5 customer stories that blew our minds in 2023

In an era of uncertainties, today's most successful brands center on customer truth. They place genuine user needs at the heart of their innovation investments through continuous testing. This obsession with human insight accelerates revenue growth and aligns organizations around what matters most.

We've seen stunning outcomes in 2023 from those leveraging UserTesting to understand their users. For instance, one organization saw a 237% increase in app downloads after perfecting the look and feel of their digital experience.

How did they achieve these results? By fixating less on output and more on the outcome. These brands invested in understanding user needs before executing solutions. They curated customer feedback loops that fueled refinement and leadership conviction.

The proof points shared here are just a glimpse. Read on for our roundup of some of last year's most impressive UserTesting success stories,then imagine what customer clarity could do for your organization in 2024.

1-800-PACK-RAT

UserTesting collaboration helped 1-800-PACK-RAT, a leading moving and storage company, prevent a major setback during the upgrade of their e-commerce website. 1-800-PACK-RAT wanted to increase their online conversion rates by refreshing their brand and updating their quote module, which generates over 85% of leads. However, changing this critical functionality posed risks, so they needed to know how potential customers would respond.

Initially, one of the organization’s agency partners proposed a multi-page form design that would guide users through each step of the journey. However, this redesigned quote model failed to impress test participants on the UserTesting platform. Instead, test findings indicated that users preferred a no-nonsense, single-page form. Further testing against competitors confirmed these findings. So 1-800-PACK-RAT abandoned the multi-stage quote model and developed a new one based directly on insights from UserTesting contributors. This ended up being a huge bullet dodged.

In just one week after launching the simplified, single-page quote form, 1-800-PACK-RAT's conversion rates jumped 10%. UserTesting saved 1-800-PACK-RAT from a costly mistake and provided an integral feedback channel to understand customer needs, cementing ongoing use in their e-commerce processes. The quick lift in revenue immediately validated their UserTesting investment.

PSA & Collectors

PSA & Collectors is the leading authenticator and grader of collectible items like sports cards. They receive roughly 50,000 requests each day to authenticate and assign numeric grades to collectibles.

PSA's operational expertise is unequaled in their industry, but they lacked the digital experiences to match. Before turning to UserTesting, they designed their digital experiences in-house and fixed issues based on negative feedback, an approach that wasn’t helping their brand reputation. This changed when they brought on a UX researcher experienced with UserTesting. Now, PSA uses proactive and continuous customer insights across initiatives to drive impressive results.

UserTesting's human insight approach led to a 23% increase in customer satisfaction scores after optimizing their auction website. Feedback also helped boost user task success rates from 85% to 100% for their online submission center, where members prepare items to be graded. This prevented 15% in lost revenue. Most impressively, after the UserTesting iteration, PSA app downloads jumped 237% in a single day.

UserTesting became PSA's bridge to collectors, accelerating iterations, preventing mistakes, and centering decisions around user needs first. As per PSA's CTO, "Without this level of transparency, we wouldn't get the input that we need in order to grow." 

NRG Energy

NRG Energy leveraged UserTesting to refine marketing campaigns and brand assets for Reliant, a subsidiary serving over 1.5 million Texans. The continuous customer feedback fueled data-driven decisions that strengthened ad performance.

For example, early designs came across as too lifelike when developing their mascot, Hugo the Armadillo. UserTesting showed participants wanted a more cartoonish, approachable character. Reliant's creative team adjusted accordingly.

An initial "Agent Hugo" ad also failed to resonate in testing. Participants didn't follow the storyline or grasp the offers. With these insights, NRG edited the ad and saw a 19% lift versus a key competitor's spot post-launch.

Across initiatives, UserTesting has illuminated what matters to customers, revealed perceptions, and highlighted potential pitfalls. Reflecting on a UserTesting experience, NRG's president said, "I'll actually never forget the first time I was able to participate in a customer interview with UserTesting. It really illuminated what customers feel, what their needs are, and what their pain points are."

Banco Sabadell

As Spain's fourth-largest bank, Banco Sabadell relies on UserTesting to set digital experience quality standards and speed innovation. Over 500 tests in the past year have covered every product and service experience, from online account openings to loans and insurance.

The bank now requires a minimum QXscore of 85 before any digital experience goes live, leveraging UserTesting's proprietary metric quantifying usability and enjoyment. Scores register in project management systems, giving the green light to engineers. In the words of their Design Director, "UserTesting is part of almost every phase of the design process."

This rigorous approach proved extremely effective for Banco Sabadell's new online account signup initiative. They went from having no online signup process a year earlier, where customers had to open accounts in physical branches, to now over 50% of new customers opening new accounts online. Also, setting up standardized processes helped accelerate the launch of new projects to market by 50%.

Banco Sabadell not only achieved better experiences and faster delivery but also set an ambitious standard for the industry. And, with UserTesting benchmarking, they can quantify competitors' digital prowess to focus innovation investments on the biggest opportunities.

TULA Skincare

TULA Skincare tapped UserTesting to develop an optimal "shade finder" for the launch of their new Radiant Skin Tint across diverse shades. Iterating on Figma prototypes with customer feedback led to a streamlined, confidence-building experience.

TULA's director of ecommerce explained, "We needed to help users quickly and easily identify their recommended shade. If we did this right, it would boost purchase confidence, provide a seamless and inclusive experience for all users, and support TULA's business objectives as we entered a new product category. That's where UserTesting and the power of human insight came into play."

After cutting skin quiz steps in half based on testing insights, the redesigned finder boosted conversion by 300% versus site visitors who skipped it. Only 1.4% of buyers returned their shades. And 69% of quiz takers added products to their online carts.

The launch outperformed all other new TULA products, with Radiant Skin Tint responsible for 42% of new customer acquisitions in the first month. It ranked in the top 10 for both new and repeat purchases. Human insight throughout the design process increased user and business success.

Create your success story with UserTesting

Across industries, these impressive brands show the business-accelerating power of placing customer truth at the center of decisions with UserTesting. Key metrics soared—conversions, sales, downloads, satisfaction, retention.

But testing isn't just for optimization. It also prevents big mistakes, reveals strategic gaps and savings, and grounds collaboration in shared priorities. 

The time for guesswork and debate is over. Join leading organizations and unleash the insights within your customers today. Book a consultation to experience UserTesting's customer-centric approach yourself. With the right questions and eager participants, you're just weeks away from customer clarity that drives results.