When we look at “User Experience (UX) Research,” we can break it down into a simpler term: feedback. Feedback is KEY to business success. When we ask users for feedback, we’re opening the opportunity for our ideal consumer to tell us exactly what they want and need in order to be a loyal follower of our brand, business, product, or service. Knowing what our end user ultimately wants can save us the time and energy of having to go back to rebrand & redesign our offers to give what our ideal consumer truly wants.
While we’re on the topic of feedback, I should also express just how important it is to look into and listen to all feedback. This includes the positive feedback of what users find useful, helpful, visually appealing, desirable, etc. This also includes the feedback of areas that need improvement such as pages of a website or app where our users get lost or confused, designs that distract rather than enhance, content that shames instead of encourages, and so much more.
In an article by Leela Srinivasan at SurveyMonkey, Srinivasan highlights from SurveyMonkey’s research in 2019 that “85% of people say they’re likely to provide feedback when they’ve had a good experience and 81% provide it when they’ve had a bad experience. — more than 1.7 times the rate at which people leave feedback after having had a “normal experience” (48%).” This means that the folks who are giving you feedback feel so passionately about their experience, whether it was good or bad, it would be negligent of us to disregard the given feedback in any form.
Leela also showcases that “91% of people believe that companies should fuel innovation by listening to buyers and customers, compared to only 31% who think they should hire a team of experts.” This really goes to show how important it is to prioritize users and researching the experiences they have with our businesses.
“91% of people believe that companies should fuel innovation by listening to buyers and customers[…]” — SurveyMonkey research, 2019
While I can appreciate those individuals who believe companies don’t necessarily need to “hire a team of experts,” I would like to point out that having a team devoted to User Experience and discovering the feedback with user research is wise and will save companies time and resources to focus and prioritize on business practices that drive forward movement. This is done by deciphering all the data and feedback UX teams receive through research to communicate and influence direction with user-centered design, sales, and other business practices.
In a 2022 report by ReviewTrackers, it states “Companies aren’t responding fast enough (or at all) to reviews. 53% of customers expect businesses to respond to negative reviews within a week. 1 in 3 have a shorter time frame of 3 days or less,” and “63% [of consumers] say that at least one company they reviewed never even responded.” This means users and consumers are wanting to be seen, heard, and validated in their experiences by seeing results from their feedback.
Consumers are wanting to be seen, heard, and validated in their experiences by seeing results from their feedback.
This report also showed “Most companies also write responses in a way that expresses their commitment to service, customer experience management, and “next steps” (e.g., how a customer can contact them directly).”
We can build trust and loyalty by witnessing users in their shared experiences and making improvements to share in a timely manner. This is done by conducting regular UX Research and delivering the data to guide designs and business practices to improve pain points or avoid them, altogether. We can make sure that users are being seen & heard by responding directly to their concerns by communicating that we are listening and are actively, consistently taking their feedback seriously and improving our business practices based on their vocalized experiences.
Seek out user and consumer feedback regularly through utilizing UX Research practices. Show that we’re seeing, hearing, understanding, and actively building a relationship with users & consumers to communicate that we are trustworthy and devoted to maintaining their loyalty one experience at a time.
We [UX Researchers & Designers] are trustworthy and devoted to maintaining [users] loyalty one experience at a time.
Like Mariah’s thoughts on UX? Check out her UX portfolio at mariahsells.org & podcast The UX Factor for more!
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