Artificial Intelligence: What Are Your Website Visitors Feeling?
It’s possible to know if users are frustrated with your website based on how they move their mouse, suggests Professor Jeffrey Jenkins from Brigham Young University. His studies reveal that those feeling negative emotions, such as confusion, sadness or frustration, tend to move their mouse more erratically and less precisely.
On the other hand, Jenkins’ research suggests smooth mouse movements imply the user is happier about the website experience. He also believes slower mouse movements may reveal sadness or frustration in the user. By using this technology in the future, web designers and developers may be able to better fine-tune websites to create an improved response.
In the past, we’ve had to rely on intuitive decisions and experience as web designers and developers; however, the move toward Artificial Intelligence (AI) is helping us make smarter decisions.
Online AI is still in its infancy in many ways, so learning what online visitors are thinking is often harder than understanding the mindset of face-to-face customers, but it is just as important.
In a retail business, just as face-to-face customers prefer an attractive, clean shop-front with easy to locate products, so do online customers. The challenge is you can’t read their body language or glean any insights from your conversation in the same way you can face-to-face. The move toward AI is an attempt to remedy that issue.
If you know what your customers are thinking, you can tailor your web design, marketing, advertising, and branding, to serve them better. So just how can you find out what they are thinking while AI is still in its infancy?
Install Live Chat
If you have team members available online to chat with your visitors, it can help humanise the experience. Conversations can reveal ways to improve your website experience. For example if you’re constantly asked where to find products within your website, you will identify that the navigation and structure of the website is probably letting you down.
Request Feedback
You could feature a short questionnaire that appears as a pop-up window on your homepage. Promise those who complete it a discount code, or if you use a reward system, bonus points. The important thing is you must offer something attractive in return for their time. Otherwise, the pop-up will just be a cause of frustration for your visitors and a reason for them to leave your website.
You could also include a brief questionnaire upon completing a transaction. Not every customer will bother, but some will, particularly if you offer something enticing.
Product ratings and reviews is another way to gather meaningful data. Not only will this show you which products are most popular, but it will also help other customers make a buying decision (if the reviews are positive).
Simple things like comments and contact forms are easy ways to gather feedback online. Having a contact form on your website makes it easier for customers to get in touch with you. They will often use this form to provide feedback, usually in the form of requests or complaints. People tend to feel more passionately about complaints and are more likely to want to share them with you. Behind the safety of a PC they are likely to unleash their fury. Complaints provide a gold mine of opportunities where your business can improve (online and offline).
Listen to what your customers are saying
Monitoring social media and niche review websites will help you find out how your products compare to the competition. This can be tough for small business owners who juggle a lot of things in a working day. The easiest way to do this is set up Google alerts for your brand and product names. If someone is talking about you online, it’s best if you can respond in some way, taking responsibility if you stuffed up and fixing the problems where you can. You will also discover trends and, ultimately, what customers want online. This knowledge will help you fine-tune the online experience you are offering.
Finally, while you are browsing other websites, keep an eye on what others are doing online. It’s worthwhile keeping tabs on your competitors, but it’s also helpful to learn from seemingly unrelated websites. Online trends do change over time so expectations from website visitors also change. What can you introduce to your website to improve it? More importantly, what can be simplified to improve the users’ experience? Think about it, and use those answers to improve your business online.
