For today鈥檚 omnichannel, digital-first consumers, apps and websites are the primary 鈥� and preferred 鈥斕齝hannels that customers use to interact with businesses. Because of this, they鈥檙e hugely influential in shaping the user journey, with digital touchpoints having the power to make or break customer loyalty.听

That鈥檚 why, more than ever, companies need to understand the app and website user experience and how the digital landscape is evolving.听

For real-world insights, 糖心原创 Market Research conducted a survey of 2,002 U.S. consumers to learn more about their digital experiences and how they impact the overall cross-channel customer experience. Our report, Latest Findings on the Digital Customer Experience, offers a comprehensive overview and analysis of our study鈥檚 results. Here are the highlights.

Top 10 Consumer Digital Trends in 2025

1. High-quality app and website user experiences can attract customers, while bad ones often drive them away.听

In fact, the majority of consumers (58%) say that at least once, they have chosen a competitor due to the lack of quality of a brand website or mobile app, while a similar share (51%) say that in the past, they have stopped being a customer of a company because they encountered too many difficulties using their website or mobile app.

Among the digital trends we鈥檙e seeing in 2025 is that consumers are most likely to abandon a brand鈥檚 website or app due to data security or privacy issues, the website or app malfunctioning, and not being able to find what they鈥檙e looking for when searching or browsing.

2. There鈥檚 a lot of room for companies to improve the digital experience.听

About 1 in 5 consumers tell us they felt confused at least once during their most recent website or app user experience, and 15% say they encountered one or more issues while on that website or app visit. For those that encountered issues, more than 1 in 4 (28%) report being unable to complete their customer journeys.听

This is one of the digital trends that brands can鈥檛 afford to ignore in 2025 because, according to our findings, when customers have an issue, they鈥檙e more than two times as likely to be unsatisfied with their visit.听

Areas of the digital customer experience that have the greatest room for improvement include downloading documents, content, or applications; filling out a form or typing in information; and using a search bar or filters.

3. When customers encounter broken app or website user experiences, that puts pressure on other channels.

About 1 in 4 consumers report that when they had an issue with a brand during their last interaction, they ended up contacting customer service (27%), visiting again on a non-digital channel (e.g. in-person, calling on phone) (25%), and visiting again on a different digital channel (e.g. web, app, social) (21%).听

4. Apps are becoming the preferred digital channel.

Another key 2025 digital trend brands need to keep on their radar is the dominance of apps as the preferred digital touchpoint. Consumers are more likely to report using a brand鈥檚 app versus their website (57% to 44%) 鈥� and they are even more likely to say that the app experience is their preferred digital channel versus the website experience (70% vs. 42%).听

5. Frequent customers in industries like financial services and restaurants are likelier to prefer apps over websites.听

App visits are usually driven more by the user than external prompts, meaning brands must make app features compelling to spark the choice. Fortunately for app evangelists, consumers recognize that the app experience is better than a website in virtually every attribute.

6. Seventy percent of consumers report that they don鈥檛 leave any feedback about their digital experiences.

Not only that, consumers tell us that they鈥檙e 22% less likely to leave feedback about their experience if they have an issue that鈥檚 unresolved versus when they have an issue that eventually gets resolved, meaning the voices of customers potentially encountering the biggest challenges aren鈥檛 as likely to be heard. Fifty-two percent wonder if it鈥檚 worth letting the company know about the issue.

It鈥檚 time for brands that are relying on customer surveys as one of their main ways of gathering insights about their app and website user experience to rethink that strategy.听

7. In 2025, a key imperative for brands will be adopting other digital customer experience monitoring strategies and solutions.听

Tools like digital experience analytics can help teams understand what鈥檚 happening for 100% of website and app users across their journeys rather than just the percentage of users who leave feedback. These digital behavioral intelligence capabilities track when customers are encountering issues across websites and apps and can help pinpoint where users are dropping off in the conversion funnel. These real-time insights can enable companies to intervene quickly with the appropriate next-best action, whether that鈥檚 by offering live chat support or triggering a discount or promotion to be displayed.听

This is in line with what customers want brands to do. Most consumers (56%) say they want companies to know they鈥檙e having a problem using their website or app without having to tell the business about the issue. And a similar share (50%) say they鈥檙e comfortable with customer service teams having access to data about how they clicked or navigated through a website or app so they can help customers with any issues they encounter.听

8. Shopper customer journeys are evolving thanks to social media and app in-store modes.

More than half of consumers (59%) say they鈥檝e purchased a product through a social media platform and a similar portion (55%) say they have used the 鈥渋n-store mode鈥� on a company鈥檚 mobile app while at a company鈥檚 physical location.听

9. A sizable percentage of consumers say AI is influencing their website user journeys.

More than half of consumers say they鈥檝e used a conversational artificial intelligence tool (like ChatGPT or Gemini) before and nearly 4 in 10 say they鈥檝e ended up on a website because of information provided by AI tools (like ChatGPT or Gemini).

10. But consumers say app in-store mode is the digital innovation that鈥檚 most likely to significantly enhance their user experience.听

Ahead of other digital features like artificial intelligence agents (ranked #4), social commerce (ranked #3), and generative search (ranked #2), consumers are most likely to say having an in-store mode available in brands鈥� mobile apps would enhance their future experiences significantly.听

Embracing Better App and Web User Experiences for Consumers

Success today requires delivering an exceptional digital experience, particularly on mobile, where consumers are more likely to interact (and prefer to interact) with brands.听

Businesses that excel have the chance to strengthen customer loyalty and gain market share, while those that fail to meet consumer expectations could lose customers to the competition.听

The reality is that most brands likely have room to improve their digital channels. About 15 to 20% of consumers report experiencing confusion or issues during their last website or app experience, challenges that ultimately prevented some journeys from being completed. These kinds of problems have a ripple effect across the overall customer experience, impacting the contact center, social media, and in-person touchpoints.听

Because the vast majority of consumers aren鈥檛 providing feedback about their digital experiences, brands need to invest in new, advanced methods of tracking what鈥檚 happening on their apps and websites in real time.听

Over the next year, social media, AI, and app innovations will reshape how consumers discover and transact with businesses. Now is the time to get ahead of adopting strategies for managing and enhancing these new and evolving experiences.听

Check out our report, Latest Findings on the Digital Customer Experience, for the latest consumer insights into digital experiences.

Common thinking around online customer behavior is that website and app users often follow familiar, defined paths. However, when you look at the journeys visitors actually take, the reality is those journeys are complicated and often different. To truly understand unpredictable online customer journeys and behaviors, journey visualization tools have become essential in today鈥檚 digital-first world.

While similar at the surface, journey visualization tools differ from popular tools like funnels, which are commonly included in web or app analytics. Funnels track key metrics, like engagement and traffic, at specific stages in a predefined journey. Whereas journey visualizations track every online customer journey taking place on a website or app.听

What Is Customer Experience Journey Mapping?

Customer experience journey听mapping is a visual representation of the customer鈥檚 interactions with, emotions felt, and behaviors observed across all touchpoints on websites and apps. This mapping provides insights into how customers engage with digital channels, helping companies understand where customers are facing challenges or improvements that need to be made to create a seamless听digital experience. Journey visualization tools make this process easier by providing visual representations of individual customer journeys, allowing businesses to easily identify pain points and make data-driven decisions to improve the overall customer experience.

The Importance of Customer Personas in Journey Mapping

Customer personas play a significant role in customer experience journey mapping. These personas are fictional representations of your ideal or target customer, developed based on听market research听and data you鈥檝e gathered about your existing clients. Personas create a face and a voice for your customer data, helping teams understand and empathize with the real individuals behind each interaction with a company鈥檚 website or app. When combined with journey visualization tools, customer personas can further enhance the journey mapping process.

Evaluating the Digital Customer Experience

By monitoring the following digital customer experience KPIs, businesses can gain a better understanding of their customers鈥� overall experience, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to enhance the customer journey.听

Top & Digital Experience KPIs

• Time on Page:听How long visitors spend on each page before moving onto the next.
• Conversion Rates:听The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action on your website or app.
• Repeat Visits:听The number of times individual customers return to your website or app, indicating their level of satisfaction with your brand, products, or services.
• Customer Retention:听The ability of a business to retain existing customers by providing a positive customer experience.
• Customer Lifetime Value:听How much revenue a customer generates for a business over their lifetime.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS庐):听A measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Customer Effort Score (CES):听The level of effort required to complete a desired action.

What Are Customer Experience Journey Mapping Tools?

Journey visualization tools provide a comprehensive way to track the routes users take on a website or an app, from start to finish. They automatically map every webpage or app screen that constitutes a customer鈥檚 online journey. Typically, they are included within a broader听digital experience analytics solution. These tools offer a high-level overview by identifying and visualizing the precise paths users navigate.

Sunburst visualizations, a key feature of these tools, present an array of journey segments in a circular graph, representing every unique pathway followed by users. This simplifies large complex data sets into an easily digestible format, enabling teams to quickly identify bottlenecks as well as the quickest paths to conversion.

In addition to sunburst visualizations, More advanced journey visualization tools often offer standard conversion funnels, as discussed above, as well as other measures of digital experience and engagement, such as behavior detection that highlights engagement,听frustration, and confusion at听critical听points in each journey.听These insights are often supplemented听by:

• 础听digital experience score听to quantify the experiences for each journey segment
• Session replays:听Video recordings that visualize the specific actions customers take as they browse your website or app, including their clicks and page scrolling behavior
• Heatmaps听of aggregate on-page or in-app user behavior that can be used to investigate specific journey issues on certain pages

Why Use Customer Experience Journey Mapping Visualization Tools?

In an era in which听websites and apps听play such an integral听role in customer experience, mapping听out听补苍诲听enhancing听online customer journeys have become critical activities. In fact, taking a journey-based approach to optimizing the customer experience is a high priority for organizations.听Journey visualizations, in this context,听make adopting a journey-based approach both practical and effective.

Without a journey visualization tool, online customer journey mapping requires tedious, time-consuming efforts tracking metrics across pages to determine areas in journeys worth improving. However, journey visualization tools can take care of that for you by automatically tracking and mapping out those digital customer journeys,听minimizing both resources used and inaccuracies associated with manual mapping.听

Not only do these tools increase efficiency, they also help pinpoint the quality of digital experiences across each unique journey. For instance, 糖心原创鈥檚 journey visualization tool, part of our听behavior intelligence听补苍诲听digital experience solutions, provides a digital experience score that rates the quality of a customer鈥檚 web or app journey, thereby distinguishing high-performing journeys from low-performing ones. Paired with behavior detection, it鈥檚 easier to spot underperforming journeys that trigger instances of frustration and confusion.

On top of that,听a听customer experience journey mapping听allows you to assess how different factors affect visitor navigation. For instance, you can compare the user journeys of specific personas or segments鈥�, choose whether to view sessions by URL or page groups, or view journeys across any given time period. All of these options make finding and fixing even the most subtle source of friction in the customer journey more manageable.

Optimizing Use of Customer Experience Journey Mapping Tools

To make the most of this digital experience analytics tools,听be sure to leverage journey visualization tools when you see your company鈥檚 digital experience metrics, such as abandonment, conversions, or digital experience scores, are getting worse across your website or app. As you do, follow this simple seven-step process to maximize your journey visualization insights and optimize your overall digital experience:听

1. Monitor Analytics Metrics

Monitor web and app analytics metrics to discover when friction arises in your customers鈥� online journeys.

2. Score Digital Experience Journeys

Identify good and bad journeys using a metric like 糖心原创鈥檚听digital experience score to rate each path.

3. Identify Pain Points

Pinpoint specific paths and pages that are generating frustration and confusion as indicated using behavior detection that can automatically single out acts of user desperation, such as听bird鈥檚 nest behavior, and evaluate digital听frustration scores.

4. Use Segmentation Filters

Use segmentation filters to narrow insights around specific journey criteria and experiences.

5. Analyze Funnels in Conversion Paths

Check funnels to uncover dropoff in paths leading to conversion pages.

6. Review Sunburst Visualizations

Review sunburst visualizations to determine journeys worth investigating and optimizing.

7. Investigate High-Friction Journeys

Further examine high-friction journeys using tools like heatmaps and session replay.

6 Features to Consider in a Journey听Mapping Tool

Improving online customer journeys across websites and apps has become foundational to building an听omnichannel customer experience strategy. As a result, journey mapping and journey visualization tools have become a high priority.听But what capabilities actually matter?听Here are the six features you should seek in the solutions you consider:听

1. Sunburst visualizations听to automatically show user paths for easy journey mapping on websites and apps.
2. Funnels听to track dropoff and engagement at various stages of conversion journeys.
3. Digital experience scoring听to instantly determine the experience quality of every journey.
4. Behavior detection听to pinpoint journeys and pages causing experience issues in the moment.
5. Segmentation听to customize path analysis and focus on specific journeys of interest.
6. Forensic tools听like session replay and heatmaps for granular experience investigations.

Elevate Your Customer Experience Journey Mapping with 糖心原创

Connect with one of our 糖心原创 experts听to learn how our advanced journey visualization tools can empower your team to make data-driven decisions and enhance your brand鈥檚听omnichannel customer journey.听

To bring us up to speed on what鈥檚 unfolding right now and offer predictions for what鈥檚 to come throughout the year ahead, 糖心原创鈥檚 , the Head of Market Research Insights and Adobe鈥檚 , Industry Strategy and Marketing Lead, Retail & Consumer Goods, teamed up to present their findings on this topic in a joint webinar: Digital Customer Experience Trends to Watch in 2024. 

A recording of this engaging conversation is now available to watch on demand, and ahead we鈥檒l share the top takeaways and latest research from their presentation, including the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics in shaping digital customer experiences, how consumers navigate digital channels and physical experiences across their journeys, key differences across age groups, and how the economy is impacting the overall customer experience (CX). 

The Top 15 Digital Customer Experience Trends & Insights in 2024

1. The current macroeconomic environment is shaping the omnichannel customer journey and purchase decision-making

Custage explains that consumers are doing more research now to make 鈥渢he best decision of what to buy and where to buy it.鈥� More than half (55-56%) say they鈥檙e spending more time looking up things than they previously did, such as where they can get the best deal for buying a product they want and how much the price difference is between what鈥檚 available online versus in person. Similarly, about 50% say they鈥檙e willing to trade down to cheaper products, 41% say they鈥檙e shopping for second-hand or used items, and 45% are price comparing before ordering, seeing the difference between what restaurants and stores and third-party services like DoorDash and Uber Eats charge. 

2. In the face of economic challenges, CX matters more than ever

鈥淏rands can鈥檛 always control what consumers are going to do,鈥� says Richards. Whether customers opt to search for better prices remains beyond the control of the businesses. What they can influence is the experiences they offer that can 鈥渉opefully override that price sensitivity over time,鈥� he adds.

Providing the best possible experience is important because experience is another factor that shapes the purchasing decision. In fact, as many as . 

Adobe has a saying: Consumers don鈥檛 buy products, they buy great experiences. 鈥淪o we鈥檇 like to think that after all of this price volatility dies down, the winners in this space are going to be the ones who focused on delivering great customer experiences,鈥� says Richards.

Brands won鈥檛 be able to guarantee that every price sensitive consumer will stick around, he adds, but the majority will because of the value of premium experiences. 

3. Digital purchasing platforms are becoming an important part of the digital customer journey

糖心原创 Market Research has seen a huge uptick in the use of digital purchasing buy-now, pay-later platforms like Klarna and Afterpay. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen even year over year, they鈥檝e continued to grow, building on what鈥檚 been ninefold or even more growth over the past four years,鈥� says Custage. 

4. Retailers need to ensure buy-now, pay-later payment options are seamlessly integrated into their digital customer experience

According to Adobe reporting, buy-now, pay-later options accounted for $16.6 billion in sales throughout the 2023 holiday shopping period and $75 billion across total spending in 2023. 

鈥淭hat鈥檚 a 14% growth year over year鈥nd it鈥檚 becoming a very big part of a lot of consumers鈥� behavior鈥specially in the context of price sensitivity,鈥� says Richards. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way for them to have immediate gratification, get what they want, but maybe spread those payments a little bit more over time.鈥�

With affordability on the line, retailers need to make sure buy-now, pay-later features are seamlessly integrated into their checkout experience 鈥� they shouldn鈥檛 feel like a separate, standalone offering that takes customers out of the overall experience, he adds. 

5. The rise in popularity of buy-now, pay-later options also offer new opportunities for personalization and engagement

These platforms offer a wealth of customer signals that can shed light on consumer behavior and preferences. Retailers that pull this customer data in as part of their broader customer profiles can gain a better understanding of how individuals are interacting with their brand. 

These insights can allow companies to 鈥渃urate experiences for consumers based on their spending habits,鈥� says Richards.

Not only that, these platforms become vehicles for interacting with customers and can be leveraged as a communications channel for delivering personalized messaging, as well as a product discovery engine through which consumers can learn about new items and offers.

6. The new digital customer experience is inclusive of customers鈥� experiences using third-party platforms

For food and grocery brands, consumer spending on third-party ordering platforms remains here to stay. 

鈥淭here is this permanent, sizable percentage of business that is going to happen outside of a brand鈥檚 four walls, and they don鈥檛 always have full control over that experience,鈥� explains Custage. 

In this context, it鈥檚 more important than ever for retailers to work closely with these ordering platform partners to make sure that they鈥檙e meeting customer expectations and enhancing customer satisfaction. It鈥檚 up to leaders to 鈥渉old them accountable down the value chain鈥� for consistent experiences across the board, regardless of whether customers are interacting directly with a company or via a third party, adds Richards. 

7. Consumers feel like their experiences are getting worse 鈥� and the average customer is likely to churn after less than three bad experiences

According to a recent 糖心原创 Market Research study, half of consumers say companies are taking shortcuts that are having a negative impact on the customer experience. Meanwhile Adobe research indicates that now consumers are walking away from brands after an average of just 2.4 bad experiences. Not only that, it takes about 6.5 good experiences to get customers to become loyal again after churning. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 much easier to keep them and do what you need to do to keep them from an experiential perspective than it is to get them back after they walk away,鈥� explains Richards.

8. Personalization is a powerful driver of brand choice

For most consumers, personalized experiences influence brand choice when shopping, at least half of the time, and more than half say companies should use personalization in most of or all of their interactions. 

Yet at the same time, businesses aren鈥檛 doing enough to meet their personalization expectations, with only about one in four consumers rating their last brand interaction as a truly personalized experience. 

9. Some of the most important elements of personalization include knowing who consumers are across touchpoints, and rewarding and recognizing loyal customers

Although personalization can mean a variety of different things, depending on who you ask, 糖心原创 Market Research has found that brands get personalized experiences right when they:

• Ensure continuity of knowledge: They have the ability to keep track of consumers across interactions, without requiring them to re-identify themselves, their needs, and their history when they move from one channel to the next.
• Offer rewards and recognition and flexibility of service (forgiveness for late payments, returns, etc.) in line with customer expectations. 
• Proactively reach out to customers when errors or issues are detected. 

10. Leading brands are investing in unified data and predictive analytics capabilities, tailored content, and journey orchestration solutions to deliver personalization at scale

Businesses need to have a 360-degree customer view, use AI-powered predictive analytics to 鈥減resent the right visual and verbal messages鈥� to each customer, and orchestrate real-time, behavior-triggered omnichannel customer journeys across physical and digital touchpoints that offer the next-best experience for customers. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 a big difference between what we鈥檒l call 鈥榩ersonalization鈥� and 鈥榩ersonalization at scale,鈥欌�� says Richards. 鈥淭he word 鈥榮cale鈥� is critical here because there are a lot of brands out there that are very confident in their ability to personalize, but they鈥檙e only doing it maybe in one channel鈥ut if you鈥檙e only doing it in one channel, you鈥檙e leaving a lot on the table. Because as we鈥檝e talked about, the reality is consumers are engaging with you in many different ways. So if you鈥檙e not figuring out how to talk to every customer on every channel in real time, which is the 鈥榓t scale鈥� piece, you鈥檙e missing a huge opportunity to personalize their entire experience.鈥�

11. Advanced organizations are establishing personalization centers of excellence (COE) and adopting agile marketing squads to accelerate personalized experiences

Companies at the head of the personalization maturity curve are creating COEs with a dedicated team that includes a mix of business and IT professionals with C-level sponsorship that are responsible for defining the organization鈥檚 personalization strategy and business use cases, redesigning business processes to support personalization, and driving implementation across the entire company. 

Not only are they leveraging COEs, the most effective brands are also building out agile marketing pods that are focused on specific generational audience cohorts or a specific stage within the customer lifecycle. Their goal is to determine new tactics and ideas to address personalization for these specific segments, specifically in a test-and-learn environment. 

鈥淓ach pod lives within this bigger group of a functional community where they all interact with one another, and they share best practices and figure out what鈥檚 working and what鈥檚 not working,鈥� explains Richards. 

12. Companies are using AI to save time creating new concepts, optimize audience and journey insights, and measure campaign performance

Companies are using AI for personalization in a variety of ways, and three of the biggest time-saving use cases Adobe researchers have identified include developing new concepts, optimizing audiences, and measuring performance.

13. The new customer journey is neither entirely digital or entirely physical

When asked to describe their shopper journey for events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, what stands out is that 鈥渕any, many consumers 鈥� very large proportions in some cases 鈥� don鈥檛 follow a path that is entirely digital or entirely physical,鈥� says Custage. 

鈥淲e see a more omnichannel or mixed approach of browsing and research activities occurring in one channel, purchasing occurring in another, and then receipt of the product delivery, pickup, whatever it might be, back in a first channel, or a completely separate one from the first two,鈥� he adds.

As a result, brands need to adapt to managing experiences across channels, not in silos. 

Otherwise, they risk losing customers. In fact, Adobe researchers have found that one of the top three reasons that consumers churn from a brand is because of a lack of a seamless physical and digital experience.

14. Mobile phones are the key connector between physical and digital experiences

Mobile apps are quickly becoming one of the primary ways 鈥� if not the primary way 鈥� consumers interact with brands digitally, says Custage. 

However, 37% of consumers say their most recent app interaction involved connecting with the brand via an additional channel as well, such as in person, over the phone, or on the company鈥檚 website. 

That鈥檚 why brands are leaning into investing in their app functionality and enhancing the in-store mode features of their apps, adds Custage. 

Companies can improve the in-store app mode experience in a variety of ways. Consumers want more real-time accurate information, fewer glitches, faster loading times, more in-store promotions, and better privacy and security features within the app, according to 糖心原创 Market Research insights.

15. Social is a critical driver of product discovery

Four in 10 consumers say they鈥檙e more likely to find out about products and brands from social media now compared to a year ago, and 35% say they鈥檝e learned about new items on TikTok and 42% say they鈥檝e done so via Facebook. 

If brands want to become more effective at reaching consumers where they鈥檙e engaging, it鈥檚 important to pay attention to where they鈥檙e spending time online. Younger generations are more likely to consume user-generated content, compared with traditional media for older generations. 

Embrace the Future of Digital Customer Experience with 糖心原创 and Adobe

Together, 糖心原创 and Adobe provide brands with a cross-channel view of all of the interactions they have with their customers across digital channels and across their customer journeys to ensure that CX and digital teams are enabled to enhance the digital customer experience and increase acquisition, accelerate conversions, and drive repeat customer engagement.

Learn more about the 糖心原创 and Adobe integration and watch the complete Digital Customer Experience Trends to Watch in 2024 recording for even more digital CX trends and insights.

How Digital Transformation Is Driving Customer Experience

The  has ushered in a period of unprecedented change in the world of customer experience management. And, in many ways, it has redefined it. At the heart of this transformation is the seamless integration of digital technologies into customer interactions. The digital landscape has created a fundamental shift in business philosophy and strategy. 

The evolution began with the digitization of basic customer interactions. Simple processes, such as online ordering and electronic customer support, represent the early stages of this transformation. As technology has advanced, so has the complexity and effectiveness of these digital interactions. Today, we see a complete digitization of the customer journey, from initial engagement to post-purchase support.

The journey from traditional customer interactions to digitizing customer experiences has been nothing short of remarkable, with businesses shifting from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach, where the customer experience is at the forefront of every decision. 

6 Key Technologies and Trends Fueling Digital Transformation of the Customer Experience

1. Personalization

With the advent of AI-powered analytics like Text Analytics and Speech Analytics, businesses have the potential to understand their customers like never before. Companies can analyze vast amounts of data to gain insights into customer preferences, behavior, and expectations. This level of understanding enables businesses to tailor their services and products to meet the specific needs of individual customers, delivering a personalized experience that was once thought impossible.

2. Omnichannel Engagement

Another aspect where digital transformation is driving customer experience is through omnichannel customer engagement. Thanks to the growth in digital channels, today鈥檚 customers interact with brands across multiple touchpoints, including social media, mobile apps, and websites. Digital transformation enables (and requires) businesses to provide a cohesive and seamless experience across all these channels. By capturing听customer signals听across channels and touchpoints and using tools like听customer experience orchestration,听digital experience analytics, and Text and Speech Analytics, brands can ensure customers receive consistent messaging and experiences, regardless of how and where they鈥檙e听engaging with companies.

3. Real-Time Feedback

Furthermore, digital transformation has made customer feedback more accessible and actionable. With real-time analytics and customer feedback platforms, businesses can now gather, analyze, and act upon customer opinions quickly and efficiently. This immediate insight allows companies to make swift adjustments to their services, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

4. Mobile and听Social Media Channels and Technologies

Social media, smartphones, and mobile technology have played pivotal roles in digitizing customer experience. In-app and SMS messaging as well as social media channels and online review platforms have become vital channels for customer engagement. Through these digital channels and touchpoints, businesses can advertise their products and services as well as interact with customers in real-time, providing support and gathering feedback.

5. AI and Machine Learning

In more recent years, the rise of AI and machine learning has taken digitization to the next level. Savvy brands are using AI in the customer experience to get to know customers better, provide faster resolutions, speed up analysis, and personalize the experience. Chatbots and virtual assistants, powered by AI, are now common on websites and apps, providing instant support to customers. These technologies have also enabled businesses to automate many aspects of the customer journey, from personalized product recommendations to predictive customer service.

6. Automations, Self-Service Solutions, and Chatbots

Brands are embracing digital transformation of the customer experience across customer support channels and the contact center. Automation in customer service comes in many forms, from automated email responses to smart callback solutions to more complex systems like AI-powered chatbots and using AI-powered Text and Speech Analytics to analyze and draw insights from 100% of customer interactions. AI-powered solutions can handle a wide range of customer queries, assist with transactions and troubleshooting issues, and can provide instant analyses and guide next best actions, freeing up human customer service representatives to deal with more complex issues. They can engage with customers in real-time, providing immediate assistance and support. What makes these chatbots particularly effective is their ability to learn from interactions and improve over time, offering increasingly personalized and accurate responses. This not only improves efficiency but also enhances customer satisfaction, as customers get their issues resolved quickly.

Self-service solutions are another significant aspect of digital transformation in customer service. These include interactive FAQs, online knowledge bases, and customer portals where customers can manage their accounts and resolve issues without needing to contact a customer service representative. By empowering customers to find solutions on their own, businesses can improve customer satisfaction while reducing the workload on their customer service teams.

Benefits and Advantages of Digital Transformation of the Customer Experience

1. Enhanced Personalization and Customer Engagement

One of the most significant benefits of digital transformation in the realm of customer experience is the enhanced level of personalization and engagement it facilitates. Digital-transformation-driven customer experience strategies allow businesses to understand their customers on a much deeper level. This understanding leads to meaningful interactions, fostering a deep connection between the customer and the brand.

Enhanced personalization based on behavior not only improves the customer experience but also strengthens customer loyalty. Customers are more likely to return to a brand that understands their needs and provides relevant, personalized experiences. 糖心原创 researchers have found that 鈥嬧�媘ost consumers (61%) are willing to spend more with a company if they can offer a customized experience and even more (82%) say personalized experiences influence the brand they choose at least half of the time when shopping. 

2. Seamless Omnichannel Experiences

Digital transformation has made it possible for businesses to provide a seamless , ensuring consistency across various customer touchpoints. Whether a customer is interacting with a brand through a mobile app, website, social media, or in a physical store, digital transformation enables brands to deliver a cohesive and integrated experience.

This seamless experience is crucial in today鈥檚 interconnected world, where customers expect to switch between different channels smoothly. 

The key to providing a seamless omnichannel experience lies in the effective integration of digital technologies. This includes ensuring that all channels are connected and share data seamlessly, and capture the right customer experience metrics at the right time. 

3. Customer-Centric, Data-Driven Marketing and Marketing Innovations

Brands that embrace digital transformation can not only enhance the customer experience, they can improve their marketing outcomes, too. At the core of digital-transformation-driven marketing is the utilization of cutting-edge technology to understand and engage with customers on a deeper level.

Digital transformation has expanded the marketer鈥檚 toolkit. Social media platforms, for instance, provide a wealth of data on customer preferences and behaviors. 

The advent of big data analytics and AI technologies have allowed marketers to gain a more nuanced understanding of customer behaviors and preferences by collecting and analyzing data from various sources, including customer interactions, social media, and IoT devices. 

AI and machine learning can analyze large datasets much quicker and more accurately than humans, identifying patterns and trends that might go unnoticed. This data provides valuable insights into customer preferences, behaviors, and pain points. By harnessing these insights, businesses can tailor their marketing messages and campaigns to meet the unique needs and desires of different customer segments.

Savvy teams are pairing their customer experience management and customer relationship management efforts together to craft highly targeted marketing campaigns and maximize upsell and cross-sell opportunities and personalize interactions. 

For instance, predictive analytics can help businesses anticipate future customer actions based on their past behaviors, enabling a more proactive approach to marketing.

The power of digital transformation in marketing is best exemplified by its ability to leverage data for customer-centric marketing. In today鈥檚 market, personalization is key, and data is the fuel that drives this personalization. In fact, the modern customer expects integrated personalization, which has made it a necessary component of the customer experience.

4. Improved Customer Support Experiences and Outcomes

Brands that advance digital transformation in the contact center by leveraging automations, AI-powered technologies, and self-service solutions are better equipped to provide customers with 24/7 support, reduce wait times, and improve overall customer satisfaction. Better yet, these tools allow businesses to scale their customer service operations without a corresponding increase in human staff, making them a cost-effective solution for managing customer interactions.

Steps to Achieve Success with Digital Transformation and the Customer Experience

1. Strengthen Consumer Trust with Expert Security and Data Protection

Customer trust is foundational to the success of any digital transformation initiative. As businesses increasingly rely on digital technologies to interact with customers, the volume of sensitive data being collected, stored, and analyzed has skyrocketed. Working with trusted customer experience partners like 糖心原创 that offer enterprise grade compliance with data protection regulations will ensure the security and privacy of your customer data, a critical element in building and maintaining consumer trust. 

Other steps companies need to take include educating employees about data security and being transparent with customers about how their data will be used.

2. Implement Effective Change Management Processes

As organizations adopt new measures to accelerate听digital transformation of the customer experience, some resistance to change is inevitable, both within organizations and among customers. Change can be daunting, and the shift to digital-centric operations often requires a significant cultural shift within a company.

For internal teams, this resistance can stem from a lack of understanding of new technologies or fear of the unknown. It鈥檚 vital to address these concerns through comprehensive training and education programs. Organizations should communicate the benefits of digital transformation, not just for the company but also for individual employee experiences, emphasizing how it can make their work more efficient and rewarding.

When it comes to customers, businesses need to ensure that听any updates to the customer experience as a result of digital transformation are as seamless as possible. Consider providing extensive customer support, user-friendly guides, capturing customer feedback about any new experiences, monitoring digital behavior intelligence tools and Text Analytics to measure engagement and sentiment, and investing in digital solutions that are intuitive and easy to use. Gathering and acting on customer feedback throughout the transformation process 鈥� demonstrating that customer needs and concerns are being taken into consideration 鈥� will be instrumental to your success.听

3. Embrace Changing Trends in the Digital Customer Experience

As digital transformation continues to evolve, so do customer expectations. The convenience and efficiency that digital solutions provide have raised the bar for customer expectations. Customers increasingly expect personalized, seamless, and engaging experiences across all digital channels. 

In response, businesses need to continuously innovate and adapt their digital offerings. This includes not just leveraging new technologies but ensuring that these solutions are customer-centric. Understanding and anticipating customer needs, and then designing digital experiences that meet or exceed these expectations, will be key to success in the evolving digital landscape.

Leveraging Digital Transformation to Improve the Customer Experience with 糖心原创

Navigating digital transformation of the customer experience is a complex but essential journey for businesses looking to thrive in today鈥檚 fast-paced, technology-driven world. Companies that rise to the challenge have the opportunity to reshape and enhance customer experiences across industries. Doing so will require continually improving and innovating customer experiences.

With 糖心原创鈥檚 suite of best-in-class customer experience management solutions expertise, companies can harness the power of digital transformation to achieve their customer experience goals. 糖心原创鈥檚 tools and insights enable businesses to track, analyze, and enhance every aspect of the customer journey, ensuring that digital transformation efforts are aligned with customer needs and business objectives.

The future of customer experience is digital, omnichannel, and connected, and with the right approach and tools, businesses can lead the way in this exciting new landscape. Unlock the full potential of the digital customer experience with 糖心原创. 

As a customer experience (CX) professional, there鈥檚 no question that your role involves digital experience (DX) as well. Digital experience itself also lives within several areas of a business outside of anything customer-facing. From web and app developers to demand generation, the digital channels put forth by a brand are a priority throughout an organization.

Digital channels 鈥� such as websites and mobile apps 鈥� are now the go-to channels customers use for the majority of their interactions with brands. There鈥檚 never been a more urgent need for organizations like yours to invest in a digital customer experience strategy that improves experiences. Now, it鈥檚 all about optimizing digital channels to convert customers in as few clicks or taps as possible at every touchpoint in the customer journey.

In order to do so successfully, it鈥檚 worth taking a look at what leaders from inside and outside your industry say about digital experience. Reading the best digital experience books 鈥� written by industry innovators and thought leaders with decades of expertise 鈥� provides a fresh perspective of things you may not already know. And you can implement what you learn in order to upgrade experiences across digital channels.

10 Must-Read Digital Experience Books to Add to Your Reading List

In our list of the best digital experience books to read, we鈥檝e created a collection that covers topics relevant to DX professionals of various levels.

Here are the must-read DX books of 2023 to enhance your knowledge of digital experience.

The Digital Experience Company: Winning in the Digital Economy with Experience Insights

• Author:听
• Where to read:听

In Alfonso de la Nuez鈥檚 The Digital Experience Company, the author explores the premise that every company 鈥� regardless of industry or target consumer 鈥� is a digital experience company. Earning high praise from senior digital leaders at  and , the book guides readers on the steps to create a digital presence designed to attract and retain customers.

De la Nuez, who co-founded , makes the case for why investing in user experience (UX) along with CX is critical to driving business outcomes. He also examines how leaders in an organization can leverage UX as a competitive advantage and offers insight into designing digital experiences that win customers over.

If you pick up The Digital Experience Company, expect to gain the know-how for making digital experience data actionable for your entire organization.

Strategies for the Digital Customer Experience: Connecting Customers with Brands in the Phygital Age

• Author:听
• Where to read:听

Digital and physical experiences are often thought of and treated as separate, siloed channels within enterprises. But that鈥檚 not the case for customers 鈥� each should be treated as part of one holistic brand.

Looking to connect and strengthen both digital and physical experiences? Dr. Wided Batat, founder of the听, wrote听Strategies for the Digital Customer Experience听with her expertise on all things CX and digital transformation.

Her book explores a range of technologies and techniques, including artificial intelligence (AI) and gamification, that companies can use to create and enhance . Batat also shares strategies for successful phygital customer experience design.

The Digital Seeker: A Guide for Digital Teams to Build Winning Experiences

• Author:听
• Where to read:听

When customers turn to digital channels, they鈥檙e looking for something more than products or services: They鈥檙e looking for solutions to their problems or to fulfill an unmet desire.

Raj De Datta鈥檚 The Digital Seeker is a must-read recommended by executives at , , , the , and more. It aims to help leaders shift their thinking on the role of digital experiences, evolving beyond simply seeing the purpose as serving as online marketplaces and toward critical solutions solving customers鈥� pressing needs.

Measuring the User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting UX Metrics

• Authors:听,听
• Where to read:听

There鈥檚 a science to evaluating the overall UX, and here鈥檚 the guide for getting that science right. Bill Albert, an executive at accelerator , created Measuring the User Experience with Tom Tullis, a longtime UX expert with , as a comprehensive resource for all things user experience.

Measuring the User Experience helps readers define UX metrics, guides businesses on how to choose the right UX metrics, and offers a how-to for collecting UX measurements. It also includes case studies from  and other industry-leading brands.

Customer Experience Analytics: How Customers Can Better Guide Your Web and App Decisions

• Author:听
• Where to read:听

Customer Experience Analytics, written by product marketing leader Akin Arikan, has drawn noteworthy reviews from senior leaders at organizations including , , , and the .

Arikan explains how to use UX analytics to optimize customer experience, with insights from dozens of case studies. His book reveals how leaders are capable of solving business challenges 鈥� such as customer acquisition, sales, conversion rates, and more 鈥� faster by measuring and analyzing experience analytics.

Customer Experience Analytics also predicts the future of experience analytics and how brands should harness emerging technologies to innovate.

Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers

• Author:听
• Where to read:听

Fred Reichheld is the creator of net promoter score (NPS庐), so it鈥檇 be a mistake to not include Winning on Purpose in this list of the best digital experience books.

Winning on Purpose introduces the concept of treating customers as you would want a loved one to be treated. Reichheld makes the case that enriching the lives of consumers is crucial to yielding higher returns for shareholders across industries. C-suite executives from , , and  praise the book as a must-read for driving business success in the digital age.

The Swipe-Right Customer Experience: How to Attract, Engage, and Keep Customers in the Digital-First World

• Authors:听,听
• Where to read:听

Sanna Eskelinen, Global B2B Marketing Lead at , and Belinda Gerdt, Global Head of Portfolio Marketing at , uncover the ways that the world鈥檚 best companies have transformed their customer experiences by rethinking the role of digital within the business. With The Swipe-Right Customer Experience, the authors break down the fundamental steps organizations must take to overhaul their internal cultures, skills, processes, brands, and measurements to serve up next-level experiences and results.

The Digital-First Customer Experience: Seven Design Strategies from the World鈥檚 Leading Brands

• Author:听
• Where to read:听

Joe Wheeler鈥檚 consulting firm, , helps brands achieve a next-generation, digital-first customer experience 鈥� and now the best-selling author has written a book that guides readers through what steps to take to do the same, with case studies from brands that are first in their categories like , , and .

The Digital-First Customer Experience details the seven design strategies companies need to use to deliver exceptional digital experiences at scale.

Digital Customer Service: Transforming Customer Experience for an On-Screen World

• Author:听,听
• Where to read:听

Rick DeLisi, a longtime  fellow, and  CEO Dan Michaeli designed Digital Customer Service to provide the blueprint for achieving the new standard for 5-star experiences.

Digital Customer Service says it鈥檚 achieved through digital customer service, and the book is relevant for professionals from the front lines to the boardroom interested in discovering the specifics of boosting customer loyalty (and profits) while reducing the costs to serve customers.

Design Thinking and Innovation Metrics: Powerful Tools to Manage Creativity, OKRs, Product, and Business Success

• Author:听
• Where to read:听

Michael Lewrick, founder of advisory firm , started the Design Thinking series a few years ago. The latest installment covers the 鈥渟imple and straightforward playbook to manage and measure innovation.鈥�

Design Thinking and Innovation Metrics takes a deep dive into employing data metrics, deploying objectives and key results (OKRs), and using tools to create meaningful products, services, and experiences.

Why You Should Read the Best Digital Experience Books

Reading the best digital experience books provides several benefits in an era where digital interactions and transactions dominate most industries.

In 2023, read the best digital experience books for the following reasons:

1. Understand user behavior: Knowing how customers interact with digital channels indicates what鈥檚 working and where there鈥檚 friction, the latter of which is driving customers away from your brand.

2. Stay up-to-date: Digital trends are constantly evolving. In the books from this list, thought leaders in the field help you keep up with the latest trends, strategies, and technologies to be successful.

3. Improve UX across digital channels: Using the tips and best practices for designing seamless, intuitive digital experiences through websites and mobile apps, you鈥檒l better meet (and exceed) expectations.

4. Develop strategic thinking: Tactical advice isn鈥檛 all you need. While reading the best DX books, you should be cultivating a strategic mindset and feel empowered to think about what may be beneficial for your organization as it executes a digital customer experience strategy.

5. Greater empathy: By focusing on customers鈥� experiences, you鈥檒l gain an empathetic understanding of what they say, think, and feel in order to craft better experiences online.

6. Inspiration and creativity: Trust your gut, but also trust the real-world experiences of the experts behind the best digital experience books. Reading about innovative digital experiences might spark your own creativity and prompt you to think outside the box.

As with any resource, remember that you can (and should) critically analyze the material. You shouldn鈥檛 copy exactly what you read. Instead, take the perspectives and mold your own by adapting the information to fit with your company鈥檚 industry, target customers, products or services, and overall mission.

Schedule a demo with a 糖心原创 expert 鈥� we鈥檒l share where your digital experience program is today and what our award-winning platform does to accelerate its impact on the business.

Where do most of the听interactions听between your brand and its customers occur? Chances are it鈥檚 through a digital channel, such as a website or mobile application.

Whereas the听customer journey听of the past required time-consuming conversations in a physical location or over the phone, now it鈥檚 as easy as entering a URL or launching an app to engage with a brand. By 2024,听听of all commerce revenue generated.听

That鈥檚 why your brand needs to improve digital channels as part of its听digital customer experience strategy.听Digital experience (DX)听plays a major role in shaping听customer experience (CX)听and everything connected to it 鈥� including听customer engagement,听customer satisfaction (CSAT), and听customer loyalty.

4 Ways to Improve Digital Channels & Make Customers Happy Online

When it comes to digital channels, you need to take a close look at the entire听user experience (UX). Usability, navigation, design, content, and performance all influence digital experience to determine whether a customer converts with an action that drives sales and听lifetime value听for your brand.

Here鈥檚 what it takes to improve digital channels and deliver high-impact website and mobile app experiences that your customers will love.

#1. Customer journey mapping

Understand what digital experience looks like from the perspective of your customers, both throughout the customer journey and during the听customer lifecycle. From research and consideration to the first point of conversation and repeat engagement, the interactions with your brand are vast and varied.

So, how do you understand what they experience?听Customer journey mapping听is a process that involves mapping out interactions from the initial touchpoint with a brand through the rest of the brand-customer relationship. It captures what content they view, how they engage with digital channels, and what actions they take.

Customer journey mapping may appear arduous, but your听customer experience management (CEM)听platform should be capable of handling this. CEM software should also offer听journey orchestration听to craft individualized experiences for each customer as soon as they open a website or mobile app.

Automatically taking action in the moment optimizes the customer journey to improve channel channels, removing points and friction and minimizing churn.

#2. Digital feedback

Figuring out why customers feel happy or unhappy about their experiences with digital channels is a challenge. But not if you have听digital feedback.

Customer surveys听deployed across websites and mobile apps shed light on where experiences excel and falter. Abandonment surveys, for example, can be triggered when customers try to leave a company鈥檚 website or mobile app without completing a transaction to understand why a customer isn鈥檛 choosing a brand鈥檚 products or services.

Findings from digital feedback surveys also uncover听customer sentiment, or whether they鈥檙e satisfied or not with the digital channels.

Digital feedback solutions can be used to quickly launch simple-yet-effective surveys across digital channels, such as immediately following a听live chat听session or after a customer has completed a transaction. Data-driven brands use these real-time survey results to continuously improve the digital customer experience in the moment to strengthen听retention听and other important听CX metrics.

#3. Social listening

As the customer journey progresses, customers often write reviews and social media posts about their experiences with brands. It鈥檚 important for brands to get visibility into what鈥檚 being said, respond to reviews and posts in a timely manner, and take the best actions to address customer issues that arise using听social listening听补苍诲听online review management.

Doing so gives businesses the chance to make things right with听angry customers听who have written negative feedback online. This also gives companies the chance to sway readers who may come across these reviews and social media mentions in the future. The second part is crucial 鈥� nearly all customers (93%) say听.

#4. Behavioral intelligence

For a long time, companies could only see what content users were engaging with on their websites and mobile apps. Now, thanks to听behavior intelligence听鈥� consisting of tools like听heatmaps,听session replay, and听form analytics听鈥� it鈥檚 possible to find out what customers are doing and why.

As a result, your brand can see when customers are clicking in frustration, scrolling in an engaged manner, and demonstrating confused movements.

Experience leaders are leveraging behavioral metrics to听trigger real-time actions听relevant to each customer鈥檚 individual experience, such as deploying a live chat session with an听agent听when a user encounters a form error or spends a long time on a page without completing a step.

Bring Everything Together in One Platform

Savvy brands are combining听customer signals听from digital feedback, social media, and online reviews with digital behavior analytics and customer journey mapping to get the full picture of the digital customer experience. Not only are they able to gain a better understanding of what the digital customer experience is like, they can also identify areas for improvement and experience-enhancing strategies, and then continuously iterate and optimize in real time.

Schedule a demo听with 糖心原创 鈥� an expert will walk you through how our platform empowers you to听deliver consistent, personalized experiences听that keep customers coming back time and time again after a stellar first impression.

Today鈥檚 customers want to get more done faster. They want听personalized experiences. And they want seamless interactions across channels. Meeting all of these expectations is a tall order for businesses, but innovative companies like听听are rising to the challenge by using data to听improve customer experience.

At this year鈥檚 , 糖心原创 spoke with , VP of End to End Digital Customer Relationships at Schneider Electric, the global leader in energy management and industrial automation with a presence in more than 115 countries and more than 128,000 employees worldwide, about how they leverage 糖心原创鈥檚 experience platform to support the company鈥檚 customer journey management and customer satisfaction management efforts. In his Digital Experience Summit session, Y枚ndem shared how his team is using customer experience data to transform the businesses into a customer-centric organization.

Here are some of the key highlights about what Schneider Electric has managed to accomplish and some of the most important learnings from their journey. 

How Schneider Electric Is Improving Customer Experience

Y枚ndem and his team collect听customer experience signals听from across channels and touchpoints鈥攊ncluding surveys, phone calls, and web and app customer behavior. They do this in a structured manner, following an established data collection and governance process, and using a set customer experience framework to convert the company鈥檚 customer experience data into actionable insights.

鈥淒ata that you can collect and process can be a game changer in terms of improving your journey with your customers,鈥� says Y枚ndem. The potential for what brands can do with customer experience data is 鈥渦nlimited,鈥� as long the data is collected with respect to a given region鈥檚 rules and regulations. 

For example, when Schneider Electric rolls out a new product launch, they may look at customer survey data and customer sentiment from that survey to measure overall satisfaction 鈥� as well as satisfaction across categories, such as by region, by period, and by customer type. They then use this customer experience data to move forward with targeted and personalized strategies to improve net promoter score (NPS庐) and net satisfaction scores (NSS). 

One of Schneider Electric鈥檚 big wins since partnering with 糖心原创 capturing customer feedback signals throughout the digital web experience for customers engaging with the brand across 80+ country websites. This effort has helped the company identify areas for improvement and:

• Optimize the product search and product selection journey on Schneider Electric websites
• Reduce the number of clicks it takes customers to find what they鈥檙e looking for
• Boost net promoter score (NPS庐) by 34 points

Y枚ndem and his team are always looking for new opportunities for using data to improve the customer experience. Right now they鈥檙e looking at how they can collect more indirect signals from customer interactions as they鈥檙e taking place, reducing the need to ask for direct feedback from customers via surveys. They鈥檙e also looking to expand the customer experience program throughout the company and leverage customer experience data across every aspect of the business to improve the entire customer experience. 

Schneider Electric鈥檚 Top 3 Lessons for Customer Experience Data

Improving the customer experience is a journey, and here are some insights Y枚ndem and his team have learned throughout theirs.

#1. Create a customer experience data collection framework upfront 

Data collection alone will not help your brand transform your customer experience. Companies need to take the time to define the process and framework they鈥檒l use to collect customer experience data and the governance they鈥檒l have in place for managing that data. 

• Define your strategy
• Create a baseline for your customer experience data
• Set target goals for your听customer experience KPIs
• Use your data collection and analysis to achieve your objectives

This is 鈥渁 big transformation and should not be underestimated,鈥� says Y枚ndem. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a technology transformation. It鈥檚 mainly a company transformation and a mindset transformation, especially if you haven鈥檛 done this before.鈥�

#2. Get buy-in 鈥� link your customer experience strategy to your company鈥檚 mission and values

Any digital transformation initiative requires strong buy-in from the top. Y枚ndem and his team secured sponsorship from leadership by tying the program to the company鈥檚 core value of being customer first and explaining how democratizing access to customer experience insights to employees across the organization would benefit the entire business.

They made the case that Schneider Electric鈥檚 customer feedback would help employees do their jobs better, which would ultimately have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.

#3. Don鈥檛 boil the ocean 鈥� adopt a phased approach to using data to improve customer experience

Use data to pinpoint the biggest gaps where you can have the biggest impact. Create and test your first hypothesis and build and grow your efforts from there, particularly after stakeholders see the positive outcomes of your transformation efforts. 

For global companies like Schneider Electric, the process must be intentional and purposeful, starting with one region or initiative at a time. 

For more lessons on using data to improve customer experience, check out the 糖心原创 case study: How Schneider Electric is Delighting Customers Through an Outstanding Digital Experience.

Every leading brand has a few core metrics that help measure the success of its customer experience program. These metrics, such as overall customer satisfaction (OSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS庐), represent direct feedback from customers on their experience with the brand.

But feedback is not always available for every experience. What if there was a way to measure the experience of every visitor?

On the digital channel, you can 鈥� using 糖心原创鈥檚听Digital Experience Score (DXS). Like established experience metrics, DXS is designed to measure the success of a brand鈥檚听, specifically on the digital channel. However, unlike established experience metrics, DXS measures the experience of听every听single visitor, not just those who give feedback.

Combining DXS with metrics like OSAT and NPS gives teams unprecedented insight into customers鈥� digital experiences, helping teams automatically identify the highest-impact actions that will drive customer engagement and business growth.

What is Digital Experience Score (DXS)?

糖心原创鈥檚 DXS is the collection of every customer interaction across each digital property, rolled up into one comprehensive score. DXS analyzes five key pillars of digital experience: Navigation, Frustration, Engagement, Form, and Technical.

Each pillar score is calculated using behavior detection algorithms, where 糖心原创 automatically uncovers specific user behaviors that shed light onto the overall digital experience. For example, 糖心原创 may uncover behaviors such as high focus time on a particular page, or copy and paste behaviors, which indicate high engagement.

Ultimately, this data is designed to evaluate the user鈥檚 鈥渄igital body language.鈥� By providing this intimate view of each visitor鈥檚 digital experience, leading brands can understand how likely customers are to complete any goal or action through the digital channel.

Understanding DXS and Established Experience Metrics Together

糖心原创鈥檚 DXS is not meant to replace established experience metrics. Rather, DXS supercharges existing metrics by accelerating time to insight and uncovering higher-impact actions.

Discrepancies between DXS and established metrics such as NPS and OSAT are the starting point for quick, accurate, and impactful action plans.

糖心原创 works with thousands of brands every day to establish and expand their experience programs. We鈥檝e developed a simple framework for understanding how DXS and other established experience metrics work together. This framework consists of four main categories:

Note: in this example, we take OSAT as our established metric of choice; however, this framework is applicable to any established experience metric, such as NPS, CSAT, etc. 

Each of these categories sheds light on a particular aspect of the customer鈥檚 experience that can help teams take nuanced, specific actions that lead to better results.

Excellent: High DXS + High OSAT

鈥淓xcellent鈥� is the ideal scenario, where both DXS and OSAT are high on your digital property. 鈥淓xcellent鈥� means customers are having a positive experience, both in their digital interactions (as measured by DXS), and in their impression of their experience (as measured by OSAT). The brand is meeting, and in some cases, exceeding expectations.

But brands who are delivering 鈥淓xcellent鈥� experiences shouldn鈥檛 rest on their laurels. There are a few key steps to take to capitalize on this success and future-proof their business. These include:

• Create Champions: Incentivize customers with referral programs, follow up with offers for enrollment in loyalty programs, or re-engage customers with requests for online reviews.
• Upsell or Cross-Sell: Collect feedback by sentiment to understand what the customer is likely to buy next, set up journey orchestration directing those segments to a relevant product/service, and re-target customers with relevant marketing campaigns.
• Strengthen Engagement: Follow up with personalized offers for that customer, or test new product offerings with a particular customer segment for market feedback.

Ultimately, achieving 鈥淓xcellent鈥� means that the brand is in a position to听make strategic advancements听in their experience program, truly positioning themselves as a leader in the market.

Misaligned: High DXS + Low OSAT

鈥淢isaligned鈥� refers to when DXS is high, but OSAT remains low. Although the digital interactions and the customer鈥檚 behaviors did not present any major problems, the customer was still unsatisfied with their overall interaction. Therefore, what the brand is delivering is 鈥淢isaligned鈥� with customer expectations.

To improve misaligned experiences, companies need to consider: what do customers expect when they come to this property that they aren鈥檛 receiving? What needs to be changed to meet these expectations? Some places to begin this analysis include:

• Content: The actual content on the digital property does not meet customer expectations. This could range from the price of products, to the offerings available, to the various blog posts promoted on the site.

Potential solutions to a gap in content include conducting market research and adjusting offerings to meet customer expectations, or surveying customers by segments and adjusting offerings accordingly. Recommended methods include A/B testing and personalization tools.

• Journeys: The customer journey did not align with that customer鈥檚 historical relationship with the brand. For example, a customer who has already purchased multiple products and is looking for a help page is instead redirected to a first-time purchasing journey.

Potential solutions to misaligned journeys include refined segmentation of existing customers with curated journeys by segment, and advanced real-time journey orchestration based on customers鈥� behaviors, customer history with the brand, or customer feedback.

• Capability: The customer鈥檚 desired activity is not supported by the digital property. For example, the customer may want to renew their package/plan, but this self-service capability is not accessible on the website.

Potential solutions include updating the digital property based on the most common customer requests.

Usually, 鈥淢isaligned鈥� means the brand is in a position to deliver best-in-class digital experiences to their customers, but have not yet identified the best ways to do so.

Warning: Low DXS + High OSAT

鈥淲arning鈥� refers to when DXS is low, but OSAT remains high. Although some customers provided positive feedback, the digital experience is severely lacking. In this case, customers who are not providing feedback may already be abandoning the digital property. If significant changes are not made, customers who are providing positive feedback will likely become detractors.

鈥淲arning鈥� means a strategic change is needed. What are the biggest issues customers are facing? How quickly can the necessary changes be implemented? Some potential interpretations of the 鈥淲arning鈥� category include:

• Temporary Acceptance: Demand for the product or service is high, and customers are temporarily willing to navigate a poor experience to convert. However, if a competitor offers the same product with a better experience, the brand faces a large risk.

Potential solutions to the problem of temporary acceptance include analyzing customer experiences on aggregate to identify the most urgent/common issues faced, and prioritize those fixes. Another solution may include analyzing customer experiences by segment, and fixing the most urgent/common issues for the highest-value segments first, and working from there.

• Silent Detractors: Although feedback is high, there is an underlying experience issue that is not represented in feedback, but still significantly affecting KPIs. For example, although feedback is high on a certain conversion funnel, actual conversion rates are significantly below expectations, indicating that the feedback is not necessarily representative of the overall experience.

Potential solutions to the problem of silent detractors include cross-referencing experiences with other teams (e.g., contact centers or account managers) and/or data sources (e.g., CRMs) to uncover any significant issues. Other solutions include creating a more targeted feedback program to focus on what silent detractors may be experiencing, or resolving 1鈥�2 urgent issues to see if KPIs are impacted.

Generally, 鈥淲arning鈥� means that the brand should be prepared to make serious investments in their digital experience in order to keep up with the marketplace.

Poor: Low DXS + Low OSAT

鈥淧oor鈥� refers to when both DXS and OSAT are low. 鈥淧oor鈥� means customers are having a negative experience, both in their digital interactions (as measured by DXS), and in their impression of their experience (as measured by OSAT). The brand is severely performing under expectations.

鈥淧oor鈥� means both strategic and tactical changes are required to improve future experiences. Some potential solutions to 鈥淧oor鈥� include:

• Deeper Customer Understanding: A deeper understanding of customer expectations and demands are needed. This can be achieved by identifying high-priority customer segments and collecting targeted feedback, or identifying critical customer journeys and prioritizing optimization efforts.
• Improved Digital Offering: The digital property the brand is offering is not viable in today鈥檚 experience marketplace, and serious investment must be made to meet expectations. Determining what these investments should be can include conducting market research on the quality of competitor鈥檚 digital offerings, identifying the urgent issues that are preventing good experiences and mapping out solutions, or investing in tools that support a scalable, positive digital experience.

鈥淧oor鈥� indicates that serious work is needed if the brand wants to remain competitive in today鈥檚 experience marketplace.

Enhance Digital Experiences with DXS

By analyzing the 鈥渄igital body language鈥� of users and complementing these insights with other established metrics, 糖心原创鈥檚 DXS empowers your team to view the full picture of how customers are interacting with your digital presence. This key metric should be included in your overall digital experience strategy to ensure you are addressing all pain points, capitalizing on opportunities, and personalizing experiences along every touchpoint, resulting in听seamless online journeys.

To learn more about all the tools you need to optimize your digital experience, download our guide, The Essential Tools of Digital Experience Analytics.

Every visit, click, and tap is an opportunity for your business to offer an engaging, impactful digital experience. But there鈥檚 a catch: you need to act quickly.

If you wait until after a customer has already left your website, app, or other digital channel, chances are you鈥檝e lost them to the competition for good 鈥� and this is why leaders in every industry are turning their attention to real-time interactions. By engaging with customers in the moment and responding proactively, you鈥檒l serve the right information at the right time and earn conversions, loyalty, and revenue. (Note: Below, the widget displaying behaviors and scores is not available for purchase, but for demonstration purposes only.)

Here鈥檚 why you need to invest in real-time interactions, how to make these touchpoints an integral part of your digital experience program, and what the future of digital experience management looks like.

Why You Need to Invest in Real-Time Interactions

In a digital-first world, building successful and engaging customer journeys is essential for businesses to acquire, activate, and retain customers. Without a deep understanding of what drives great digital experiences, businesses find themselves at a disadvantage in the market.

Establishing and maintaining customer lifetime value is a key challenge which often determines the fate of digital businesses 鈥� whether they survive, thrive, or fail. Intervening in the critical moments when customers need it most can make or break the relationship between a customer and the brand. Just one bad experience can turn a promoter into a detractor.

In turbulent times, when cost control and business inefficiencies are top of mind for every executive, proactively addressing digital experience issues before they make a substantial impact is vital. This should involve saving an experience so it ends in conversation rather than abandonment, or addressing confusion before a customer calls the contact center.

Not only should your digital solution provide the analytics and insights to identify the right moments to intervene in an experience, but it also needs to provide an out-of-the-box tool to orchestrate these interventions, positively impacting customer experiences before they end.

Without Analyzing Real-Time Interactions, You鈥檒l Fall Behind Competitors

Real-time actioning is quickly becoming essential in the digital-first world. Studies show that when they have a question, and brands who are able to meet that expectation will thrive. In this , research also found that response time is what matters most to consumers.

But there are other, more tangible reasons to invest in real-time interactions as well. Decreased operational costs, especially a reduction in calls to a contact center, is a significant way this helps the bottom line. Using real-time data also assists teams in proactively improving experiences, rather than allowing issues to persist and affect customer satisfaction negatively.

Real-time data also allows brands to take advantage of more conversion opportunities by identifying highly engaged customers in the moment. For brands that are more advanced in their digital program, that鈥檚 a huge value-add.

Ask yourself: How much more money could I be making if I capitalized on every opportunity across my digital properties? Improved digital experiences create less friction, and in turn, customers are more likely to return again and again.

How to Make Real-Time Actioning Impactful for Digital Experiences

To get the biggest impact out of real-time interactions, your use case needs to align with your digital experience program and overall strategy. Think about real-time interactions as a proactive extension to engage your customers in the moment.

Within the digital maturity model, any company is able to unlock new potential with the right approach to digital experience management. Companies in the early stage of digital maturity should look for a no-code solution for digital feedback survey targeting that leverages both an overall real-time score of digital experiences, as well as pillar scores to understand every aspect of an experience, in addition to dozens of behaviors that act as a trigger for interactions.

Mature companies, which often have several third-party partners, should look for a customized solution to fit their exact needs. Some of the more advanced ways real-time interactions are used by well-established brands include pushing live chats in moments of confusion, or personalized offers to customers who are highly engaged and about to buy.

As your digital experience program evolves, you may decide to incorporate built-in real-time interaction management (RTIM) to further connect and personalize real-time experiences across the entire customer journey.

What the Future of Digital Experience Management Looks Like

The future of digital experience management is using comprehensive intelligence 鈥� including feedback, behavioral analytics, and omnichannel journey insights 鈥� to meet customer needs at the moment and at scale.

Delivering truly differentiated digital experiences requires rich, contextual insights that help executives and other leaders throughout an organization prioritize high-impact initiatives. It involves a combination of aggregated reporting insights that have the ability to power those one-to-one real-time interactions that are key to orchestrating the best actions at the perfect time.

Get Started with 糖心原创 Digital Suite

糖心原创鈥檚 world-class data science and machine-learning algorithms set the industry bar in terms of behavioral pattern recognition and multi-dimensional digital experience scoring 鈥� and our ability to leverage those real-time signals and drive intelligent actions at critical moments in the customer journey is unmatched in the market.

Customer feedback grounds and informs strategy, right? The fact that 糖心原创 provides a solution that combines the intelligence of verbatim feedback with behavioral analytics, then uses that intelligence to drive action across the digital channel, is something that brands from fast-growing startups to longtime industry leaders are embracing in full force.

Other solutions in the market either emit signals to drive triggering of interactions, or they offer the capability to target users and intervene. 糖心原创 Digital Suite offers both in an integrated, no-code package empowering brands to self-service and quickly ramp up their real-time interaction efforts.

Digital is no longer just a channel. It鈥檚 the first touchpoint of almost every customer journey. Customers go to your digital presence whenever they want to interact with your brand, and brands wanting to meet customer expectations need a digital presence that is intuitive, seamless, and personalized to each customer鈥檚 needs.

Creating a digital channel that meets customer expectations doesn鈥檛 happen overnight. But for brands who stick with it, the results are impressive. A recent study from the 糖心原创 Institute found that customer experience leaders are 26 times more likely than laggards to experience revenue growth of 20%, and they鈥檙e 2.8 times more likely to meet financial targets.

It鈥檚 a digital-first world, and your digital experience program needs to keep up with customers. With a digital maturity model, you鈥檒l understand where your brand鈥檚 digital maturity is today and set it on a transformational path to meet customer needs and expectations efficiently.

Let鈥檚 discuss what a digital maturity model is, why you need to use one, and the initiatives to take within each phase of a digital maturity model for your digital experience program to be successful.

What is a Digital Maturity Model?

A digital maturity model, also known as a DMM, is a step-by-step guide to help brands launch, refine, and grow their digital experience programs.

We鈥檝e used our expertise from working with over 700 of the world鈥檚 largest brands across all industries to define four key phases of digital maturity: Beginning, Integrating, Innovating, and Differentiating.

Why You Need to Use a Digital Maturity Model

Brands cannot ignore digital experience anymore, which is why the use of a digital maturity model is more important than ever. Customers live online 鈥� if your brand doesn鈥檛 understand how customers navigate websites, apps, and other digital channels throughout the customer journey, chances are you鈥檙e lagging behind the competition.

鈥淟eading brands know that investing in digital experience is a priority,鈥� says , 糖心原创鈥檚 Digital Solutions Principal. 鈥淭he question they have is: how do we take our existing program to the next level?鈥�

鈥淭hink of the maturity model as your experience program鈥檚 best friend and mentor. I鈥檝e seen the maturity model truly transform existing programs, whether by uncovering low-hanging fruit the experience team is missing, or redefining the vision of the experience program so it better aligns with broader business goals,鈥� he adds.

Principles of a Digital Maturity Model

To maximize program impact and value, digital experience leaders should pay attention to two questions: what are the strategic objectives of the program, and what are the tactical objectives needed to make the program a success?

Examples of strategic objectives include prioritizing the customer view, engaging employees consistently, and aligning across business units. Tactical objectives, on the other hand, include channel breadth (e.g., web, app, mobile app), engagement strategy (e.g., feedback, behavioral analysis), reporting (e.g., role-based dashboard, executive-report), and integrations (e.g., CRM integrations).

Only when your brand considers both strategic objectives and tactical objectives does its digital experience start to earn results and make an impact on the entire business.

4 Phases of Digital Maturity in a Digital Experience Program

Moving through the digital maturity model is no easy task. It takes strategic alignment across teams, an understanding of the customer鈥檚 viewpoint, employee engagement, and most of all, consistency. However, the brands who do so are able to differentiate themselves on the basis of experience.

Here are the four phases of digital maturity in a digital experience program and the initiatives to take with each.

Phase 1: Beginning | Score & Optimize

Every program starts somewhere. In the Beginning Phase, take stock of where you are, how to perfect what customers are currently experiencing, and set the foundation to get you where you want to go.

Key initiatives in the Beginning Phase include:

• Focusing on most important journeys only: What are the most critical paths customers are taking through your site? How do those paths relate to business outcomes? What do you need to know to optimize those journeys?
• Launching a fully or partially new program: What data do you need to improve customer experiences? What customers do you want to engage, and where? What questions should you ask, or behaviors should you observe?
• Creating a central management & action structure: Who is monitoring collected customer insights? How are insights being analyzed, so issues and opportunities are addressed?

Phase 2: Integrating | Engage & Prevent

Fixing existing problems is the first step toward perfection. The Integrating Phase is dedicated to preventing critical issues from recurring, and creating positive engagement opportunities with customers.

Key initiatives in the Integrating Phase include:

• Expanding to cover more journeys & key customer segments: Where are you seeing the most engagement? Where are your highest value customers going? How can you get more value out of those high-impact experiences?
• Some real-time action with focus on online support: What issues are preventing critical conversions? What journeys always conclude with a call to the contact center, or a lost sale? How can you proactively engage and prevent those negative experiences?
• Sharing insights beyond the digital team: Who has access to the collected customer insights? Would any other teams benefit from those insights? How can those insights be leveraged to make strategic decisions and drive growth?

Phase 3: Innovating | Personalize & Be Proactive

Personalization is king on the digital channel. The Innovating Phase is all about proactively engaging customers with relevant, personalized content so they feel truly known by your brand.

Key initiatives in the Innovating Phase include:

• Adding innovative online & some offline scenarios with profiling: What does the omnichannel customer journey look like? How can you use digital insights to engage with customers offline?
• Adding real-time action with focus on sales/marketing: How can you use customer history and real-time actions to facilitate a sale? A live promotional offer? Personalized recommendations?
• Fully integrating with your martech stack: How could customer insights help supercharge your CRM data? Your content management system, or your marketing tools?

Phase 4: Differentiating | Anticipate & Create

Differentiated brands can anticipate customer needs, and create individualized experiences in real time. The Differentiating Phase focuses on automating one-to-one interactions with your customers, so you can create an emotional connection that lasts.

Key initiatives in the Differentiating Phase include:

• Omnichannel journey coverage with dynamic profile & segmentation: How can you use existing customer segmentation to anticipate what net new customers want or need? How can you understand and influence the omnichannel journey?
• Journey orchestration & real time interaction management: How can you influence an experience in the moment, using that customer鈥檚 history with your brand? How can you anticipate and recommend the next best action?
• Human & automated delivery of experiences as the norm for 1:1: How can you augment human customer interactions with automated interactions? How can you make those automatic interactions as personal and engaging as possible?

Take Your Digital Experience Program to the Next Level

Regardless of where your digital experience program stands today, examining digital maturity provides the opportunities to improve and create seamless experiences. Every customer journey is different, and adapting your digital experience program for shifts in needs and expectations ensures your brand is aligning with their unique preferences. Over time, these optimized experiences lead to happier, more loyal customers who boost revenue.