In the business scenario, the most important factor of all is customer satisfaction. At the end of the day, customers are the reason why businesses exist, and through them, the need for demand and supply arises. Therefore, understanding customer behavior is the key to driving a business towards success.
As the world keeps advancing in technology, most of our methods and tactics are now influenced by them. Thus, studying customer behavior has changed drastically from what it was a few years ago. In the age of the internet, understanding customer behavior has become easier through the internet. One such tool that helps to study and understand customer behavior to improve customer satisfaction is the A/B testing tool.
In this article, we will be taking a look at what the A/B testing tool is and how it can help businesses improve customer satisfaction through their online platforms. If you are intrigued by this tool, read on to know more!
Table of Contents
A little about A/B testing
In today’s era, a business’s website is as important as an actual shop or showroom. The better your website is, the more opportunities your business gets to acquire new customers. It offers a great way to connect with potential customers and build a relationship with customers. Thus, this stands as evidence for just how important a website is for any business.
Therefore, you would want your website in its best form that attracts the most attention. A/B testing, also referred to as bucket testing or split testing, is a tool that allows a company to compare two variations of web pages or apps. This allows them to conclude which variety or version is the best and is generating the best feedback from the customers.
To be more detailed, A/B testing shows the two versions of a web page or app to consumers at random. From the reaction and feedback, an analytical report is drawn based on statistics to see which one is working the best for any specific goal or target.
This helps a company understand what changes it needs to bring to its website to get better results and responses from its target audience. It helps in making fact and calculation-based decisions for future up-gradation.
Understanding how it works
Now that we have a general understanding of what A/B testing is, let us dig a little deeper. Therefore, next, we will be looking at how exactly it works to give the result that it promises to give.
To begin with, you would first need to make a change to your existing webpage, which is called the control. The magnitude of the change does not matter. As such, it can be the smallest of changes or even an entire webpage modification — whatever that you may require. This changed webpage will be called the variation.
Once the changes are made, and you have both the control and the variation, A/B testing will show half of your visiting traffic the control and show the other half the variation.
When your visitors are shown either the control and variation, their reaction/response to either of them is recorded and put together as an analytical report, with the support of statistical facts. From these reports, you will be able to determine what kind of impact it had on your visitors. It may be positive, negative, or may not even have any effect at all.
Reasons why A/B testing is crucial to businesses
The logic behind A/B testing is an easy one — it helps you improve your websites and apps so that you get better feedback from your customers and improve customer satisfaction.
However, though that is the main benefit of A/B testing, there are several other reasons which make A/B testing important for businesses having websites and apps. Let us take a look at a few of the reasons.
1. Helps resolve visitor issues
When visitors come to your websites, they do so with a purpose in mind. It can be to buy your products or services, look for information, or simply resolve a few queries. Whatever it may be, they will have to browse your website to find what they are looking for.
While doing so, they may find some pain points that make their surfing experience a bit difficult. It can be things as simple as difficulty in locating the ‘buy’ option, or finding product information, and so on.
However, with A/B testing, you will be able to figure out these pain points and work towards improving this. This can help improve bad customer experiences and increase customer satisfaction.
2. Decreases bounce rate
Bounce rate is a term used in digital marketing which represents the percentage of visitors to a website who leave without continuing surfing on the same website. Obviously, you would not want a high bounce rate on your website. If your website has a high bounce rate, there must be a reason for it.
With A/B testing, you can figure out the causes behind high bounce rates and fix them with proper trials. You may try various versions before settling on the version that gives you the best results. Again, this helps improve customer satisfaction immensely.
3. Statistically improves achievements
Businesses may include some intuitive work, but there always needs to be efficient data backing those reasons. The same applies to A/B testing. The results and reports that A/B testing offers are all heavily backed by data and analysis of real-time customer behavior. When it comes to this, there is no space for any guesswork.
It will help you determine which version is working for you and which is not. There is no middle path. This will help you make firm decisions with a guaranteed success rate, thus inching your website and business closer to success and profit.
4. Improves ROI from visiting traffic
It is obvious that when your customers are satisfied with your services and products, they will come back to you again and again. However, the same applies to how well your online platform is. The better your website becomes, the more likely it is for your target audience to come back to you.
A well-planned and good website has that effect, and with A/B testing, you can keep improving on that front. This will give you a good ROI from the visiting traffic, without even the need to attract new traffic.
5. Improves brand image
Lastly, with constant improvement with the help of A/B testing, your brand image will certainly improve. It is a fact now that your website is your online representative. It carries your brand image, and its function adds to your reputation as a company.
A company that has an excellent website will naturally be favored by the audiences more than a company that has a lousy website. Thus, with constant improvement, you can help your business develop an improved brand image with your website.
Common mistakes with A/B testing
It is always a challenge to introduce new features or alter the existing ones. Not only does every change need planning and insight, but the implementation process is also something to consider. So, as much as you want to improve, here are a few mistakes that businesses often make while using the A/B testing. Take a look:
1. Not planning the changes
The biggest mistake while using the A/B testing is not to plan. Every change that you make to your website is crucial with its own set of setbacks and advantages, depending on your factors. First, you need to decide what you want to change, why you want to make that change, and how it will turn out to be. There should be a basis for the change.
Also, while it is a good thing to keep an eye on your competitors, making the same change as they did can be foreboding. Their changes will depend on their factors, which are obviously different from yours. Hence, plan thoroughly before making any changes.
2. Overlooking the statistical suggestions
There is a reason why statistical data is sought after so much. It is because they give accurate results and predictions which can help you make the right decisions. Therefore, no matter how bad or good the statistics are, it will give you a real-time picture based on real-time factors.
Hence, with A/B testing, do not go with guesswork and gut feeling for setting goals and planning. Only then will the test be able to give you accurate data that can help your business improve.
3. Making too many changes at once
The process of change should be a slow and well-calculated move. Therefore, making too many changes at one go can backfire. It will make it difficult for you to understand which change exactly is triggering the response from your customers. Therefore, list out the changes that you want and go about them one by one. This will make it easier for you to understand and help you make better decisions.
4. Giving up on follow-up actions
When it comes to A/B testing, it is a continuous process that does not stop with just one testing. You need to keep changing and testing to improve constantly. When one test gives you a report, no matter how bad, you need to follow it up with the right actions and test it again. Only then will you be able to improve your website to maximize customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
So that is all you need to know about A/B testing. It is a convenient tool that businesses with websites and apps should utilize to improve. After all, customer satisfaction is the one thing that keeps driving a company towards betterment.
In case you are looking for an A/B testing tool for your business then check out this list.
