Using experience analytics for better understanding of the customer experience

For all businesses, the customers’ needs and preferences should be the number one priority. However, the mystery still remains finding out what those needs are. It’s important to understand how a customer uses your website, because a lot can be revealed through their click frequency, error reports, and desired conversion funnels. If you’re ready to see how these details tie together and produce a more accurate picture of how the customer wants to best utilize your site, experience analytics can provide the insight you need to give your website or mobile platform an edge.

How to put experience analytics to good use

Jared Lees, the senior manager of industry strategy for financial services at Adobe, provides some helpful hints for how to utilize digital experience analytics:

• Get a comprehensive picture of your user– Use as many tools as possible to extract as much data as possible to create the most accurate digital profile.
• Share the data across different silos– Not every problem can be solved strictly by the IT department and therefore you need input from different teams such as marketing and web design, among others.
• Find the anomalies-Look for the trouble spots or worrying trends and fix them first. The sooner you get rid of the bugs, the more you can concentrate on customer preferences.
• Use the data to your advantage– Do not let data go stale. You will have enough to create a full profile, so why not put it to use and act on it?

When big data solution providers offer a set-up that allows you to generate and access these analytics, they produce reports that make sense of the collected information. The evidence will point to ways that you can custom-tailor your website or mobile platform to the customers and build more effective conversion funnels and more direct paths for the user to reach the targeted points on your site. It is always better to know more about your customers than to be designing a website with blinders on.

Security for your users, and knowledge for you

With such an immense but useful gathering of data, digital risk management is critical. Your data needs to be managed in a way that is both accessible but protects your users. For example, with Glassbox, you can view tools such as web session replay, but mask sensitive information so that only the necessary images or figures are given. Also, you can set the time period for data storage, whether it be a certain number of years to comply with regulations, or indefinitely in order to identify trends over time.

Digital experience analytics are a mirror into the world of your users. You can tell what is working, and what is not, and in time, identify causation. In addition, you can better mold your website or mobile platform to align with the desires of your customers. By gaining this extra knowledge, people are more likely to return your site, and you are likely to gain more conversions toward your end goal. In the end, it’s a win-win for both parties.