September 25, 2018 by Siobhan Climer
When you develop a digital customer experience (CX) strategy, your focus cannot waiver from the customer. That can be surprisingly difficult for businesses that see omnichannel, justifiably, as the future of the contact center.
With so many channels to build a digital customer experience, business leaders can get lost in the addition of twitter feeds and chatbots, forgetting to realign the strategy to customer personas.
Today, we’ll give a quick overview of the best practices in developing a digital customer experience.
Innovators And Laggards In Developing A Digital Customer Experience
Let’s start by taking a closer look at some examples of digital customer experience strategies.
Domino’s
Whatever you think of their pizza, Domino’s leads the charge in developing a digital customer experience. Order online or through the app. Create a ‘Pizza Profile’. Track your order. Use GPS to “see” the car carrying your order to your front door.
Talk about personalization! Domino’s has integrated the channels seamlessly, and consumers can choose how to interact with the company. That leads to higher profits, reputation, and business longevity.
Airline No-No
On the other hand, an international airline shows how one failure can be compounded by another. Here, a CSR refused to share her name with a ticketed passenger she’d informed had “missed” the boarding window. After some prodding, the ticket agent gave the customer a 1-800 number. The call center that picked up listened to the complaint, and then responded: “Sir, I’m at a call center in [another city]. What do you expect me to do?”
Customer Service “fails” like this bring infamy to the brands they depict. Even if the customer service team is not directly responsible for whatever happened, the entire company team is responsible for supporting customers at every point of their journey. That means that even if something isn’t directly “your fault”, you still need to make it right.
What Is Digital CX And Does It Matter?
What is customer experience (CX)? Simply, the quality of all interactions with a company’s brand, services, staff, and products.
A digital customer experience is just the next logical step. More and more, companies are building omnichannel approaches to CX, and those approaches offer new ways to interact with a business. That’s a good thing; more opportunities to sell products, support customers in their journey, and innovate.
With these new opportunities, though, arises an increased risk of failing to meet expectations. What’s more, companies are no longer directly compared to their immediate competitors. Instead, your customer experience is compared to EVERY OTHER customer experience your clients have.
Coffee shop offers an eWallet option? Why doesn’t the clothing outlet at the local mall? Amazon delivers a 1,000-lb pallet in one day? Why is it taking your landscaper three days to drop off 35 bricks? Credit union offers mobile pay and easy online transfers? Why doesn’t the electric company?
It doesn’t matter that these businesses traverse industries. What matters is that the digital customer experience expectations have been set by innovators, and now everyone must keep up. Otherwise, they risk going the way of Blockbuster.
How To Develop A Digital Customer Experience Strategy?
So how do you do it? Add every channel imaginable and hope for the best? Hire 400 agents to answer phones as quickly as possible? Grow? Downsize? Give up?
Let’s focus on the word strategy. Developing your digital CX strategy means taking the time to examine and plan for your unique business needs. Many businesses find success by performing a customer journey mapping exercise. In it, the company identifies the touch points and pain points for their customers, finding those moments of truth and friction. You might also consider creating a Contact Center Roadmap to look at where you are, where you want to go, and, with the help of our expert team, deciding how to get there. Find out more about our roadmap below:
Another key? Don’t add every channel, at least not at first. Start small and focus on doing one channel right. Once you have success with the first channel, prioritize adding more channels as resources become available. Offering social media, live chat, phones, and email only works if you truly master using those channels. You won’t be doing yourself any favors adding a live chat only to take a week to respond.
Omnichannel – And Beyond – Is Possible
Just because you’re not there yet doesn’t mean you can’t get there. If you focus on what you do best, your customer’s needs, and one channel at a time, you can become a leader in CX strategy. The digital customer experience is the heart of business today, whether you’re B2C or B2B.
And, just like the heart in the human body, exercise, check-ups, and a care plan are all essential to keeping your digital customer experience pumping strong for a long, healthy life.
Ready to learn more? Read our latest eBook on the contact center and customer experience, Customers Drive, You Navigate: Your Contact Center Roadmap to Customer Care Success.
Like what you read?
Contact us today to discuss your digital customer experience strategy.
About Mindsight
Mindsight, a Chicago IT consultancy and services provider, offers thoughtfully-crafted and thoroughly-vetted perspectives to our clients’ toughest technology challenges. Our recommendations come from our experienced and talented team of highly certified engineers and are based on a solid understanding of our clients’ unique business and technology challenges.
About The Author
Siobhan Climer, Science and Technology Writer for Mindsight, writes about technology trends in education, healthcare, and business. She previously taught STEM programs in elementary classrooms and museums, and writes extensively about cybersecurity, disaster recovery, cloud services, backups, data storage, network infrastructure, and the contact center. When she’s not writing tech, she’s writing fantasy, gardening, and exploring the world with her twin two-year old daughters. Find her on twitter @techtalksio.
