Digital customer experience

What does digital customer experience encompass — and how do the web, app, messaging, email, and social touchpoints through which customers interact with an organization combine into a total digital experience that either builds or erodes the loyalty that determines long-term business outcomes?

Don't lose focus of your digital customer experience

Companies that do digital well often owe their success to a relentless focus on what the customer needs their app or website to do for them. A well-designed digital customer experience is centered on consumer goals - whether they include shopping, information gathering, or resolving issues - and seeks to maximize quality and usefulness as well as provide a consistent experience across touchpoints. No matter where their digital journey takes them, customers should be greeted with a digital customer experience that is well designed, reliable, and seamlessly meets their needs.

Successful digital organizations constantly measure the digital customer experience and are always working on the next iteration of their app or website. Large corporations have teams of people whose sole responsibility is to focus on digital design and usability. This can be harder for companies that don't have such deep pockets, but maintaining focus on the digital customer experience still needs to be a high priority.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. Your digital customer experience might not be as good as you think it is

Does your organization have its finger firmly on the pulse of what customers think of your digital presence? Our research shows some disconnects. For example, businesses overrated consumer satisfaction with chatbots by a significant 9 points. Being diligent about customer digital preferences will help narrow these perception gaps so organizations can deliver what consumers really want.

2. If you don't satisfy your customers, someone else will

A website or mobile app that doesn't work can lead to a painful hit to the bottom line. According to an article published by consulting firm McKinsey, 61% of consumers who have trouble accessing a mobile site will never come back. Even worse, 40% will go to a competitor's site. Focusing on the digital customer experience includes thoroughly testing digital products in order to minimize outages and clunky usability.

3. Delivering superior customer experience can lead to revenue growth

And it can be quite substantial. Research by Salesforce shows that 66% of consumers are willing to pay more for an exceptional experience. It only makes sense to capitalize on this by repetitively fine tuning your digital services so that your customers have a reason to give you more business.