‘Corporate UX’: Practice Gaps and the Path to Customer Satisfaction and Improved Financial Performance

A pivotal survey by Nielsen Norman Group illustrated how spending 10% of a company’s development budget on usability or UX redesign can improve the conversion rate by 83%.

Many years on, the study is still just as relevant and the impact of UX as significant, even if the rate of improvement is said to have reduced slightly over time.  

Yet, how much has the message of UX’s importance as a lever of customer satisfaction and business growth spread through large corporations?

Many tech and marketing leaders struggle to understand the value of UX in driving corporate financial performance, the metric by which they’re ultimately measured. Unlike their counterparts in ‘digital-first’ businesses and tech startups, its importance appears to be missed by those responsible for manual, branch-based operations that also offer customer-facing digital products like self-service portals, mobile apps, and digital payment systems.

Considering the proven effect of UX improvements, it is ever in the interest of tech and marketing leaders and the corporations they represent to champion the importance of UX and secure buy-in from other C-suite executives.  

Corporates that recognize this go further. According to Forbes, companies that excel in UX outperformed the S&P 500 by 35%.

But for leaders to preach the UX gospel to their teams, they need to fully understand it and its many nuances themselves.  

There are many misconceptions, for example, that the closely connected areas of UI and UX are the same. UI with its strong link to conventional design and branding, many are familiar with. But UX’s heavy research and usability focus has ensured it is a discipline that is rarely understood properly. Failure to recognize this distinction as well as other wrong perceptions involving UX and its practice in an organization can hinder success.

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UX in Large Corporations: Ever-Present Need but Massive Leadership Gaps

If we refer to the customers of a large establishment, UX can refer to the experience of interacting with any customer-facing digital technology offered, whether it’s a website, app, or customer portal. For instance, in a hospital, UX might involve the appointment booking app; in a bank, it could be the digital banking platform; and for a real estate company, it might be its property listing site.  

With corporations increasingly digitizing their operations and customer interactions to enhance reach and convenience, the importance of good UX has become an ever-present reality for them. With a large portion of revenue now tied to the quality of user experience on digital platforms, it’s vital for tech and marketing leaders to closely address this crucial element.

Similar to how great customer service can distinguish your company from competitors, good UX can set you apart and lead to more customers singing your praise. This is why around 70% of C-suite executives view UX as a key differentiator, according to UserZoom, the UX Insights Company™. However, only 13% of companies have a dedicated UX leader at the top level to spearhead UX strategy and initiatives.  

Effective UX leadership is crucial not only to champion UX efforts to CTOs, CFOs and other C-suite executives but also to ensure sound fundamentals in terms of practical application by cross-functional teams whose direct responsibilities might involve marketing, branding, tech, and the like. This glaring gap in UX leadership has allowed for poor UX across many large corporations, with unhappy customers and poor business being its results.

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How Poor UX Breaks Customer Momentum and Business

Corporates are known to invest heavily in marketing and customer service to boost brand awareness and customer satisfaction; however, the journey of a customer is disrupted in between when digital platforms offer poor user experience that breaks their momentum.

Many tech and marketing leaders fail to recognize that UX has far reaching implications beyond just design, functionality, and usability, also impacting the overall customer journey and experience.

The frustration of having to use a website that is cluttered or an app that is confusing to use, for example, can reduce a customer’s motivation and energy. To illustrate, slow websites lead corporates to lose an estimated $2.6 Billion annually, according to an Invision survey. Separately, research from AWS indicates that 25% of projects fail due to poor user experience.

What is clear is if a user's momentum is broken repeatedly, they will mentally begin to associate this frustration with the company and brand. Over time, this can lead to abandoned transactions, missed sales, or customers avoiding your business altogether.

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Bridging The Gap Between Awareness and Practice of UX: How Strategy and Structure Help Meet Customer Expectations  

Understanding the business growth potential of UX is just the first step — ensuring it’s an integral part of your corporate’s strategy is the harder part.

Ensuring UX is a core business focus requires proper leadership. Having designated teams and leaders — such as a Head of UX or VP of Design — set the foundation to make UX a strategic priority and gain collective buy-in from other C-suite executives. Otherwise, UX leadership and the function often end up blurring into marketing or tech, with neither fully accountable.

Structured processes are essential for sound UX practice, such as a continuous feedback loop from users, much like in customer service. This systematic approach to gathering UX insights will provide valuable information about user expectations, helping corporates cut through what matters and what doesn’t for customers who use their digital products.  

When corporates make the connection between UX and key business metrics like customer satisfaction, retention, and revenue growth, there is often an ‘Aha moment!’. UX then shifts from being a tactical concern to a strategic focus across the organization. On an even footing with marketing, service, IT, and other key functions, its importance is finally recognized and alignment with corporate strategy is understood.  

Then, corporates can shape their customer-facing digital products in a way that exceeds customer expectations and drives financial performance.

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Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/website-statistics
https://s3.amazonaws.com/coach-courses-us/public/theuxschool/uploads/The_Trillion_Dollar_UX_Problem.pdf
https://www.usertesting.com/blog/ux-research-statistics
https://www.zdnet.com/article/user-experience-not-quite-about-the-user-and-not-really-an-experience
https://www.usertesting.com/blog/ux-research-statistics
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ux-effectiveness