Customer experience [CX] is driving the current business world, with 77% of brands considering it a significant differentiator. Furthermore, recent market analysis reveals that the CX Management industry has surpassed USD 8.79 billion in 2021 and is projected to exhibit a compound annual growth rate of 18.1% from 2022 to 2030. It has thus become the latest marketing battleground, with 80% of organizations expecting to compete mainly based on CX.
However, there is a significant paradigm shift in customer expectations and demands in today’s digital world, with Digital Customer Experience emerging as the primary driver of the game of CX.
So, what is digital customer experience? “Digital Customer Experience” [Digital CX] refers to a customer’s online engagement with your brand. Although most of these engagements occur through your website or app, other channels such as social media, email, and live chat contribute to how customers engage with your brand online.
Here, you must remember today’s informative and digitally savvy customers are more demanding and less loyal. The recent Facebook incident and the EU’s GDPR made it apparent that customers today have contradictory expectations, such as a desire for a personalized experience without compromising their privacy.
You must know your digital touchpoints well and their influence on customer perception and brand loyalty. According to a recent study, more than 65% of customers affirmed that their experience on a website or app is an essential factor in their likelihood of recommending a brand.
Seamless Customer Experience is the key to business success
Today, in a digital world, you rely greatly on digital CX touchpoints such as chatbots and online forms to shape customer perceptions. Thus, you must create a pleasant online experience that meets the needs and expectations of your target audience.
For instance, your potential customers should be able to effortlessly navigate through your company’s website content and understand the value proposition for purchasing from your company. Similarly, returning customers should have easy access to customer support and success features integrated into the app’s user interface. Apart from reaching your customers at their preferred channels in every stage of their buyer’s journey, a seamless digital experience is crucial for customer satisfaction.
Customers who engage with you across multiple channels and get an amazing experience are precious to your business. Harvard Business Review found that omnichannel customers who spend an average of 4% more in-store and 10% more online are likelier to stick around. Moreover, studies indicate that companies with superior omnichannel customer engagement tactics can retain 89% of their customers, while those with weaker strategies only keep an average of 33% of their customer base.
Building a strong foundation with a winning Digital CX strategy
You must establish an effective digital CX strategy to develop distinctive, brand-specific experiences. It must provide the capability to quickly and affordably modify or enhance functionality to keep pace with evolving customer preferences and requirements – now and in the future.
So, what are the critical elements of a remarkable digital customer experience? It is not limited to a mobile app or customer portal but a comprehensive approach that considers swiftness, convenience, uniformity, and ease of accessibility to your products and services throughout an entire digital journey.
Here are some of the key factors to enhance your digital customer experience strategy:
Responsiveness to customer feedback – A successful digital CX execution entails responding quickly to customer demands. Your digital customer experience strategy should enable you to engage with customers innovatively and respond to their changing requirements with agility and speed.
Create high-quality experiences for all touchpoints – You must provide customers with a seamless, connected journey across channels. Thus, building high-quality experiences for all touchpoints, regardless of the interaction type, such as mobile, web, chat, voice, or AR/VR, is crucial.
Streamline customer service processes – Customers expect fast, easy, and convenient onboarding and self-service tools. To reduce manual and repetitive work and improve the quality of customer services, automate customer service processes, and integrate front and back-end systems.
Develop scalable, future-proof apps – Digital CX leaders must be capable of scaling their operations confidently and reducing their dependence on highly skilled developers, outsourced services, or commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions with limited functionality and scalability.
To Summarize
Adopt a customer-centric approach to enhance your customer experience strategy. Today, the “need of the hour” for you or any successful business is a solid customer experience strategy at its core.
Customer expectations and preferences have evolved in recent years, driving companies to prioritize customer-centricity. This shift has also led Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) to take control of CX and expand their role as the “Chief Customer Officer.”
Your organization has unique requirements and business objectives, and the experience you deliver to your customers should represent your unique brand identity. Learn how Conneqt Business Solutions with our CX Center of Excellence help you provide exceptional digital customer experience.