Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing Customer Support Page

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Digital marketing Blog User Experience (UX)

Customer service offers the clearest path to business success 📊 . Even if you build the perfect application or website, customers might always have questions that need immediate attention. That’s why offering great customer service is crucial for businesses.

Customer support tools are the go-to resource that customers leverage for their queries. A study by Vanilla revealed that 84% of customers try to solve support issues by themselves before contacting customer support. Hence, you must ensure the support tool is designed to offer better UX.

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A/B testing removes the guesswork from the UX design ✍ and helps businesses understand what appeals to the customers and what doesn’t. It helps increase user engagement and conversion rates, ultimately leading to business growth 📈 .

This article will teach you how to do A/B testing on the customer support page for better UX. It will serve as a checklist for what to do and how to do it to achieve the best results. Keep reading to learn more.

A/B Testing with Plerdy: A Guide to Optimization Excellence

When it comes to optimizing for the best customer experience, A/B testing stands as a cornerstone. With Plerdy, this process becomes an effortless venture. Navigate the waters of testing, analysis, and strategic adjustments, all under one roof.

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Here’s how to roll out A/B testing with Plerdy:

  • Dive Right In: Sign up on Plerdy, hop onto the intuitive dashboard, and get ready to craft your first test.
  • Fine-tune Details: Specify the page you’re keen to test. A dynamic dashboard pops up, enabling you to make changes on the go – whether it’s modifying the color, adjusting text size, or tinkering with margins in HTML and CSS.
  • Set Clear Goals: What’s your end game? Pinpoint what you want to measure. Maybe it’s the customer’s journey to a ‘Thank You’ page or interactions with a specific feature.
  • Monitor in Real-Time: As your A/B test runs, Plerdy offers insights in real-time. Dive into data that showcases user preferences, engagement rates, and more.
  • Reflect & Adjust: Post-test, gather your insights. What worked? What didn’t? Use this goldmine of information to refine future tests and strategies.

Specific niches, like e-commerce, can benefit immensely. For instance, an online apparel store might test button colors, leading to surprising discoveries – maybe customers in their 30s prefer a calming blue ‘Add to Cart’ button over a fiery red one.

In essence, Plerdy demystifies the maze of A/B testing, offering businesses a streamlined path to enhance their customer’s experience. Dive into Plerdy’s world and steer your strategies with precision and finesse.

Enhancing UX: How to Do A/B Testing for Customer Support Pages?

You can conduct A/B testing on various elements of customer support pages. I will share a step-by-step guide on how to run these tests to improve your user experience and conversions.

How to Do A/B Testing to Improve Navigation Experience on Customer Support Pages?

Page navigation plays a crucial role in delivering a seamless user experience. It helps customers access the information they are looking for without any difficulties. Hence, the navigation should be clear, properly structured, and user-friendly.

  • Experiment with the position of the search bar on the pages. Place the search bar at the top of the page to help customers quickly find the information they seek.

Check out how Etsy has designed its help center with a search bar at the top of the page to make things more accessible for the users.

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  • Organize the questions, help articles, and tutorials according to their categories. Categorize the content based on its help – getting started, account setup, troubleshooting issues, and more. You can experiment with different category names, content types, and more.

For example, PayPal’s help center includes a separate category for common questions, help guides, and account-related questions.

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  • Modify the flow of the pages in the support tool. A customer looking for video tutorials would not want to hunt them down in other categories. So, presenting these tutorials on a new page will help offer better UX.
  • Add a breadcrumb widget to the page to ensure a seamless navigation experience for the customers.

A/B testing helps you analyze how customers navigate your tool and improve critical user flows. Start by experimenting with the placement of items and then move towards modifying the navigation experience.

How to Do A/B Testing to Ensure Customers Get Quick Access to the Support Team?

Not all customers can find a solution to their queries with a self-service customer support tool. Hence, adding a medium through which they can do so will boost the tool’s UX.

To contact customer support, provide customers with an option, such as live chat, call scheduling, email support, or social media messengers.

  1. Install a live chat widget to receive queries and requests. You can count on customer support software to manage and respond to customer queries directly from Gmail inboxes in no time.
  2. Add a ‘Book a Call’ button with a link to the support agents’ calendar to schedule a call or provide customers with your support email address to receive queries on your email.
  3. Leverage social media integration to allow customers to post queries on your social pages.

Twitter’s help center provides customers quick access to the support team by placing the “Contact Us” button in the header menu.

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Provide better support to the customers and strengthen customer connections. You can deliver a frictionless experience and superior customer service by giving customers direct access to customer support professionals. It offers you a competitive advantage and helps your brand stand out.

How to Do A/B Testing to Offer Engaging Website Copy?

The golden rule of quality content is to keep the copy concise. You can test the following types of copy on the customer support page:

  • Headlines and sub-headlines
  • Body
  • CTA button content

Here is a short guide to help you A/B test website copy for better customer engagement:

  1. Start with testing the headlines. It is wise to keep the headlines and subtitles crisp. To create a perfect headline that shares the right message with the customers, experiment with the tone, choice of words, etc. and find out which performs the best.
  2. Focus on offering value to the customers through the copy in the body sections. Test out different variations of the copy, format, style, readability, tone, and more. With the help of A/B testing, you can find out what the audience responds better to:
    • Short text vs. long-form content
    • Formal vs. informal tone
    • Paragraphs vs. bulleted lists
  3. Write multiple variations for the CTA text to determine which drives the maximum conversions. For instance, adding the word ‘free’ in the CTA button text can increase the number of clicks and form submissions.

Remember, good copy motivates, convinces, and encourages your customers to engage with your business. A/B testing on your support tool offers you the chance to experiment with your content and find out the one that stands out to get into the mind and hearts of your customers.

How to Do A/B Testing on Customer Support Page Design and Layout?

The design and layout of the customer support page also play a significant role in improving the UX. The page presentation determines how long the customers will stay on the page.

Conduct an A/B test on the entire page design and layout in the following ways:

  1. Consider moving or deleting some elements on the page. For example, remove the unnecessary CTAs asking customers to subscribe to the company blog.
  2. Test with different designs and color schemes. Experiment with button colors, page design, font type and size, background color, and more.
  3. Change the page layout and appearance by adding images, illustrations, or other creatives that resonate with your offerings.

For example, Figma is creative in its customer support software design. With colorful illustrations, Figma manages to capture the attention of the customers.

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A/B testing the support tool design gives you insights into how you can make your tool easily accessible and navigable for your customers. Good design and layout help you create powerful first impressions and make your customers feel more welcome on your page.

How to Do A/B Testing on Media Elements to Help Them Find What They Are Looking for?

Adding images, icons, and video introduces engagement elements to the customer support page. Ensure the media elements are of high quality and provide a clear understanding of the offerings. Each of these elements can be A/B tested for optimization.

  • Check if the icons send the customers the right message. For example, Pinterest has rightly placed the magnifying glass icon for the ‘Find and save’ article category.Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing Customer Support Page for Better UX 06
  • Test the icon theme, color palettes, icon size, line weight, and more, to find the perfect match.
  • Next, add or remove images on the page based on the context. For instance, adding the customer’s image would be beneficial if you had testimonials on the support pages.

Some basic tests for images would be:

    • Black and white vs. colored image
    • Person vs. product screenshot
    • One image vs. multiple images

Experiment with the number of images, their placement, image themes, and more for image optimization and to improve your on-page customer experience.

  • Determine how videos are impacting the performance of the page. You can conduct an A/B test on videos for the following scenarios:
    • Press play vs autoplay
    • A thumbnail of the videos
    • CTA in video content
    • Length of video
    • Number of videos on the pages

For example, Asana’s customer service tool has a dedicated page for video tutorials. Did you notice how Asana informs the customers about what to expect in the video?

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How to Do A/B Testing to Build a User-Friendly Website Form?

Forms are essential for capturing data from visitors on the customer support tool. Let us understand various ways you can test the forms for optimal conversions.

  • Design of the form. Experiment with the form design to determine the best one that attracts the maximum eyeballs. Use different fonts to ensure seamless reading, utilize various fonts to improve readability, add images, GIFs, or videos to capture attention, and more.
  • Form fields and the relevance of these fields with the page. Boost form conversions by determining the ideal length for the opt-in forms. Add or remove form fields to optimize the form length.
  • Position of the form on the tool. Determine the ideal position for placing your opt-in forms on the pages. The forms must be placed in ideal positions and be optimized for viewing on mobile devices.
  • Pay attention to the form copy. For example, the heading or the CTA.
  • Add social proof. Include trust indicators, such as awards, certifications, client testimonials, and more to the forms.
  • Form layout. Ensure the form offers a responsive design for mobile devices.

A/B testing forms on the customer support tool help you optimize them for your target customers. It helps you identify the ideal form design and improve the conversion rates of your forms.

These were important conditions to consider when conducting A/B testing on your customer support page. Follow the steps mentioned above diligently to optimize your support page and improve your tool’s conversion rates.

Wrapping up

A/B testing ⚙️ helps you identify what type of content and its presentation your customers prefer. It helps you provide better experiences to the customers with the help of thoughtful experimentation. I’m sure this guide will help you start A/B testing today or revamp your existing A/B testing campaigns to deliver excellent customer experiences ✨.

Article by:
Steven Macdonald

Steven Macdonald is a digital marketer based in Tallinn, Estonia. In the last 10 years, he's helped e-commerce and B2B SaaS brands generate more than $100 million in new revenue through SEO, content and conversion optimization.

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