How to Use Digital Transformation to Optimize Customer Experience

The past few years significantly accelerated society into the digital era in which we find ourselves. More and more companies, organizations, and businesses are turning to virtual operations either in part, or in whole. Beyond that, the consumer base shows a higher percentage of digital natives entering the market every single year. This indicates that we’re only going to see society integrate with technology further, making it a vital point for businesses to embrace the digital era and the virtual marketplace.

However, in the pursuit of a digital-first experience, it is vital to keep in mind that there are real people on the other end of the screen. Consumer-needs should drive tech, not the other way around.

“We really tried to stay focused on solving problems for people before worrying about whether the app would work with Alexa”

-Alexandra Nuth, Managing Director, Brightside

Establishing a Virtual Presence 

With the virtual marketplace rising sharply over the past few years, organizations have learned to adapt to the new playing field. One of the fundamental steps in successfully operating in this digital landscape is establishing a virtual presence. While a natural first step to accomplish this is building a website, a comprehensive virtual presence extends far beyond a functional website. 

“Having a website is important, of course. It’s a good place for consumers and partners to get information on the brand, it’s an easy way for us as an organization to keep track of certain data metrics, and serves other functions as well. But our virtual presence doesn’t stop there. In order to create a full-scale virtual presence, we made our brand accessible through a whole suite of digital channels. That way consumers can find us wherever they like to browse.”

-Jason Reposa, Founder and CEO, Good Feels

A virtual brand presence isn’t just about existing, however. It’s also about tone, attitude, and audience perception. This is where having a strong, crisp vision and a talented team of writers, designers, and marketers come into play. Effective messaging that resonates with consumers and reinforces the brand’s persona also helps organizations connect with consumers on a more human level.

“Our branding is all about having fun and being real about it. I mean if work is a natural part of life, we may as well find ways to make it enjoyable. That’s why we try as best we can to have our messaging reflect our values in a way that encourages our audience to have fun, embrace life, and keep things down to earth. I mean that in two ways, too, as we work very hard on our sustainability plans.”

-Anish Patel, Founder, Tinto Amorio

Developing Efficient Channels of Communication

There are many factors that play into the overall customer experience. One of these variables is efficiency. Consumers want their time to be appreciated in the same way that professionals do. As such, clunky, out of sync, uncoordinated communication systems become burdensome and present too many opportunities for a negative customer experience. This makes putting an emphasis on organizational communications a necessity in conducting and operating businesses in the modern economy.

“No matter what industry you’re in, the end-consumer is really the most important person in the whole equation. Today, the end-consumer is often browsing the website on their smartphone or sending an email through an app. It’s a new age of digital integration and technological utilization. Organizations need to be prepared and equipped to handle digital communication from users no matter where they’re coming from.”

-Trey Ferro, CEO, Spot Pet Insurance

Efficient communication isn’t only important on the external side of things. It’s also important internally as it can increase levels of productivity and boost rates of efficiency. Efficient communication is also very helpful in receiving and acting on feedback. The faster that decision-makers can be made aware of honest mistakes or negative feedback, the more quickly they can act in correction.

“No doubt about it, every entrepreneur is going to make mistakes. It’s how you take that mistake and what you do with the knowledge that you can come away with. Consumer feedback is a goldmine of good advice if you’re able to sift through the less helpful commentary. Honestly, you never know where some of the best business pivots are going to come from. Ya gotta be able to learn from the mistakes, that’s important, I think.”

-Lindsay McCormick, Founder and CEO, Bite

Making The Most out of Customer Touch Points

Whenever the company interacts with the consumer, that’s a customer touchpoint. Stringing a series of customer touchpoints together creates a customer journey. Understanding the flow of the customer journeys within an organization is vital to designing a high-quality customer experience from start to finish.

This is especially the case for any industry in which the organization is continually working with the consumer. The longer the overall customer relationship extends, the more customer journeys a consumer will endure.

“Working with our customers to help them find and customize the perfect engagement ring, I mean – we’re surrounded by love each and every day. It’s really a blessing. It’s one of the more fulfilling aspects of running the business; the ability to work with people from the moment they come to our website through the customization of the piece, and all the way through delivery and fitting and everything. It’s lovely to get so much customer input on the end result.”

-Omid Semino, CEO and Founder, Diamond Mansion

Having long term strategies in mind regarding the delivery of high quality customer experience will elevate the way that a company interacts with its consumerbase. This in turn increases brand visibility and reputation through dedicating time and energy to giving customers a top-tier experience.

“One of the best parts of this business, specifically, is seeing how happy we make our consumers through their pets. We’re really focused on the quality and make of our food and nutrients for animals, and when we know firsthand that happy pets make for happy owners. I love putting a smile on the face of my consumers. I do that in part by keeping an ear out for what it is that they need and want from my end of things. Make sure they stay happy.”

-James Shalhoub, Co-founder, Finn

Utilizing Social Media

Social media is one of the easiest places to turn to for insight into delivering a high-quality customer experience in the digital age. Not only in the sense that brands can add to their virtual presence through a comprehensive social media plan; but also because consumers live on social media. Any reviews, good or bad, will be wildly available on social media.

“They say any press is good press. That’s sort of true with social media being as massive and influential as it is today. But y’know, the best press is still good press. But yes, social media is a huge piece of any industry, especially any consumer-facing industry like ours. It reveals consumer trends, helps make brands trend. It’s a powerful tool in the right hands.”

-Amanda E. Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer, HIDE

Social media can also be folded into the overall strategy for a brand. This can happen through the way of influencer-partnerships, cross-promotions with other brands that have large followings, and even the use of lower-level brand ambassadors. 

“There are a lot of ways for people to get involved in brand promotion and through social media if they really love a brand. It’s a really common strategy that a lot of organizations utilize in order to increase visibility and establish authority in the marketplace.”

-Lori Price, Founder, PixieLane

The Value of Delivering a High-Quality Customer Experience

With the digital marketplace as saturated and competitive as it is, there’s not that much to stop a consumer from jumping to another brand after a negative experience. Beyond that, there’s even less stopping them from sharing that negative experience with their friends, followers, and family. This has a ripple effect that compounds and can hurt businesses deeply.

On the other hand, listening to consumers along their journey, and intentionally working to create a positive customer experience builds consumer trust and can even improve the inner workings of the business from top to bottom. 

“The importance of delivering positive customer experiences is underscored by May 2020 research from XM Institute, a division of Qualtrics, which found that 94% of US adult consumers said they were very likely to purchase more from a company providing “very good” CX and to recommend it to others. What’s more, 89% of respondents said they would trust a company they believed offered “very good” CX.”

-Jeremy Goldman, Director of the Marketing and Retail Briefings, Insider Intelligence