Usability Testing for Customer Loyalty

customer loyalty

How usability testing contributes to customer loyalty

Usability testing can be used for many specific aspects of website usability and to test customer loyalty is one of them. Customer loyalty is very important for any business; it leads to repeat business from the loyal customers and also encourages brand advocacy which is an extremely useful attribute for a company’s bottom line sales.

How loyalty is defined and measured is a matter of some debate but what we will discuss here is how website usability contributes to customer loyalty and how its impact can be assessed.

You could probably answer the question ‘Does usability increase customer loyalty?’ without great knowledge or use of metrics.

To begin with, the fact that customers can navigate around your site to checkout and purchase increases their loyalty. They are more likely to return if their experience was positive and will probably report on and recommend your site. Exactly how this directly links and correlates is a more complex matter.

Measures of Customer Loyalty and Website Usability

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

NPS is a tool that is used to gauge the loyalty of a customer. It is based on a single question (‘How likely are you to recommend this to a friend or colleague?’); the answer to which is a ranking from 0-11.

The scores equate to;

  • 9/10 are considered promoters of your brand/product
  • 7/8 are considered neutral
  • <7 are detractors

The overall score is calculated by subtracting the number of detractors by the percentage of promotors.

SUS (System Usability Scale)

The SUS consists of a ten-item questionnaire with a five point-scale for each question from strongly agree to strongly disagree that relates to the system.

SUS has shown a high degree of positive correlation with the NPS which suggests that usability and customer loyalty do go hand in glove.

Usability Testing and Loyalty

When testing your website you can build-in loyalty-related issues by questioning and observing activities that would encourage (or deter) users advocating your website.

During this usability testing, you can explore what problems are deal-breakers and are likely to cause customers to become detractors from your site. Similarly you can explore what positive aspects they experience and can make them into advocates for your site. It might also be worth exploring with participants, before carrying out testing, what sorts of issues and experiences they would consider critical in nurturing loyalty to and advocacy for a site.

Most users will have knowledge and experience of poor usability and will probably remember what caused them to abandon, not revisit and criticise sites. Knowing this beforehand can help you construct testing that has some customer loyalty aspects.

If you would like to discuss usability testing for loyalty with experienced and expert practitioners in this field please contact us today for an informal chat on your requirements on +44(0)800 0246 247, or email hello@ux247.com or contact us.

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