Where We’re at With Digital Experience

 

The results from Coveo's 2023 EX Industry Report aren't promising when it comes to the state of website user experience. Ninety-two percent of 2,000 users surveyed are still struggling to find information online. In the workplace, this adds up to lots of time wasted, with employees spending an average of three hours daily searching for information. That's nearly half the day spent in a frustrating cycle of seeking knowledge in a never-ending quest to find answers.

 

It's clear that there's significant room for improving digital experiences across both customer-facing and internal platforms. In this webinar, Juanita Olguin, Senior Director Marketing at Coveo, sets the stage for creating better experiences. Paul Sheridan, Solution Engineer at Coveo, then walks viewers through a live Coveo demo that illustrates how to put Olguin's insights on improving UX into practice.

 

5 Common Misconceptions Hindering Website Growth

 

After reviewing some overall website UX stats from Coveo’s internal research, Olguin presents 5 common misconceptions that can hold back a website's potential. Challenging long-held assumptions about website UX can help you reimagine your site's potential to become one of your most effective communication channels.

 

Misconception #1: Website is a catch-all

 

Many businesses view their website as a catch-all — and not in a good way. An organization's website is a powerful channel with enormous potential. Think of it as a high-intent opportunity for engaging with visitors who are actively seeking something specific. You can provide valuable insights to site visitors by making it easy for them to find relevant content as they search, navigate the site, log in, and move through the path from consideration to purchase.

 

 

Consider that 43% of site visitors use a website's search box immediately. These queries reveal precise user intent. Combining search queries with click patterns allows you to analyze user journeys and serve up relevant content aligned to user interests and behavior.

 

When users log in, it provides even more context about who they are. This data is what fuels an AI-powered recommendation engine like Coveo, which is focused on enhancing user journeys by suggesting targeted content aimed at improving overall discovery.

 

Misconception #2: Outbound campaigns are all that matter

 

Marketers understandably tend to focus on outbound campaigns since this is what drives pipeline, demand, and lead generation. Yet inbound experiences are equally vital to driving growth.

 

Your initial marketing tactics may bring people in, but the inbound experience on your website is where high-intent activity occurs. When visitors come to your site, they're providing valuable information through their searches, clicks, and content engagement. This data can reveal customer needs and help you optimize their experience.

 

By balancing outbound efforts with a strong inbound strategy, you create a holistic approach that nurtures all website visitors — a strategy that helps convert customers and build long-term relationships.

 

Misconception #3: My website is just my .com

 

It’s a missed opportunity to think of your website as just your .com.

 

This view limits your website's potential as an end-to-end digital customer experience. It's true that your website is the primary .com where people find you, but your digital presence encompasses much more than your .com.

 

It includes support sites, intranets, ecommerce pages, service portals, your app, and on and on. Visitors may engage with any of these touchpoints during their journey, which is why your messaging and approach should be consistent.

 

 

When you consider .com as the most important part of the entire customer journey, you can begin seeing it from your users' perspective. Search analytics and user information can help you identify top sites and portals to optimize, while equipping your digital teams with core capabilities to drive consistency across all sites. And consistency is key because it helps orient customers across digital channels and improve experiences.

 

Misconception #4: Content publishing and curation is all I need

 

While content remains foundational in marketing, simply publishing and curating it isn't enough. You need to make content easy to find. This goes beyond content centralization — you need to provide unified, secure, intelligent access to content so users can find it from wherever they're searching.

 

Most buyers prefer to do their own research and want to be self-sufficient. You should be just as focused on making information easy to find as you are on creating it. Automation is the main ingredient when scaling this approach. Rather than manually curating content for each site, you can adopt a "publish once, surface anywhere" mindset that uses AI to help teams scale and reduce manual curation.

 

Misconception #5: UI is more important than UX

 

While investing in site redesigns and updates makes sense, it's a mistake to prioritize UI (user interface) over UX (user experience). Both form and function matter equally. Half of consumers believe website design is essential to a business's overall brand, but 43% of site visitors use the search box immediately.

 

 

These search-focused visitors are 2-3x times more likely to convert, a stat that highlights the importance of UI in the context of good UX. When building or redesigning your site, use what you know about user intent, gleaned from your visitors' keywords, clicks, and journey, to make your website experiences more functional.

 

Demo of Ecommerce Experience using Coveo

 

In the demo portion of the webinar, Sheridan showcases how Coveo addresses these misconceptions with multiple experience-focused features.

 

For example, Coveo can support and manage a unified index of content across multiple websites and platforms then draw from the most relevant and up-to-date sources to generate tailored responses.

 

Additional features covered in the demo include:

• Type-ahead query suggestions trained from successful user outcomes
• Personalized search results with relevant filters and facets
• Product recommendations based on user behavior and purchase patterns
• Unified indexing across various content sources (product info, support articles, community posts)
• AI-generated answers to common questions, extracted from existing content

 

Coveo's suite of purpose-built AI models are focused on different aspects of the digital experience. Together, these models create an all-in-one AI platform to help you enhance your overall user experience.

 

Discover how to transform your website into a growth engine using AI-powered search. This webinar showcases Coveo's innovative technology for enhancing digital customer experiences. Register now to learn how intelligent search can drive engagement and conversions across your digital platforms.