I was recently at an IT conference and heard author and speaker Brittany Hodak give a talk about creating wonderful customer experiences. At AVC we always strive for great customer service and after the informative conference, I was inspired to explore more of her work. While reading some of her writings, I came across a relevant article to share in our newsletter. Our goal is to provide meaningful and useful content to our subscribers, and I thought this would be a great read for you too.
As a library, you provide positive customer experience every time someone walks through your doors but, hopefully, this will also help you provide the same inclusive experience with your website.
Please enjoy this snippet from Brittany’s blog and take some time to check out what else she has to say. You can visit her website here: https://brittanyhodak.com/
“A component of CX that doesn’t get talked about nearly as much as it should is accessibility. Accessibility literally means the ability to access. According to the CDC, Accessibility is when the needs of people with disabilities are specifically considered, and products, services, and facilities are built or modified so that they can be used by people of all abilities. In essence, accessibility is about equitable opportunity for everyone.
Since customer experience is the totality of all of the interactions a customer has with your brand, you cannot create a great experience without first establishing accessibility.
People with disabilities make up 20% of the population. How can you be truly customer-centric if you can’t serve one out of every five prospective customers? What kind of impression does that leave on your customers when they realize they can’t effectively use your product or services?”
COMPONENTS OF WEB ACCESSIBILITY
Individuals with disabilities often use tools like screen readers and assistive keyboards when accessing the internet. However, they can’t properly use your website if it’s not compatible with such technology.
Below are just some of the most common compliance errors and things to consider when designing your site.
· Font size: the ability to zoom or enlarge the text
· Color contrast: appropriate contrast between the background color and text color
· Alt text for images: alternative text is not only an SEO element. Its primary purpose is to help visually impaired users using screen readers understand what the image depicts within the context of a web page.
· Navigation: the ability for a site to be fully navigated via the keyboard. (Did you know that the tab key is the universal key for keyboard navigation?) For a full list of guidelines, check out this resource. To check if your website is compliant, enter your URL here and download a report for your results.
THE SOLUTION
And if your website isn’t compliant, what do you do? A solution that I found to be really helpful is AccessiBe. When I first educated myself on accessibility issues, I thought I was going to have to revamp my entire brand because I utilize tons of bright colors on my site.
However, the AccessiBe Access Widget is a session-based tool that will automatically adjust the site for a specific user’s needs.
Instead of hiring a professional to manually update my entire site (and to review all future changes), this widget allows me to provide a personalized, seamless experience for each user’s needs while maintaining the original design.”
As a library, you provide a great customer experience every time someone walks through your doors but hopefully, this will help you provide the same inclusive experience with your website.
Brittany Hodak is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and customer experience speaker who has delivered keynotes across the globe to organizations including American Express and the United Nations. She has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands and entertainers, including Walmart, Disney, Katy Perry, and Dolly Parton. She founded and scaled an entertainment startup to eight figures before exiting, and she is the former Chief Experience Officer of Experience.com. Forbes said of her debut book, Creating Superfans, “If you have customers, you need this book. Period.”