What customers see versus what the business has to manage

A good digital experience has two sides.

There’s the bit the customer sees, and then there’s everything happening behind it.

The customer might see a simple button that says “Book a trial.”

Behind that button there could be a timetable, class capacity, age restrictions, customer details, confirmation emails, reminders, waiting lists and an admin team that needs to know what has just happened.

The customer shouldn’t have to care about any of that.

That’s the point.

The front end should feel simple because the complexity has been thought through properly behind the scenes.

This is something I’ve become much more interested in through working with businesses like dance schools and studios. A website can look great and still create loads of work for the people running the business.

If every enquiry has to be copied into a spreadsheet, every booking needs a manual reply and every timetable change means updating three different places, the digital experience isn’t really finished.

So when I’m looking at a website now, I’m thinking about both sides.

What does the customer need?

And what happens to the business when they click?

The best systems make both of those things easier at the same time.