Aligning User Experience (UX) and Customer Success (CS) for full-funnel growth is a no-brainer. With 88% of customers choosing not to return after a bad experience, intentionally focusing on the alignment of UX and CS becomes critical. Why? When UX and CS work hand in hand, customers experience smoother user journeys and faster issue resolution, and companies gain a better understanding of customers’ painpoints.
Alignment is about creating a frictionless experience that delights users at every touchpoint. This is about more than just solving customers’ problems; it’s about anticipating customers’ needs to exceed their expectations. A strategic approach is essential. The result: increased customer retention and the creation of brand evangelists. In this article, I’ll show you ten ways to get this right.
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1. Personalize the user experience based on customer data.
When you analyze customers’ behaviors, preferences, and feedback, you can tailor every interaction to meet individual needs. Such personalization could include the following:
triggering a customized onboarding flow based on goals or your industry
automating follow-ups based on users’ actions
offering location-based recommendations
For example, you could deploy a learning content-management system and its data insights to adapt user journeys and provide relevant content based on users’ previous interactions. Such a targeted approach ensures that users receive content that matches their skill level, interests, and learning pace, making their experience more valuable and enjoyable.
Personalization also helps you identify friction points and refine the user experience, leading to higher engagement and retention. Remember, when you use data intelligently, you can create a tailored user journey that keeps customers returning, ultimately driving long-term loyalty. For example, as shown in Figure 1, Netflix’s “Continue Watching for…” and “Because you watched…” sections drive viewership.
Figure 1—Continue watching on Netflix
2. Implement onboarding processes that focus on value realization.
By aligning UX with CS, an onboarding process focusing on value realization can ensure that new users see the benefits of your product right off the bat. To do this effectively, design your onboarding process to highlight key features and show how they solve the user’s specific challenges. This approach can reduce churn and foster user engagement.
For example, guided walkthroughs, personalized tutorials, and interactive demos can help users grasp how to use a product to achieve their goals. The sooner users recognize a product’s tangible benefits, the more likely they are to stay engaged and become loyal customers. Figure 2 shows the Duolingo onboarding process.
Figure 2—Onboarding on Duolingo
Duolingo starts by asking which language the user would like to learn, then why he’d like to learn it and his current level of proficiency. To make the onboarding process more fun and quicker to complete, Duolingo displays their mascot and adds a progress bar, showing each step of the journey.
3. Provide proactive customer support and resources.
To significantly enhance user satisfaction and retention, anticipate users’ needs—instead of waiting for them to encounter issues—and offer solutions before problems arise. You can do this by designing chatbots, in-app guidance, or sharing helpful content such as FAQs or tutorials that are based on common user queries. For instance, if users frequently struggle with a specific feature, a quick video tutorial or a live Q&A session can bridge the knowledge gap.
Also, maintaining an updated knowledge base can empower users to find answers to their questions independently and reduce their frustration. Proactive support minimizes downtime for users and shows your commitment to their success, building trust in your brand.
Taking small steps to address potential issues can foster a more positive user experience, making customers feel valued and supported throughout their user journey. As shown in Figure 3, HubSpot provides some inspiration.
Figure 3—HubSpot’s chatbot
Their home page has a chatbot that maximizes visitors’ ability to get immediate assistance without any hassles. To put customers at ease in case of any trouble, they also offer a Knowledge Base, shown in Figure 4, and a Help Center.
Figure 4—HubSpot’s Knowledge Base
4. Use in-app messaging to offer tips and guidance.
In-app messaging can engage users directly within a platform. You can provide contextual Help exactly when and where users need it, getting users the information they need without delay. For instance, when a user first accesses a new feature, a brief in-app message can pop up, highlighting its benefits and offering quick tips for getting started. You can tailor these messages based on user behaviors—for example, providing advanced tips to more experienced users or suggesting relevant features that align with users’ activities.
When you take such strategic steps, users can maximize your platform’s value, while you can reduce support queries and ticket escalations. These are subtle yet smart ways to keep users in the know, let them explore more different functionalities than they typically would, and ensure that they fully capitalize on their experience while feeling supported in real time. For example, when users first create a Canvas in Slack, they can share a template with other users, as shown in Figure 5. Users can either choose to go ahead with the default template or explore their library of topic-based templates. Figure 6 shows a template for a product brief. This can reduce customer-support queries, employees’ workload, and customer confusion.
Figure 5—Templates on Slack Figure 6—Template for a product brief
5. Use behavioral analytics to anticipate users’ needs
By analyzing patterns such as user clicks, the time spent on specific pages, and drop-off points, companies can predict what users want and need. This lets them adjust the user experience accordingly. Such a data-driven approach then lets them offer relevant content, guide users toward useful features, and proactively address potential painpoints. To further enhance this process, companies could provide an AI meeting assistant to analyze team discussions about user behaviors, ensuring that they can capture insights and efficiently act upon them.
AI-powered user-interface (UI) testing can play a pivotal role by identifying usability issues early, allowing a smoother user experience and reducing churn by fixing problems before they affect the user. Plus, anticipating users’ needs through behavioral insights keeps users engaged and makes their interactions with the product feel more satisfying.
6. Continuously optimize products based on customer-success milestones,
Tracking when users achieve specific goals such as completing onboarding or reaching key usage thresholds lets you better understand what drives long-term engagement. This can help you identify your minimum viable product (MVP) and show where users might encounter challenges. Plus, looking at MVP examples can provide valuable insights into effective strategies and features that have successfully engaged users in similar contexts. For example:
If data shows that users thrive when you highlight certain integrations during onboarding, prioritize them in future updates.
If data shows that users frequently abandon the setup process, offer templates to reduce friction and increase adoption.
If you run an ecommerce store, understanding customer-success metrics for large platforms can highlight how different user groups interact with particular tools. For example, when selling products on Etsy, sellers can access their Shop Manager to get details on their sales.
Such insights can help you optimize features to align with the specific needs of each user segment and improve retention.
7. Collect and regularly act on user feedback.
Feedback lets businesses understand users’ needs, preferences, and painpoints and gain insights that can shape their product updates and support strategies. Utilizing the right tools for gaining customer insights is crucial for continuous improvement. This is not just about gathering customer feedback through surveys or in-app prompts; it’s about closing the loop by showing users that their input actually leads to tangible changes. Therefore, if users frequently request a new feature or suggest improvements to an existing feature, prioritize those updates over introducing other features. Your nimble response can significantly enhance user satisfaction and contribute to customer retention.
Regularly engaging with user feedback also builds trust and loyalty because users feel heard and valued your company. Plus, it’s a great way to ensure you adapt to changing user expectations, so your product always remains customer oriented. As shown in Figure 7, be sure to make your Feedback button visible like Google does.
Figure 7—Google’s Feedback button
While Google’s feedback form is more traditional, Netflix has designed a form that has a specific use case: requesting TV shows or movies, as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8—Netflix request form for shows or movies
8. Create seamless product navigation and design.
A well-designed user interface lets users find what they need quickly, reduces their learning curve, and makes their overall user experience smoother. Clear labels, logical menu structures, and consistent visual cues guide users effortlessly through your platform or Web site. For example, a simplified dashboard highlighting key actions or most used features can make navigation easier and help users accomplish their tasks without unnecessary clicks.
In delivering easy access, take a cue from Figma. At the top of Figure 9, you can immediately see their buttons for creating a New design file or a new jam board, followed by the user’s most recent projects. Figma also provides a navigation bar on the left side to allow users to switch between drafts and projects easily.
Figure 9—Figma
Plus, incorporating user-friendly design principles such as mobile responsiveness and accessibility allows a more consistent experience regardless of the device. This matters because, when navigation feels natural, users probably explore more features and stay engaged with your product.
9. Offer self-service tools such as knowledge bases and tutorials.
Adding informative resources can be particularly useful for users who prefer troubleshooting on their own or who need quick answers outside of support hours.
What does a well-organized knowledge base include?
articles covering common questions
step-by-step guides with screenshots
video tutorials
regularly updated FAQs and change logs
a search bar for easy navigation
A step-by-step guide to setting up an account or using an advanced feature can reduce users’ impatience and encourage exploration. Remember, the more informative tools users find at their fingertips, the smoother and more positive the experience will be.
Look at Loom in Figure 10. Once the user has logged in, Loom provides a search bar at the top of the home screen, then presents inspirational videos from the community so new users won’t fumble when using their product.
Figure 10—Loom’s home screen
10. Integrate customer-success metrics into UX design decisions.
Metrics such as user engagement, feature-adoption rates, and time-to-value can give insights into how well users can navigate a product and where they encounter challenges.
UX designers should analyze customer-success data when
simplifying a confusing feature
making high-value tools more accessible
optimizing workflows to reduce the steps necessary to complete tasks
Monitoring customer-success metrics ensures that design changes aren’t based on assumptions, but on real user behaviors and needs. Analyzing this data lets you align product improvements with users’ goals and create a more user-centric experience that supports your bottom line.
Apple provides the best example. As shown in Figure 11, with every new model or even software update, they redefine innovation that supports the customer experience. From increasing the phone screen size and battery life across devices to providing a better processor for faster performance, Apple truly creates masterpieces that wow.
Figure 11—Apple product features
It’s no wonder that, in 2024, Apple held the highest market shares for mobile phones: 27.6% worldwide and 57.39% in the US, as shown in Figure 12.
Figure 12—Mobile phone market shares
Conclusion
Creating a user-centered product won’t happen overnight. But you’ll be able to build stronger customer relationships with your users and turn them into loyal brand advocates. Your commitment to understanding customers’ needs and improving their user experience makes them feel valued, leading to greater customer satisfaction and retention. Adopt strategies that prioritize customer success and data-driven optimization to stay ahead of your competition and continuously deliver value. Gradually, you’ll strengthen your brand’s reputation and drive your company’s long-term growth and success.
As the founder of Ranking Bell, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketing and organic-growth agency, Mehdi helps SaaS businesses drive organic growth and customer acquisition through search-engine optimization (SEO) and data-driven, content-marketing strategies. Mehdi spends his spare time musing about startup growth strategies, personal productivity, and remote work. Read More
