A new UBC website: five lessons in creating a better customer experience

Our new website is live, designed to make it easier for customers to explore UBC, find what they need and take the next step.

But the process also made us stop and think about something bigger: what makes a genuinely good digital customer experience?

A new website shouldn’t just look better. It should work better.

Here are five things it reinforced for us.

1. Start with the customer

It’s easy to build a website around how your business is structured. But customers don’t think in departments, services or internal terminology. They arrive with a need, a question or a problem to solve.

So we began with one simple question: what does our customer need to do here? That shaped the journeys through the new site, making it easier to explore our workspaces, locations and services.

2. Keep it simple

Expertise doesn’t have to sound complicated. Whether someone is looking at serviced offices, coworking, meeting rooms or virtual offices, our job is to make their options easy to understand.

Clear language. Useful information. Straightforward choices. Sometimes the simplest experience is the best one.

3. Make the next step obvious

Finding information is only part of the journey. Whether someone wants to make an enquiry, book a meeting room or arrange a tour, the next step should never be hard to find.

Customer experience doesn’t start when someone walks through our doors. It starts with their first interaction with UBC, and increasingly, that interaction is digital.

4. Choose a partner, not just a developer

The right technology matters, but so does the team behind it. We worked with Appcentric, using its Ignite platform, to bring the new site to life.

A good development relationship isn’t just about delivering the brief. It’s about understanding the business, challenging ideas when needed and keeping the end user in focus.

The best question isn’t always “Can we build this?” Sometimes it’s “Is this the best way to do it for the customer?” Appcentric asked us that, and the site is better for it.

5. Launch is just the beginning

A website isn’t finished when it goes live. Now the real learning starts. We’ll keep looking at how customers use the site, what they’re searching for and where we can make their journey easier.

Customer expectations change and our business continues to evolve. Our website needs to evolve with them.

Take a look around

We’re proud of the new site. More importantly, we hope it gives customers a simpler, clearer and more useful experience.

Explore the new UBC website and let us know what you think.