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.聽

What Is Customer Experience Journey Mapping?

Customer experience journey聽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聽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聽market research聽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.聽

Top & Digital Experience KPIs

• Time on Page:聽How long visitors spend on each page before moving onto the next.
• Conversion Rates:聽The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action on your website or app.
• Repeat Visits:聽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:聽The ability of a business to retain existing customers by providing a positive customer experience.
• Customer Lifetime Value:聽How much revenue a customer generates for a business over their lifetime.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS庐):聽A measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Customer Effort Score (CES):聽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聽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,聽frustration, and confusion at聽critical聽points in each journey.聽These insights are often supplemented聽by:

• 础听digital experience score聽to quantify the experiences for each journey segment
• Session replays:聽Video recordings that visualize the specific actions customers take as they browse your website or app, including their clicks and page scrolling behavior
• Heatmaps聽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聽websites and apps聽play such an integral聽role in customer experience, mapping聽out听补苍诲听enhancing聽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.聽Journey visualizations, in this context,聽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,聽minimizing both resources used and inaccuracies associated with manual mapping.聽

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聽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,聽a聽customer experience journey mapping聽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,聽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:聽

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 糖心原创鈥檚聽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聽bird鈥檚 nest behavior, and evaluate digital聽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聽Mapping Tool

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

1. Sunburst visualizations聽to automatically show user paths for easy journey mapping on websites and apps.
2. Funnels聽to track dropoff and engagement at various stages of conversion journeys.
3. Digital experience scoring聽to instantly determine the experience quality of every journey.
4. Behavior detection聽to pinpoint journeys and pages causing experience issues in the moment.
5. Segmentation聽to customize path analysis and focus on specific journeys of interest.
6. Forensic tools聽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聽to learn how our advanced journey visualization tools can empower your team to make data-driven decisions and enhance your brand鈥檚聽omnichannel customer journey.聽

What are the latest consumer trends that brands need to know about in 2024? For answers, 糖心原创 Market Research conducted a survey of 2,000 consumers and an analysis of the credit and debit transactions of 8 million U.S. consumers to find out what changes we can expect to see across customer spending and savings, dining, ordering, travel, shopper journeys, product discovery, content streaming, and more in the year ahead.

糖心原创鈥檚 Head of Market Research Insights, , revealed the latest findings from this study in a report: . He shared that this year consumer behavior is being shaped by three major forces: macroeconomic influences like inflation, technology 鈥� including generative AI and digital channels 鈥� and evolving lifestyles.

In this article we鈥檒l share the highlights of this presentation, including the top 18 consumer trends impacting customer experience we鈥檙e seeing unfold in 2024 and what brands can do to adapt in line with changing consumer behavior, interests, and preferences. 

Top 18 Consumer Trends in 2024

1. For the fourth year in a row, price is the number #1 factor driving household purchase decisions, but fewer consumers are citing cost as their top concern compared to in 2022 and 2023.

In 2021, 鈥渃hange in prices鈥� was a top influence shaping purchasing behavior for roughly one-third of adults in 2021.

鈥淏y the time we got to mid 2022 and early 2023, though, this number had jumped up dramatically, and this was in the face of the heaviest periods of inflation,鈥� explains Custage. 鈥淲hat we have seen over the past year, though, is that this number has receded back down to near where it was in 2021. It still is the top-ranked factor individually, but it鈥檚 shrunk as far as how often it鈥檚 cited, and it鈥檚 now once again at around a third of households that are selecting it as one of the choices.鈥�

The uptick in 2022 to 2023 and now downtrend in 2024 follows the rise and fall of the rate of inflation rate itself. The main takeaway for brands: Inflation and high prices are still important for consumers, but not as influential as they used to be.

2. As consumers have adjusted to inflation, consumer transaction volume is down slightly, while spend per transaction has remained steady.

What we鈥檙e seeing unfold is a mix of prices settling down, paired with shoppers either slightly easing up on the number of items purchased per transaction or trading down and purchasing cheaper alternatives in place of the products they鈥檇 normally buy. 

3. Some consumers may be racking up debt to get by, but it might not be a growing problem.

The majority of consumers (66%) say they鈥檙e finding ways to cut back on non-essential spend. Meanwhile 41% say they鈥檝e increased their income to compensate, such as by landing a new job or promotion or taking on extra hours. 

Roughly one-third of consumers are in the position of having to save less or take on more debt to compensate for rising costs. Though this behavior isn鈥檛 sustainable, Custage doesn鈥檛 see this trend ultimately affecting economic growth for three key reasons:

• The proportion of respondents who say they鈥檙e dipping into their savings or adding on more debt isn鈥檛 growing 鈥� this percent has remained relatively steady for the past two years. 
• Retail activity remains fairly unchanged, as illustrated in trend #2 above. In other words, there haven鈥檛 been the kinds of cutbacks in spending that are drastic enough to lead to a recession. 
• When we surveyed consumers this year about their debt over the past 12 months and whether it鈥檚 grown or declined, the percent of consumers who say they have more debt than they used to is roughly equal to the percent who say they have less debt. 

4. As inflation persists, consumers are adjusting their purchases and focusing on essentials vs. nice-to-haves.

The biggest differences consumers cited between their spending in 2022 and 2023 were that they made lifestyle changes to reduce their purchases and that they learned to accept higher prices and plan financially based on these expenses. 

鈥淐onsumers have just gotten used to what the new normal is and their behavior has adjusted accordingly and, to some extent, permanently,鈥� says Custage. 

As part of this trend toward adjusting spending, consumers appear to be favoring retailers that offer need-to-have items, he adds.

The winners are ecommerce platforms, grocery stores, dollar stores, and club retailers, and the ones that are trending downwards fall into categories like leisure, home improvement, and fitness. 

5. Despite cost concerns, consumers aren鈥檛 cutting back on dining out.

Spending on food is one of the biggest expenses for individuals, and, with rising inflation, many thought consumers would cut back on dining out as a 鈥渘ice to have鈥� as well and instead shift to spending on groceries. 

鈥淲e really haven鈥檛 seen that trend play out, and a lot of it can be due to the built-in convenience and time savings of restaurants that turn many consumers away from groceries regardless of what prices are,鈥� Custage explains, adding that the rate of inflation was also higher for groceries in 2022 to 2023 compared to restaurant food. 鈥淎nd that helped at least restaurants win the sticker shock concerns that consumers would experience when seeing how much grocery prices had gone up and just turn them away from that and towards restaurants, even if the cost per meal is still higher at a restaurant.鈥�

As a result, the balance of the share of wallet between grocery stores and restaurants hasn鈥檛 changed much due to inflation. And the rate of switching from dining at costlier full-service restaurants to dining out at more budget-friendly fast casual establishments has been modest. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 been a little bit of a trade-down effect where more often if people are buying restaurant food, they鈥檙e going to turn to quick service and fast casual instead of casual dining or family dining or sit-down dining, where it鈥檚 a little more expensive per meal,鈥� he says.

In response, restaurants have rolled out some pretty creative strategies, such as Applebee鈥檚 launching a subscription model offering guests greater savings per visit. 

6. Today鈥檚 shopper is conducting more research before making a purchase.

To adapt to inflation, consumers are more likely to price compare the cost of buying the same product at different stores, the same product online vs. in person, an off-brand item vs. the brand-name version, and an item second hand vs. new.

鈥淎s consumers are becoming a little bit savvier, I think a big takeaway for restaurants, retailers, hospitality, and anybody else in the space is to be more aware of the shopper journey and what鈥檚 visible to consumers in terms of price, being cognizant of whether you鈥檙e competing on price to begin with or if you鈥檙e competing on another attribute like experience, value, service speed, or product quality,鈥� says Custage. 

For brands that are losing out on price, they need to make sure they鈥檙e differentiated in another way to win over increasingly savvy and discerning consumers. 

7. Generative AI is becoming part of the shopper journey.

More than one-third of Millennials and Gen Zers say they鈥檝e used artificial intelligence for ideas about what to buy or where to shop. 

While there may not be much that retailers can do right now to try and improve their standings within the results AI tools produce, this new consumer trend is important to be aware of, one that will undoubtedly grow over time, explains Custage. It鈥檚 also worth noting that there鈥檚 some level of consumer comfort with engaging with AI to assist with shopping and retail decision-making, a trend that brands could ultimately use to adapt their strategies and offerings on their owned channels.

8. Consumers are noticing the increased pressure to tip 鈥� even in situations where tipping wasn鈥檛 previously expected 鈥� and the cuts companies are making that are having a negative impact on the customer experience.

Most consumers observe that there鈥檚 a greater pressure to tip these days and that there have been changes for the worse to the customer experience and customer service companies offer as a result of cutbacks, with retailers, restaurants, and airlines cited as the worst customer service offenders in 2024. 

9. Consumers say they鈥檙e more likely to speak out about negative customer experiences.

More than three in five consumers (62%) say that they鈥檙e more willing to speak up when a company provides them with a poor experience in 2024. 

In response, brands should collect customer feedback through internal channels to learn from these insights and adapt their strategies accordingly. Companies that aren鈥檛 proactive run the risk of customers sharing their poor experiences on public forums, which could impact their overall brand reputation and turn potential customers away. 

10. Buy-now, pay-later鈥檚 growth continues to soar 鈥� not just as a payment option, but in shaping the entire customer journey.

These payment platforms, which have grown by 20X over the last five years, influence the brands that customers decide to shop with and where they make purchases, based on the availability of third-party buy-now, pay-later partners, says Custage. For many, the shopping process starts with seeing where their preferred payment option is accepted or whether platforms like Klarna or Afterpay are offering promotions or deals. 

11. Third-party ordering platforms have become a permanent part of the digital retail and restaurant customer journey.

Collectively, the industry is stable and experiencing all-time highs in terms of sales, even as the initial drivers of third-party ordering platforms鈥� success 鈥� stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines 鈥� are no longer factors. 

鈥淓ven in the face of rising costs and the issues that consumers have with tipping or added service fees or price increases on one channel versus another, the built-in convenience and habit forming that platforms like DoorDash and Instacart have been able to achieve over the past few years, beginning at the height of COVID-19 and really continuing not giving up much ground at all, has shown that these platforms are really here to stay,鈥� Custage explains. 

One factor fueling the success of these platforms? The rise of Gen Z, many of whom are members of the workforce, live on their own, and have only been consumers with purchasing power in an era in which these platforms existed.  

The goal for restaurants and retailers should be to have a clearly defined customer experience strategy for their presence on third-party ordering platforms, to use these platforms strategically as an acquisition tool, and, ultimately, to encourage customers to migrate over to direct, first-party ordering.

12. Amazon just keeps on growing.

The online retailer is now the go-to for consumers for tentpole shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, ahead of traditional mass retailers and department stores. 

The company has built momentum with their own retail holiday, Prime Day, a bandwagon other brands are attempting to hop on by rolling out their own competing retail holidays to win back some share of wallet. 

13. Omnichannel journeys are the new normal.

While about half of consumers continue to browse and buy groceries in person (a single-channel experience) and online-only retailers are dominated by digital-only journeys, most other kinds of retailers 鈥� from department stores and dollar stores to office supply stores and jewelry stores 鈥� have a much more nuanced, omnichannel customer journey, with a mix of behaviors that include browsing in store and buying online for delivery, browsing online and buying in store, and browsing and buying online for curbside pickup. 

There鈥檚 a clear call to action for retailers: These experiences and touchpoints must no longer be managed in silos. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 really a need for this more cohesive view of the customer and having a continuity of knowledge of the activity customers have from one channel to the next鈥onsidering how often consumers are starting in one channel and then are jumping across to another,鈥� explains Custage.

 14. Brands鈥� mobile apps are the most popular digital touchpoint for customers.

Consumers are most likely to interact with brands digitally via a mobile device, either via the company鈥檚 mobile app (35%) or company鈥檚 website via a phone (27%).

For businesses, that means enhancing the app and mobile experience need to be a top priority to drive repeat engagement, conversions, upsells, and crossales, says Custage. 

15. Social media is playing a bigger role in the product discovery journey than it did a year ago.

More than half of consumers agree that social media is having a bigger influence on how they find out about products in 2024 than in 2023, with Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok being the top sources of product information. 

Brands should pay attention to differences in product discovery by generation, and, as Gen Z becomes a more powerful consumer group, it will be important to keep an eye on the channels younger audiences use to learn about and engage with brands. 

16. Not surprisingly, Baby Boomers are more likely to watch live TV, while younger generations are more likely to consume user-generated content on streaming services and play video games.

鈥淕en Zers are engaging with media much differently than their older counterparts,鈥� explains Custage. 

As such, for brands looking to reach younger consumers, they鈥檒l need to become proficient in creating short-form user-generated content with influencers, he adds.

17. Consumers are streaming more content in 2024 than they did 12 months ago.

Both streaming video and audio content are gaining traction, with consumers reporting an uptick in each by 12% and 6%, respectively. 

18. Consumer optimism about travel is at a three-year high.

Even in the face of inflation, travel continues to grow as we get back to normal after the temporary declines the industry experienced related to COVID-19. 

For 2024, the most popular types of travel include heading to the beach, visiting friends and family, and exploring cities.

Prepare for Future Consumer Trends in 2024 and Beyond

Find out how 糖心原创 Market Research can help your company stay ahead of changing market dynamics and the latest and emerging trends in consumer behavior, customer experience, and digital experience so you can take action with confidence to capture more market share. 

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.

(EDITOR鈥橲 NOTE: Welcome to the third part of 糖心原创鈥檚 5-part blog series, Tools of Digital Experience Analytics. Each blog defines and explains the purpose behind a fundamental tool or feature of digital experience analytics. So far, we鈥檝e covered digital experience scores and heatmaps, and now we turn our attention to session replay tools. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs on form analytics and journey visualizations.)

Delivering the ultimate digital experience on websites and apps depends on how well you know your customers. It鈥檚 no longer enough to judge digital experience quality by just metrics like engagement, conversions, abandonment, and others alike. While useful, these metrics reveal outcomes, not experiences. Session replay tools allow you to fill that gap.

If you want to improve digital experience, you need to understand how customers behave, engage, and interact across your website or app. Session replay tools give you a direct look at all of the above and then some. They enable you to experience exactly what your customers experience.

What is session replay?

Session replay refers to technology that enables digital teams to watch back videos of real, anonymized users interacting with websites or apps. It鈥檚 often included as a fundamental tool within digital experience analytics solutions and sometimes referred to as 鈥渟ession recordings鈥� as well. 

The beauty of this tool comes from its ability to capture and show every experience, behavior, and interaction exactly how it happens on a website or app. It provides an 鈥渙ver the shoulder鈥� view of digital experience, so teams get a first-hand look at the real problems causing frustration and derailing journeys. According to an Econsultancy survey,  find session replay effective to highly effective for measuring online experiences. 

With a playback of any and every user session, session replay goes beyond just data sheets and dashboard metrics 鈥� it lets you experience what your customers experience. This reveals all sorts of granular insights other tools and solutions simply can鈥檛 replicate.

Given that data-driven organizations are , six times as likely to retain customers, and 19 times as likely to be profitable as a result, adding unique session replay insights to the mix will only bolster your ability to analyze and improve digital experiences.

Why should you use session replay?

Session replay differentiates itself from other tools by allowing teams to view and treat online customers like real people instead of transactional data points. As  says, 鈥淪ession replays provide incredibly in-depth insights. In fact, they often offer the easiest, most cost-efficient way to get into the minds of your customers.鈥�

Session replay tools allow you to truly get to the heart of pain points creating costly friction in the online customer journey. With session replay, you can investigate experiences and discover the 鈥榳hy鈥� (the digital experience issues) behind the 鈥榳hat鈥� (website and app analytics data). It can reduce the endless hours spent hypothesizing and testing the reasons for poor engagement, conversions, abandonment, and any other key metrics.

When watching back user sessions, you can spot digital body language cues like multi-click behavior that signals clear user frustration, or mouse reading behavior that indicates positive levels of user engagement 鈥� among dozens of other behaviors. This simplifies how you make sense of online customer behavior and determine digital experience quality. 

In the end,聽聽sums up this tool well: 鈥淪ession replays are unique for providing a window into the raw user experience. Site visitors are not being influenced by tasks that you have provided them or changing their behavior. They鈥檙e doing exactly what they鈥檇 usually do. The result? Session replays take out the bias from website evaluation, removing how you believe a website visitor will behave from the equation.鈥�

How should you use session replay?

While session replay may seem very simple at the surface, it takes a well thought-out approach to maximize insights from this tool. There鈥檚 more to it than just watching back sessions and searching for digital experience issues. It takes a clear-cut process that you can repeat time after time when investigating poor experiences on your website or app. 

It鈥檚 best practice to avoid watching session replays haphazardly to find poor experiences 鈥� that can be far too time consuming. Make the most of session replay by investigating known digital experience issues reflected by analytics and other high level tools like heatmaps. With that as a guide, you can then dig into related user sessions linked to friction on web pages or app screens, user journeys, and user segments.

Follow this  to make the most of session replay insights to help you improve digital experience: 

1. Don鈥檛 watch random session replays; review impactful recordings and timestamps
2. Create context with analytics and investigate known digital experience problems聽
3. Establish a repeatable and practical note-taking system for team collaboration
4. Rely on journey funnels to pinpoint and review areas of user drop-off and friction
5. Leverage behavior detection to spot frustration and confusion to further analyze
6. Review heatmaps to find compelling patterns worth checking out with session replays
7. Watch back replays linked to form analytics data that reflects poor form experiences
8. Use segmentation to narrow analysis for targeted investigations on various journey types

What matters most when choosing a session replay tool?

There are a lot of session replay tools available, but not all are created equally. Some offer  while others can become time-consuming with older technology and less automation. Here鈥檚 a look at the seven core capabilities your organization should prioritize in a session-replay tool:

1. Automated analysis to pinpoint the most important session replays and time stamps聽
2. Segmentation between high-quality and low-quality experiences
3. Behavior detection 鈥� automated alerts for sessions with high frustration or engagement
4. Detailed user journey mapping between devices, channels, and browsers
5. Heatmap integrations to contextualize and guide session replay analysis
6. In-app filtering, tagging, and commenting for team collaboration within session replays
7. Tech-stack integrations to pair external data with related session replays

Need inspiration for innovating in the digital era? Download the 鈥溙切脑� Experience 21: Experience Leaders鈥� eBook to get real-world examples and inspirational stories from industry leading brands.

The hospitality and travel industry鈥檚 recovery is on many people鈥檚 minds as vaccines continue to roll out and the end of the pandemic is in sight in some parts of the world. As guests begin to return, their behaviors have changed. That means guest feedback and engagement have become more crucial for hoteliers as they head into the next normal.

Why is guest feedback important? Not only does it provide a window into guest satisfaction, but it offers a way to adapt your operations to better serve customer preferences and needs. It also allows you to gain insight into ways you can聽innovate to stay ahead of the competition.

But, just collecting customer feedback is not enough. As hoteliers look for new ways to increase bookings, preferably direct, engaging with customers will be key to gaining guest loyalty. Recent , conducted in partnership with 糖心原创, shows that while engagement and interaction between hoteliers and guests are taking new forms, it is still as important as ever and a key driver for the insights that will lead to innovation that puts brands a step above the competition.

Here鈥檚 what the research shows as you embark on how to create a聽customer engagement strategy聽that works for you.

How customer engagement boosts business

Engagement and interaction between hoteliers and guests are taking new forms but are still as important as ever, the research shows. Customer engagement is a key driver of guest satisfaction and loyalty 鈥� and can lead to a lift in direct bookings as a result.

According to the research, a customer鈥檚 willingness to share feedback, along with hotel management鈥檚 response, affected these four elements:

1. Future guest satisfaction: When hotel management acknowledged service shortcomings and offered personalized and detailed apologies, guest satisfaction improved on future stays.
2. Tendency to share reviews online: A quick thank you from the hotel after receiving feedback increased the likelihood that the guest would share a review online after their next stay. On the flip slip, researchers found that overly detailed thank you messages could deter guests from sharing future reviews.
3. Loyalty: Feedback provided by guests, whether it was positive or negative, signaled a willingness to engage with the hotel brand. It increased the chance of the guest becoming loyal by almost 50%. The likelihood of becoming loyal increased even more when management responded to guest feedback.
4. Booking channel: When customers engaged with the brand via a guest satisfaction survey, they were less likely to book via a third party and instead book direct. As a result, hotels that engaged with guests reduced OTA commissions by 5% 鈥� savings that were further increased when managers responded to guest feedback.

3 tips for engaging with customers

Engaging with customers can help to grow advocates for your brand when current customers are more willing to share their experiences via reviews for prospective customers to see. Here are three ways you can set yourself up for success.

1. Solicit feedback: Let your customers know that you want their opinions. Request feedback via guest surveys and encourage your customers to share their experiences online.
2. Show you鈥檙e listening: Customers will know your brand is open to listening to them when they see you respond to reviews. Make sure you offer personalized and relevant responses to demonstrate you are actually reading the feedback.
3. Act on feedback: Listening is great, but it doesn鈥檛 mean much if you aren鈥檛 acting on what you learn. Your guests are telling you what they need for a stellar customer experience. Listen, learn, then act to stay ahead of competition and gain loyalty.

The research found that consumers new to providing reviews online are disproportionately negative. If you rely on customers to be self-motivated to post reviews, you could be left with a biased view of satisfaction that tends to be less positive. You need to facilitate and make it easy for your customers to share their feedback if you hope to get a clear picture of guest satisfaction.

Consumers continue to flock to websites and apps, and they expect more from these channels today than ever before. As brands adapt to life after digital transformation fueled by the pandemic, they must learn from online customer behavior to optimize those digital experiences. And those that can turn online customer behavior data into actionable insights outperform peers by . 

But a common issue arises for many brands trying to capture and turn online customer behaviors into insights: scalability. How can you realistically track and make sense of millions of behaviors taking place across your website or app every day? Digital experience analytics offers a purpose-built solution to do just that.

What is digital experience analytics? 

Simply put,  refers to solutions that instantly measure and quantify customer experiences on websites or apps. These solutions typically include capabilities that uncover online customer experience issues with features like experience scoring, behavior detection, and journey analysis, among many others. On top of that, it typically comes equipped with must-have analytical tools for investigating and resolving those issues, like session replay and heatmaps.

Going beyond surface level web and app data, digital experience analytics allows brands to catch a glimpse of the user鈥檚 state of mind. Automatically measuring billions of user sessions and trillions of user behaviors, digital experience analytics can expose exactly what鈥檚 happening throughout the online customer journey. In turn, these insights reveal previously hidden issues and opportunities to optimize web and app experiences which otherwise would go unnoticed.

Turning online customer behavior into truly actionable insights, digital experience analytics has become the ultimate solution for creating friction-free web and app experiences that meet sky-high customer expectations.

Why use digital experience analytics? 

Brands simply can鈥檛 afford flawed experiences on websites and apps. As digital experiences boom with activity 鈥� , up 22% from 2019 鈥� tolerance for friction-filled online journeys continues to shrink. And consumers aren鈥檛 shy about letting you know. If websites or apps fail to deliver exceptional experiences,  while 67% ultimately churn.

Digital experience analytics offers a gold mine of insights around online customer experience. While web analytics, A/B testing tools, and customer feedback solutions each boast valuable data, digital experience analytics gleans unique behavioral insights required for proper web and app optimization.

To reveal the quality of online customer experiences at scale, digital experience analytics tracks every user鈥檚  鈥� millions of daily behaviors at the enterprise level 鈥� to uncover instances of friction, confusion, and interest. With a strong focus on areas like engagement, frustration, navigation, along with technical and form experiences, digital experience analytics tools surface every opportunity to optimize websites and apps. 

And by combining digital experience analytics with other experience management tools, brands can diagnose and resolve issues across websites and apps without any second guessing or misfires. It鈥檚 the perfect data-driven marriage for perfecting online customer experiences. 

Who uses digital experience analytics? 

There isn鈥檛 necessarily a wrong answer here. Oftentimes, it鈥檚 not the sole responsibility of a single individual, team, or department to improve web and app experiences 鈥� it鈥檚 a larger scale effort. In fact,  involves multiple business units or the entire company. Any and every team involved with transforming online customer experiences should gain exposure to digital experience analytics. 

What exactly would digital experience analytics look like in action across your own organization? Take inspiration from a few of these use cases:

• Web analysts spot user journey bottlenecks dragging key performance indicators.
• Digital optimizers find spikes in frustration and confusion connected to new A/B tests.
• User experience designers discover layouts and page elements contributing to poor engagement.
• Ecommerce operators uncover technical issues costing purchases on checkout pages.
• Digital marketers investigate form experience issues sabotaging landing page conversions.
• Customer insight specialists correlate repeated user frustration with low CSAT results.

Given the far-reaching nature of web and app operations, it鈥檚 critical to expose every team to digital experience analytics to deliver the ultimate online customer experience.

What are the tools and capabilities behind digital experience analytics?

There鈥檚 no single digital experience analytics tool or capability that perfectly uncovers every experience issue and optimization opportunity on websites and apps. Each feature brings to the table its own unique data which creates a well-rounded set of insights 鈥� a must-have for quality optimization efforts. Discover the core functionalities of digital experience analytics with this clear-cut rundown:

•  quantifies every behavior, interaction, and journey with a single score, typically scaling from 1 to 10. It鈥檚 the best metric for measuring and benchmarking experience quality on websites and apps.
• Behavior detection accounts for clicks and mouse movement 鈥� upward of a hundred various behaviors 鈥� to pinpoint every instance of frustration, confusion, and interest. Prioritization feedback organizes experience issues by urgency to keep optimization efforts focused on the most high-impact events. 
•  maps out and visualizes every user journey to discover the most popular paths and pages while revealing the most problematic ones creating bottlenecks.
• Segmentation provides a wide range of filters around users and journeys 鈥� like behaviors, device types, A/B tests, and even third-party data 鈥� for granular experience investigations and optimization efforts.
• Technical reports keep track of issues on the backend of websites and apps, such as broken links or shoddy code, that disrupt user journeys and drag experience quality.
•  display aggregated on-page user behaviors and interactions with colorful visualizations and often offer various types like scroll, attention, dot/click, attribution, and behavior heatmaps.
•  provides anonymized recordings of every user session to display exactly how journeys and behaviors unfold at the case-by-case level. More advanced session replays automatically identify the most insightful sessions to watch back. 
• Form analytics measures the experiences and outcomes on any form-based submission page like account sign-ups, checkout screens, and demo requests.

As the digital-first consumer mindset evolves, digital experience analytics will become all-but mandatory for turning online customer behavior into insights that enable crucial improvements to web and app experiences. 

Take a deeper dive behind this solution with Decibel by 糖心原创鈥檚 . It offers a detailed look at every tool, capability, and use case while providing a step-by-step process for putting it altogether to perfect web and app experiences.

(EDITOR鈥橲 NOTE: This is the final part of our three-part series examining how organizations can stay ahead of tomorrow in these uncertain times, based on interviews with 糖心原创鈥檚 leading experts.)

Consumers today are in the driver鈥檚 seat, and their behavior is changing faster than ever. During the pandemic,聽, brands or the way they shop. And, as a result of these changing consumer behaviors, companies across categories have seen聽digital channel adoption聽grow between 15% and 40%. What鈥檚 more, 75% of customers who report using digital channels for the first time say they plan to keep doing so even after things return to 鈥渘ormal.鈥�

Simply put, customers expect fast, frictionless and personalized digital experiences 鈥� but also in those key moments of truth that may involve human interaction. Companies that deliver a seamless omnichannel experience put themselves way ahead of their competitors who do not 鈥� and they open up an opportunity to retain customer loyalty. Research shows that 75% of consumers want  (web, mobile, in-person, social) and 73% are likely to switch brands if they don鈥檛 get it.

Creating a seamless omnichannel experience

 in a store and 10% more online than single-channel customers. And for every additional channel they use, customers spend more money. That means the customer experience across all channels needs to be seamless. 

However, opportunities to engage with your customers in key moments have changed. In the past, you may have found that email or the point of sale in store were the best ways to engage with customers and gather feedback. Now, your biggest opportunity may have shifted to when customers are engaging with your website or app, or reaching out directly to your contact center or via text messaging.

鈥淚t鈥檚 about meeting your customers where they are,鈥� said Geoffry Ryskamp, Global Head of 糖心原创鈥檚 Hospitality Practice, who has 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, most recently a founding member of the asset management team at Pebblebrook Hotel Trust. 鈥淐all centers will always be important for the customer experience, but not everyone wants to pick up the phone. You need to be available for your customers across multiple channels, including web, mobile and in-app. Most importantly, the experience across these channels has to be seamless.鈥�

If a customer has a 5-star experience on your mobile app, but then the experience doesn鈥檛 meet those same expectations when they visit your physical location or website, what鈥檚 the likely outcome? When you hone in on your customer experience, making it consistent across all channels, the opportunity to grow customer loyalty increases.

鈥淔or example, let鈥檚 say a customer is trying to find information on your website about updated cleanliness standards. It鈥檚 important that the potential hotel guest knows the procedures before booking, so they may call to find out. How that call is handled can either lead to a booking or the loss of a customer,鈥� Ryskamp added.

Adapting to meet customer needs

With digital now the heart of your brand, you need to learn from the online experiences you offer. Not only will the insights you gather allow you to improve and optimize digital, but you can apply what you learn across all your channels. 

鈥淎 lot of business has shifted to starting in the digital marketplace but then needs to be fulfilled in the brick-and-mortar locations,鈥� said Mike Debnar, a Solution Principal for 糖心原创 focused on retail and digital innovation, who helped create a digital guest experience while at 7-Eleven that has since led to聽increased engagement and improved case efficiency.聽鈥淭here鈥檚 an execution gap that needs to be understood. Digital synchronization with physical locations is crucial to delivering a seamless omnichannel experience.鈥�

Your customers are telling you what they want from their experiences. You need to listen, and then act on what you learn.

For example, it鈥檚 no secret that foot traffic to store locations decreased during the pandemic as many consumers stayed home. But, retailers that managed to adapt and innovate to cater to these new consumer behaviors quickly offered buy online pickup curbside services. As a result, they were able to gather real-time feedback across multiple channels 鈥� from websites, email surveys, apps, and those in-person interactions. Those insights allowed them to learn about and resolve any issues that affected this new customer experience across channels.

鈥淏y seeing where customers are interacting with you and the types of transactions they are trying to complete, businesses can identify and resolve multiple issues impacting customers,鈥� said Jason Pontelin, a director of professional services for 糖心原创, who works with customers across healthcare, life sciences, telecommunications and utilities. 鈥淭his has helped them increase customer satisfaction and ensure transactions can be completed seamlessly across multiple channels, allowing customers to choose their preferred path.鈥�

Connecting the dots, and the tech stack

Digital first doesn鈥檛 mean you can take the human aspect out of your customer experience strategy. Consumers expect businesses to know their history and preferences . Organizations that can鈥檛 consolidate the data or those operating in silos can be left blind to what the customer has said, done and experienced. 

鈥淎 disparate technology stack can cause increased friction for customers and limit organizations from creating personalized experiences, optimizing marketing spend and effective cross-selling,鈥� said Zack Hamilton, 糖心原创鈥檚 Solution Principal for Retail, who previously spent over 10 years leading customer experience strategy, customer service operations and sales strategy for a North American retailer. 鈥淚ntegrating digital technology systems puts organizations in control of their customers鈥� data, enabling them to deliver better experiences.鈥�

By uncovering precise areas of interest or where customers experience friction, you can deliver a seamless omnichannel experience that drives more positive outcomes for your customers 鈥� and your business.

Download 糖心原创鈥檚 eBook 鈥淪tay Ahead of Tomorrow: The Executive鈥檚 Guide to Life After Digital Transformation鈥� to learn how creating a seamless omnichannel experience can drive your business forward.

As an analyst or optimizer, you know it鈥檚 crucial to establish a metric as your key performance indicator (KPI) to effectively monitor and measure UX performance across your mobile app.

Similar to a car鈥檚 鈥榗heck engine light鈥� warning the driver of required maintenance, your KPI will indicate critical times to implement optimizations to improve mobile app experiences. And if user experiences are fully optimized, they can .

So, which metric is best suited to be used as a KPI to measure the quality of customer experiences on your mobile app?

In our survey report with Econsultancy, over 300 companies were asked to indicate the metrics they find most effective for measuring online experiences and the results yielded 11 highly popular metrics. Combining this survey data with insights from our product experts, we鈥檝e identified the 7 most relevant metrics to consider as your KPI for evaluating your mobile app experiences.

1. Time on screen

A user鈥檚 time on screen allows you to measure app experiences leading to longer versus shorter sessions. These differing session times indicate how certain experiences impact a user鈥檚 time on screen, and you can dig into session lengths that don鈥檛 match the expected time on screen for each journey.

In most cases, time on screen data is more descriptive of user sessions rather than prescriptive for new optimizations. For instance, a short session could mean the content a user found what they needed in the first or second screen, not necessarily because they grew frustrated and abandoned 鈥� so time is not always tied to experience quality.

2. App launches

App launches are comparable to repeat visits on websites: they track how often users reopen and use a mobile app. This is nearly always a positive sign as you can identify the positive experiences prompting those users to return and re-engage. From here you may discover the best performing mobile app journey and try to replicate those positive experiences across lower performing journeys.

However, analysts cannot easily pinpoint whether related experiences versus various buying factors promote more app launches. Without certainty, optimizing experiences using this data could backfire if the patterns deduced are just coincidental rather than real trends behind mobile app experiences.

3. Engagement rate

Engagement rates indicate how often your users interact with your mobile app, which provides a clear view of how well in-app experiences keep users interested. From evaluating navigation, screen layout, and on-screen elements to determining the success of content and designs, engagement rates act as a useful measuring stick for identifying which experiences captivate versus bore users.

While useful for gauging user interest, engagement rates are also highly depending on any user鈥檚 given goal. The intended goal may take several touches to complete or in some cases none at all. This makes it truly challenging to determine whether experiences actually good, bad, or just coincidence.

4. Conversion rate

Conversion rates highlight your mobile app鈥檚 success in bringing customers to complete an intended call- to-action 鈥� whether it鈥檚 a sale at checkout or opening a new bank account. This enables you to understand which types of experiences lead to more in-app conversions versus those that lead to fewer.

Unfortunately, too many variables like price and selection affect purchasing decisions, which makes conversion-based experience data highly unreliable. Perhaps you have several popular products that create so much demand it supersedes experience issues like slow loading screens or unresponsive buttons within those mobile app experiences.

5. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

A notable industry favorite, Net Promoter Score gauges experience quality through the likelihood of customer referrals. With NPS, you can determine which in-app journeys are tied to high-loyalty customers raving about their experiences, and further investigate their journeys to find screens and content contributing to those positive results.

The key flaw here lies in broad scoring data failing to point at specific mobile app experiences impacting that customer loyalty. This forces analysts to make tedious correlations and estimations based on this data, which makes mobile app optimizations imprecise and potentially even counterproductive.

6. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

Among the most-used CX metrics, CSAT allows you to determine the general levels of customer satisfaction. As it translates to mobile app experiences, teams can analyze which in-app journeys correlate with positive versus negative scoring feedback and investigate accordingly. This is a useful practice for categorizing productive versus poor mobile app experiences.

While you can make connections between feedback and user experiences, this data is subjectively based on customer opinions and fails to link to specific in-app experiences affecting those CSAT scores. This limits optimizers from definitively identifying and improving nuanced issues like a clunky user interface affecting scoring feedback.

7. Digital Experience Score (DXS)

The core pitfall of the customer experience metrics listed so far comes from a lack of definitive data that optimizers and analysts need to pinpoint and improve poor in-app experiences. This uncertainty can seriously limit the success of your mobile app optimization efforts.

To reveal the unknowns of mobile app experiences, 糖心原创 Digital Experience Analytics created the Digital Experience Score (DXS): a holistic metric that automatically measures online experiences and identifies poor experiences impacting results.

• What separates DXS from a typical customer experience metric?
• Powered by AI for enterprise scalability and efficiency
• Automatically crunches millions of data points and scores quality from 1-10
• Tracks user behaviors indicating frustration or engagement
• Measures 5 pillars of experience data like navigation and technical experiences
• Trusted by major global brands like Adidas and Fidelity International

Leader of Global Ecommerce Shopper Experience at LEGO, Tim Murphy highlights that 鈥渨ith DXS we finally have a quantifiable score that can be easily communicated to all levels of the company 鈥� from C-level down to the developers.鈥� Using DXS, you can definitively quantify the quality of user experiences and predict results at the enterprise level without any second-guessing.

Implement & Follow a Simple Process for Optimizing Digital Experiences

With the pros and cons of the most relevant mobile app metrics laid out, your team can align on one and establish a clear view of how user experiences perform and when you鈥檒l need to optimize them.

However, it takes more than a benchmarking KPI to roll out highly successful improvements that will move the needle on engagements, conversions, and more. In fact,  said they struggle to design projects that increase customer loyalty and achieve results.

Download The Essential Tools of Digital Experience Analytics to discover the place for each tool in your digital experience strategy, and how to get the most out of them to maximize actionable insights.