Digital Customer Experience

What is digital customer experience?

The digital customer experience is any interaction that takes place between a brand and its prospect or customer via a digital channel such as email, chat, messaging, and social media. Digital customer experience shouldn’t be mistaken for customer experience, however, as the latter refers to all interactions that the customer has with a brand, digital or otherwise. In contrast, digital customer experience refers to only those interactions that take place on digital touchpoints, such as a prospect reading a product review on an online review site or social media, as opposed to a trade (print) magazine.

Why is a digital customer experience important?

The world has become increasingly digital, especially over the last few years. It has shaped consumers’ preferences and demands. In fact, only 24.8% of consumers plan to shop in physical stores more frequently than they did in 2020. Consumers are forgoing the usual visit to a retail outlet, browsing the aisles, and then queuing up at the cashier in favor of shopping in the comfort of their homes thanks to the evolution of e-commerce.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, consumers spent approximately $800 billion on online shopping in 2020, a 32.4% increase from the previous year. With the vast majority of brand interactions occurring online, it has become imperative that brands offer tailor-made experiences on digital channels to ensure customers’ happiness and to keep them returning for more. And devising and implementing a well-thought-out digital customer experience (digital CX) program are the first steps brands need to take to build customer loyalty and increase brand affinity.

What are the key elements of a digital CX program?

The key elements of a digital CX program are as follows:

Customer engagement

Consumers have a lot of choices. To stay competitive, your brand needs to engage digital-first customers where they are: from social media to chat apps to review sites. In addition, you must also ensure that your teams provide a consistent, unified experience across all of the channels your customers use, no matter when and where they engage. Digital-first customers expect consistent service across channels, so ensuring all communication channels are interconnected (i.e., omnichannel) is key.

Data and insights

Customer data is critical for every business to better understand the expectations and needs of their audience. When coupled with artificial intelligence (AI), customer data can help tailor customer journeys to relevant buyer personas. This AI-enriched data can yield actionable insights that let brands know if efforts are resonating with customers, or if messaging has failed to resonate with and influence the target audience.  

Social media

64% of name brands such as Nike and Audi are on Snapchat – companies have been leveraging social media to grow their business for a while now. Brands should have a strong social media presence and strategy to ensure that they are listening and responding to prospects and existing customers, in addition to securing visibility of the competition. Maximizing a robust social media strategy will enrich a digital CX program and help win repeat business. 

Digital customer experience best practices

To offer superior digital experiences to customers, brands must engage quickly, authentically, and personally, at scale, with their customers. Implementing a customer feedback program is an important step in fixing areas that need immediate attention. Intuitive self-service channels like online forums can be a popular way for customers to resolve their queries and provide feedback. Ensure all your digital channels are easy to use and offer a seamless experience no matter what channel the customer is on or what device they are using. 

Today’s customers have little patience, and even a single bad experience can turn them away from your business. The better the quality of customer engagement, the better your chances of retaining your customers for life.

Improve your digital CX with a unified approach to the digital experience

Customers expect to get one universal experience with a brand, online and offline, anywhere in the world, across any of the company’s product lines and touchpoints. But most businesses can’t meet customer expectations because every team has its own point solution, creating and reinforcing silos within the organization. A patchwork of siloed point solutions can’t maintain continuity when a customer shifts from one channel to another. 

But a unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform instantly adapts to whatever channels they use so that you’re always engaged — and better prepared to make your customers happier.

With Sprinklr, the only Unified-CXM platform, you can:

• Orchestrate a smooth, personalized experience for prospects and existing customers across their entire online journey

• Reduce customer churn and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty as a result of a seamless experience when switching between channels and devices

• Increase employee productivity by facilitating cross-team collaboration which ultimately affects customer experience positively