Customer expectations are evolving and businesses are starting to place more emphasis on providing a positive customer experience (CX). In fact, one third of consumers will walk away from a brand they were once loyal to after a single negative experience, and 92% would walk away after two or three negative reactions, according to PWC. Taking this into consideration, 81% companies today cite their CX as a competitive differentiator.
The writing is on the wall. Brands that invest in their customers see increased loyalty, lower acquisition costs, and healthier revenue growth. If you’re on board with us and ready to improve your CX, you’re in the right place! This blog post will discuss the emerging trend of digitizing the customer experience and how your brand can capitalize on it.
What does “digitizing the customer experience” mean?
The term “customer experience” refers to all the interactions a customer has with your brand. When we talk about the “digital customer experience,” we are referring strictly to the interactions that take place through technology. This includes:
- Your website
- Your mobile apps
- Your social media channels
- Your customer service portal
- And other digital channels
Basically, digitizing the customer experience means to provide a positive experience through online channels.
Best Practices for Digitizing The Customer Experience
Statistics show that a brand’s CX is becoming a more important differentiator than product and pricing. By investing in the digital CX, brands can see several benefits such as:
- Increased customer satisfaction
- Increased customer loyalty
- Faster growth through customer evangelism
Here are 4 steps you can take to improve your digital experience today:
1. Invest in Technology
You can’t digitize the customer experience without investing in technology, first. There are alot of customer experience softwares available to help businesses respond to requests, capture feedback, create internal tasks, and more. At Aktie Now, we are big on Zendesk as a customer support tool, but there are other technologies that can help, too. These include:
- Zoho
- Birdeye
- Intercom
- Freshdesk
- HubSpot Service Hub
Different softwares have different features and best use cases, so you will have to do some research to build a tech stack that works for you. Many of these softwares can also integrate with Zendesk. So if you need additional tools or features that Zendesk doesn’t offer, you may be able to enhance your customer portal with the right software integrations.
2. Create An Omnichannel Customer Experience
We aren’t in the 1990’s anymore! Haven’t been for a long time…
The internet has created a lot more communication channels that we have had in the past. This means your customers have several options to choose from and likely have their own personal preferences. Businesses need to expand their customer support channels to include more than telephone and email. Popular channels may include:
- Live chat
- Social media
- SMS messaging
- Website FAQs
- Mobile apps
The omnichannel experience removes friction by allowing customers to communicate with your team in whatever manner is most convenient to them – and the results speak for themselves. According to Adobe, brands that invest in the omnichannel experience will enjoy a healthy 10% year over year growth
3. Enhance Self-Service Options
In the digital age, customers don’t always want to talk with a service representative. Instead, some will prefer to search for their own answers.
Providing self-service options is a must for businesses that truly want to digitize their customer experience. But what exactly do we mean by self service? It means providing your customers with the resources they need to solve their own problems without interacting with a representative from their company.
Some of the main ways to provide self service options include:
- Online FAQs
- Knowledge base
- Online discussion forums
By building out these channels for your customers, not only are you increasing satisfaction rates, you are also putting less stress on your customer support team and enabling your business to do more with a smaller staff.
4. Be Mobile-Friendly
We’ve mentioned the omnichannel experience already, but it’s important to emphasize the importance of mobile friendliness. And this means more than optimizing your website and emails for mobile display. It means creating an entirely unique and engaging experience through mobile devices.
Brands need to do more than simply create a mobile app for their customers. They need to make their apps engaging, user-friendly, and full of features that actually help your customers. They also need to consider the messaging aspect and how mobile users prefer to receive notifications from your support team. SMS, push notifications, and in-app messaging are great ways to offer seamless, frictionless communications between your team and your customers.
Get the Tools You Need to Digitize the Customer Experience
At Aktie Now, we believe that customer experience should be at the forefront of any business’s success. If you’re looking for a way to improve customer experience, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. With our Zendesk and other customer experience solutions, you can provide better customer service, gain valuable insights, and build stronger relationships with your customers.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business succeed.
