Understanding the significance of digital customer experience

Irrespective of where you are conversing with your customers, they need to feel understood and valued. Hence, the interaction between a customer and a brand should be convenient and smooth. 

This is true for both digital and physical customer experiences. But, since the UAE shopper is among the prominent online spenders, the need to provide a better digital customer experience has enhanced more than ever.

In fact, in the broader Middle East, North Africa, and South Africa region, the UAE is representing the largest annual spending for every online shopper at $1648, with a projection in growth through 2020 at 29.6%.

In the present scenario, one of the essential surviving techniques for a business is to work towards building relationships and establishing emotional connections with customers via the internet. 

That is the reason why digital customer experience is important for your business.

Why does digital customer experience matter now?

Many organizations are still experiencing a difficult time defining what a good digital experience is. However, this doesn’t have to be the case every time. Especially if a brand is focusing on providing such a digital customer experience that comprises interactions with customers that are accessing the brand through a tablet, smartphone or computer.

In this situation, a few factors that an organization needs to keep in mind are:

• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Search engine optimization

An approach to the digital customer experience is basically different from the traditional methodology. This is mainly because offline and online customers vary tremendously. 

In retail, a customer's experience is affected by things like lighting, atmosphere or customers’ behavior in store which are not a direct responsibility of the seller. And, in an online environment, on the other hand, customers are not as patient or forgiving. 

They expect to get a response within seconds of tapping or clicking. That is why a digital experience should meet the requirements of a customer.

Role and impact of digital CX in your business

Digital technology has managed to transform the habits of consumers. Apps, machine learning, mobile devices, automation and more allow consumers to get what they wish almost instantaneously.

Moreover, these evolving technologies have also caused a major shift in how consumers expect from brands, resulting in modern demands. Today, customers are consistently connected, app-native, and know what they are doing with the technology.

And hence, the digital scenario is compelling brands to rethink how they connect and interact with their customers. For instance:

• B2B sales teams are forced to replace cold calling with social media platforms.
• Marketing teams are decreasing their expenses on offline marketing and putting the same amount in a data-driven marketing strategy
• Customer service teams are using a wide range of channels to help their consumers at every step

Reasons to Have an Outstanding Digital Customer Experience Strategy

As per a recent report by HubSpot Research, 90% of customers consider it essential to get a prompt response to their customer support query. In fact, 81% of marketers are mostly competing on the basis of good customer experience.

If the potential customers don’t find what they are looking for, within a few taps or clicks, they are more likely to give up on the brand altogether. And, not to forget that if a customer is compelled to wait for one to three seconds for a page to load, the bounce rate can drastically increase by 32%.

So what does it imply? When online shoppers experience the slightest inconvenience, they don’t step behind from blaming the company. This, in turn, impacts the entire revenue model negatively.

Thus, it is essential to establish a rewarding customer experience strategy before making any significant decisions.

Effectively Digitizing the Customer Service

When there arises a need to differentiate a business from competitors and improve customer experience, enabling customers to access on-demand support plays an important role. Ensuring that customers are getting swift resolutions is important for the growth of a business.

For that to happen, modern-day businesses can skip calls or emails and switch to an efficient method, which is live chat. With a live chat system, online customer experience can be streamlined as this tool helps in several ways, including:

• 24/7 customer service
• Providing chat logs for proof of transparency and contact
• Ensuring higher conversions, sales, and average order values
• Offering real-time convenience for visitors
• Allowing access to analysis and reports
• Improving customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Helping to know the pain points of the target audience
• Providing hands-on outreach
• Enabling multitasking

In fact, a study confirmed that more than 90% of customers think that a live chat button gives them surety of right and accurate help.

Factors to Keep in Mind of Digital CX

Excellent digital customer experience is based on six major factors, such as:

• Empathy:

A business has to create relationships with customers on the basis of empathetic emotions towards different circumstances.

• Effort and Time:

The primary concentration should be on making the customer experience as simple and straightforward as possible.

• Personalization:

Good customer experience is all about establishing a customized and emotional connection with the target audience.

• Reliability:

Putting the foundation of a trusting relationship with the target audience, based on credibility, can help pave a rewarding way.

• Resolution:

Taking responsibility for issues and solving them within a timeline can help an organization gain positive points.

• Expectations:

Understanding what the target audience is expecting and finding a way to meet them can give an organization major strength.

In A Nutshell:

Customers want to feel nothing but satisfied with the interaction they have with a business. Or else, it becomes difficult for them to stick around and purchase again. For digital experiences, this is especially true as the fear of bounce rates is always there for a company.

So, in case you are looking forward to boosting conversions, building a long-lasting relationship and increasing sales, concentrating on the digital customer experience is extremely important. Make sure you don’t have unhappy, grumpy customers on your side.