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The advent of smartphones, smart appliances, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML)-enabled cars has caused a shift in the way customers experience services. With the role of technology in the lives of customers increasing every day, it is safe to say that streamlining business strategies to improve digital customer experience (DCX) is crucial now more than ever.
The DCX channel is a method of interaction which complements existing ones. It adds value to the current image of your products. Without a doubt, digital channels make it easier for a customer to reach any business. Focusing on improving this digital channel will not only help your customers reach you faster, but also enhance the overall customer experience.
Until the digital era, customer experience involved showing up at a company and experiencing a friendly service and closing a sale. However, owing to digital transformation, it means using a smooth running app to have digital services delivered seamlessly to customers with notifications at every stage of the order. It is not just about contacting a sales representative and experiencing friendly assistance in choosing a product – but also about opening the website or an app and seeing curated product suggestions within the first few clicks. Amazon discovered that a delay of one second for the page to load can cause a loss of $1.6 billion in sales per year.
One example where digital channels were used to enhance customer experience is when Apple introduced a new strategy where all store employees could process purchases through digital gadgets, thus avoiding waiting time at the billing registers.
In the age of digital transformation, companies like Google have reached this far because of their strategies to provide a wholesome customer experience. One of their approaches was to understand what customers would not want to see on their search pages. By eliminating these, the search results are more streamlined for the user. Similarly, every time a user closes an ad, Google asks for feedback asking if the content was irrelevant or if the user was simply not interested. These user-centric DCX strategies help the business better understand the user and further improve DCX.
While a company may choose to focus on different subsets of customer experience, when it comes to the customer they don’t always see a clear line of division between physical and digital services. Let’s say if a customer places an order over a mobile app, they expect their order to be delivered on time. In a situation like this, it’s not the customer’s concern if there was an app failure or the order didn’t get through due to any other technical issue. At the end of the day, the customer should have a good experience. It is, thus, important to have in place effective strategies to provide a seamless DCX.
Ways to improve your DCX in digital technology companies:
- Bridge digitalization and data analytics:
Digital design and data analytics sectors of a company must work together when it comes to DCX. To achieve end-to-end digitalization, a company should look into its data to understand customer trends and further enhance the digital channels. For example, investing in automation and machine learning to enhance customer interactions online, developing apt reports to trace customer needs. As the insights collected from data analytics can supplement business growth, it is crucial to use these insights to develop better digital platforms for the customers. Companies like SAP believe that DCX does not simply mean using automation and data analytics to enhance business but that true customer experience centers on both back- end and front-end applications.
- Consistency of services:
When a customer first interacts with a brand, they form an impression of the brand based on their experience. There are several individual fragments which make up this whole experience, including the physical aspects like location, convenience, quality and quantity of service, and digital experience from websites, app features, etc. Thus, it is important to maintain the initial good impression on the customers. Consistent internal IT processing is required so that over time, the app or website stay updated with the current software versions.
- Changes don’t have to be entirely digital:
As businesses look to further enhance their digital profiles to achieve digital transformation, it is essential to simultaneously make changes in the physical space too. For example, it is important that the company has a prompt IT infrastructure to support AI and deep learning factors. It is also important that the companies consider investing in a dedicated Chief Digital Officer (CDO). They play a major role in transforming the available digital technology into key business tools.
- Keep it Simple:
A few digital experiences can be unsatisfying and sometimes even obnoxious. This usually is the case when one click leads to multiple tabs opening with advertisements of completely unrelated products. Repeated follow-up emails and phone calls can also be bothersome after a point and can damage the brand image in the eyes of the customers.
The focus should be on creating an interactive experience with an open communication chain, from which feedback should be taken and improvisation must be done.
In a world that is always connected and online, it becomes indispensable for companies to embrace an advanced digital technology framework to improve their DCX strategies. Digital transformation offers businesses a whole new medium to provide a holistic experience to their customers regardless of channel or place.
