Building a digital-first customer experience, be it from the ground up or with an existing system, can seem like a difficult endeavor. The trick, however, is harnessing the available technologies while maintaining a human touch. 

Creating a digital-first customer experience (CX) can be a lot easier when you take some things into account before you begin. Read on for our five key considerations for how to build or remodel a digital CX experience.

Tip #1: Make sure your team is digital-first

Your digital customer experience relies on leaders who put the customer first and understand the digital setting. Your entire organization needs to think with a digital-first and customer-centric approach. 

The goal of a digital customer experience is a total dedication to customers and whatever it takes to make them happy, while turning offline conversations into online followers and sales.

Tip #2: Drive decisions through data

Understanding customers by ingraining your strategy with a data-driven approach is a crucial step. If you do this, you’ll understand the customer’s history, journey, and interaction touchpoints well, and a lot of this hinges on using the right CRM.

This opens the door for other ways to boost revenue from existing customers with email ad banners while ​​giving customers a list of service options like sending an email, giving them another exit.

Tip #3: Start analyzing

We just mentioned that data is crucial for a quality CX strategy, and actionable reporting goes hand-in-hand with it. Tracking customer service interactions is simply not enough; that data must be channeled somewhere useful as well. 

For example, analytics about customers’ opinions should be shared throughout your organization, so everyone can improve their understanding of your customers’ needs in relation to your products or services. Embracing customer care analytics helps you fix underperforming customer experiences, build better products, and create an overall great VX strategy.

Analytics can also help you pinpoint where leads might be abandoning purchases so you can proactively prevent churn, which is the same level of importance as PIM in retail. It can help you understand more about returning customers, so you can adjust your page navigation to cater to users who revisit your site and much more.

Tip #4: Create an omnichannel experience

Omnichannel experiences provide more communication options for your customers. People like to engage with a business via mediums they are comfortable using, and if you are not on that platform, the competition may be. The last thing you want to do is force your customers to work on an interface they are unfamiliar with!

It is a little extra work, but we like to consider this as you going the extra mile. The more channels you support, the happier you will make your customers. The catch here is that you cannot simply exist on multiple channels. A good omnichannel CX ensures that each of the channels is speaking to each other, offering a consistent experience for your customers no matter where they go.

Engaging customers on mediums they are already using with a seamless experience makes it easier for users to interact with your company and content.

Tip #5: Create an escalation path

You never want your customers getting stuck, and a poorly designed self-service digital experience does this. Even in cases where a query is unanswerable, or the next step is unclear, you need to ensure your customers won’t get caught in a loop. An obvious exit makes things less frustrating and therefore, better for the customer.

You may be building a chatbot or virtual assistant, so consider the customer’s exit strategy in this process. For example, letting them know the wait time for Live Chat helps customers feel like they haven’t been deserted. You can give customers a list of service options in this same scenario, such as sending an email, which gives them another exit.

By always allowing a way out through a human agent, you’ll ensure that you don’t annoy your customers.

Creating a solid online presence.

Around 65% of consumers state that their experience on a website is “very important” when it comes to recommending a brand. Creating a great digital customer experience is vital, and ensuring that it is engaging, user-friendly, and enjoyable for your audience can help set you apart from the competition. Good luck!

Guest Post Written by:  Luke Carlino | Freelance copywriter, social media manager, and content creator.