Why Your Customers’ Experiences May Be Negatively Impacting Your Sales

⌚ 3 min read

Are you looking at your business through customer-colored lenses? What we mean by this metaphor is how well do you understand the needs and problems of your customers?

Where you land on the scale, from not understanding at all to completely being in tune, will almost always directly correlate with your sales performance. 

Your level of understanding towards your customers translates to the quality of the customer purchase journey your business provides. Many people make the mistake of thinking the actual point of purchase is the only stage where a transaction happens, however the entire journey is one big transaction that defines the customer’s experience and influences their purchase decision.

The goal is to make your customers’ experiences unique, delightful, and memorable. Like we said, it isn’t just about one point, it’s about the entire journey. And that journey takes place whenever a customer visits your website, interacts with a social post, clicks on an ad, makes a purchase, or gives you feedback post-purchase. 

All of this is the buyer journey. All of this influences customer experience. And all of this affects your sales.

That said, here’s why your customers’ experiences may be negatively impacting your sales. 

1. You don’t know who your customers are or you don’t know them well enough. 

The Fix: 

• Create customer personas (this blog post will help!) and find out what they want, what they’re like, and how to best speak to them. 
• Survey your current customers to find what is lacking for them at any point in their buying journey with your business. 
• Segment your customers based on your data and create strategies to effectively reach each target group.

2. You aren’t grabbing the customer’s attention. The first impression you make is often the last impression you make. If the products or services displayed on your social media or website aren’t grabbing the visitor’s attention, you are hurting your chances of making a sale. The eventual purchase decision is highly impacted by that very first impression your business makes. 

The Fix: If your business is solely based online, customers make purchases without the ability to test or feel the product. You will want to enhance the virtual purchasing experience as much as possible by:

• Using high quality photos and videos to tell your story
• Show your product in use via lifestyle photos, especially on social media
• Display your products in an organized way and keep everything easy to navigate
• Be upfront about your pricing. No surprise costs when checking out!
• Use retargeting ads to reach customers who have visited your website before but didn’t purchase.

3. Your website is unattractive. Here are the cold hard facts. Almost 40% of people will leave a website if they find it unattractive or outdated. Three-fourths of people judge a business’ credibility based upon how professional their website is.

If you are experiencing a decent amount of traffic to your website, but sales aren’t happening, it’s likely due to the actual design of your website. It simply isn’t keeping visitors there long enough. 

The Fix:

• Make sure your visitors can easily locate what they're looking for. A simple yet comprehensive navigation bar can work wonders. 
• The website header section should be clean and direct. The visitor should immediately be able to tell what your product or service is. 
• Feature various call-to-actions throughout your website, such as “add to cart,” “view cart,” “learn more,” “book now,” etc.
• And if there’s only one thing you do, make your website mobile-friendly!

4. Your potential customers don’t trust you. Who can blame them though. There are so many sketchy businesses and websites out there, it can be hard to tell who is legitimate and who isn’t. Over 80% of customers are concerned about buying from a website they haven’t had experience with.

The Fix:

• Implement a trust seal on your website to increase security, signaling to visitors that their credit card information will be safe.
• Add customer reviews to your website! The average customer reads 10 reviews before deciding to purchase from a business.
• Be active and communicate with your visitors and followers. Engage in conversations on your social profiles, send newsletters, and answer any questions potential customers send your way as soon as possible. 
• Use video demos to showcase your product or service. Video inspires greater trust than photos and sways purchase decisions more often than photos.
• Offer trial periods or money-back guarantees.

The entire point of the customer experience is to bring them closer to your brand. Keep your business customer-centric, always putting the needs of the customer first, and you will find yourself attracting more people and making more sales. 

Want to dive more in-depth on how to wow your customers? Our Intro to Business course has all the information you need to make your business a sales magnet.