It is increasingly important to improve the customer experience, especially for companies that rely on the online environment for their sales &mdash as is the case for e-commerces. To do this, you need to invest in both development and usability testing.
These tests ensure that all interaction processes on your pages are working as they should, and that no sales are lost due to bugs or poor design construction, which frustrate customers and cause them to abandon the website.
Even though it is an essential element in business, many entrepreneurs leave this practice aside or apply it in the wrong way. This results in losses for the business, such as lost sales, abandoned shopping carts, and consumer dissatisfaction.
With this in mind, we have put below the main information about a usability test and the reasons to perform this process in an automated way. Check it out!
What is a Usability Test?
Usability testing is a technique for evaluating digital products and services. It is used to evaluate the interfaces of a platform or web page, identifying problems that interfere with its performance and conversion.
Testing can be done by in-house professionals, automated systems, and also by customers, when the idea is to understand user experience rather than technical issues.
Common problems identified by the company's professionals or automated systems are integration and interface rules, such as page routing, payment systems, customer records, etc. These elements can present errors that frustrate customers and cause their usability to be compromised.
Customer testing, on the other hand, focuses on identifying problems such as button and information visibility, placement of items, and ease of following the purchase journey. Some websites may be constructed in a confusing way, which results in the same problem as above.
When to Conduct a Usability Test?
Many people believe that usability testing should only be done before a platform is launched, or after changes are made, such as a website redesign.
In reality, it is recommended that such testing be done on an ongoing basis. The appearance of bugs and problems in transactional processes can happen even when no changes have been made to your website.
In this case, the best thing to do is to create a testing schedule for your employees or hire a company that does the process in an automated way, without the need for human work.
Even the practical test, done by real customers, should be done periodically. Consumer perceptions and evaluations change according to several variables. So even if your site has not changed, they may think that the usability has decreased, based on the changes and improvements of your competitor, for example.
What's the Difference Between Manual and Automated Processes?
As we said, the identification of technical problems can be done either by in-house professionals or by automated systems. The difference between them is in the efficiency of this process and its costs.
The manual process is less efficient for organizations, since a professional takes much longer than a machine to perform tests. In addition, the expenses for employees qualified for the tasks are high.
The problem of efficiency also affects the financial gains of the business, especially when a problem is preventing customers from making their purchases, such as a failure in payment integration or user registration.
What are the Benefits of Automated Usability Testing?
It is clear that the automated process offers many benefits for companies that adopt it, right? We have listed below the main ones for you to understand more about them!
More reliable results
Because automated tests follow a defined pattern, there are no problems such as inattention or forgetfulness that compromise the reliability of the results.
This way, you are more certain that all processes and functionalities on your site are working as they should. This ensures that your company will not lose customers because of these problems.
Project Optimization
Another advantage of automated usability testing is the speed with which processes are evaluated. An intelligent machine is capable of performing a test procedure in just a few seconds.
Manual testers need more time to perform the same tests. Thus, the time to identify an error is longer and the risk that a customer will be lost in this period is also higher.
Better use of the team
Manual testing is done by the testers themselves. This means that for hours, or even days, these professionals must keep repeating the same task.
Besides being tiring, this time could be used for other more important and strategic purposes. Thus, by using an automated process, the team can be better utilized.
Customer Satisfaction
Automated testing continuously controls and monitors the processes, so that any problem is detected immediately. Thus, the chances of customers getting frustrated and having a bad experience on the site are low, since all errors are alerted and corrected as soon as possible.
Even when not solved quickly, it is possible to put an alert to the customer, explaining the situation and asking him to return after a period of time. The feeling of frustration is much less in this case.
Financial savings
Finally, the use of an automated testing system provides financial savings for businesses. With this procedure being done more quickly and efficiently, it is not necessary to have professionals dedicated to it, as well as its costs.
In addition, the company no longer loses sales due to customer frustration. This results in increased revenue and also customer satisfaction.
How to Choose a Company to Conduct Usability Tests?
Now that you know the advantages of automated testing, you are probably asking yourself: how to choose a reliable company to perform this procedure in my business?
Ideally, you should look for companies that specialize in the subject, with references that prove their quality of work and the efficiency of their system.
Remember that the lowest price is not always the best! Make a cost-benefit analysis of the options found, choosing the one that meets your needs exactly and that asks for a fair price.
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