 September 2017].

Dave Chaffey, F. E.-C., 2016. Digital Marketing. 6th ed. Edinburgh: Pearson.