Customer frustration is a real, measurable, and important performance indicator if you are a business owner.
Just yesterday I visited a site in search of information for a new sport for my child – not a recreation league but one I would be paying decent money for them to play. The navigation on the site was confusing and when I finally found the content I was looking for it was not updated from last year. I clicked the Contact Us form and after the page finally loaded it did not work. Frustrated, I gave up and texted a friend about other options.
Let’s explore customer frustration and its impact on your business and then how to remedy it!
Customer Frustration from a Digital Perspective
The ContentSquare Digital Benchmark Report 2024 includes a sampling of websites across all industries and measures a host of performance indicators. One of which is customer frustration from a digital perspective.
Measurable Customer Frustration Indicators Included:
- Javascript error rate: The Javascript code produces an error for the visitor.
- Slow page load: Page loads that exceed 3 seconds.
- Rage click: An element on the site was clicked at least 3 times in less than 2 seconds.
- Multiple button click: A button was clicked at least 3 times in succession.
- Multiple field click: A field was clicked at least 3 times in succession.
- Multiple use target: An element was clicked at least 3 times in succession.
- Low page activity: A visitor doesn’t click or tap on the page.
The data showed that roughly 1 in 3 website visits caused frustration for the visitor (of the sites sampled) and this percentage was up (39.6%) in 2023 from 38% in 2022. The leading frustration factor in 2022 was slow page loads and in 2023 was javascript errors.
While these indicators are a measurable way of gauging frustration, they are not the only causes of frustration. You know this- we have all been there.
Other factors of frustration that are not as easily quantified are outdated content, confusing navigation, broken links, confusing checkout processes, intrusive pop-up ads, and poor mobile experience.
Customer Frustration and its Impact on Your Business
You have worked hard and/or paid hard-earned money to create your business website. If it is not functioning well and leaves your visitors frustrated, your cost per visit increases.
Your bounce rate increases (the number of people who click your site and then leave almost immediately)
Your engagement rate decreases (the rate a visitor interacts with your website)
Your SEO efforts are thwarted. (I think of the baseball saying when a runner is tagged out with a key hitter up to bat and possibly allow them to score “You just took the bat out of their hands”) A poorly functioning website can make any search engine optimization efforts almost negligible.
Your overall visits and traffic will decrease.
The ultimate result is a wasted visit with estimates of up to 15% of visitors never taking action due to their frustration. That is almost 2 out of 10 visitors taking their business elsewhere.
Solutions for Customer Frustration
So how do you remedy this source of frustration? Does your website need a refresh with minor updates and technical issue corrections? Or do you need to update and start over? While this may seem daunting, finding the right website developers can make all the difference in the world.
Analysts recommend making necessary updates every quarter including content updates, plugin updates for functionality, and general housekeeping, making sure your information is accurate.
If your design and functionality are outdated, you should redesign and update. First impressions matter especially in today’s digital world.
If your site does not function well on mobile devices you need to have that corrected ASAP.
The important thing is to find a web development company that you trust. They should communicate what they are doing and why as well as routinely audit your site for technical updates and issues. They can find creative solutions to your current frustration issues and streamline the front look of your website.
Dogwood prides itself on offering frustration-free website design services. We blend the technical functionality requirements with the human element to make sites as simple for the user as possible. We make sure sites function just as well on a mobile device as they do on a desktop, optimize for fast page loads, and have an employee dedicated to monitoring server and plugin updates manually.
We also offer content management. Need to make updates to your site? It is as simple as sending an email- literally. Learn how to decrease your own frustrations with the blessing of content management services.
Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help your website be frustration-free!
