The past five years have fueled massive innovation in digital customer experience (CX) as companies responded to shifts in customer habits and business conditions posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. According to McKinsey, the pandemic accelerated the digitalization of customer interactions by as much as four years. The global management consulting firm reports that the number of companies that say 80 percent or more of their customer interactions are now digital is three times greater than before the pandemic.
Customers now expect a digital-first experience. When they seek information about a product or service, need troubleshooting support or want to learn best practices, their first point of contact is no longer a phone call. That has been replaced by visits to a company’s website, participation in customer communities, chatbot queries and posts on social media and other digital channels. It is easier, faster and more convenient for customers to engage on their terms. If they cannot get what they are looking for first online, their next preference is to talk to a person.
Although digital is now the primary mode of engagement between businesses and their customers, the speed and simplicity of the experiences that are delivered can vary widely from one company to the next. And whether digital or human-led, they can even vary within the same company.
RELATED CONTENT: 3 things we learned about omnichannel
at All Access: Digital CX
How to jumpstart CX maturity and innovation
CX has been fast-tracked through its formative period and the market now expects next-level digital CX maturity, where experiences are consistently simple, fast and frictionless. This requires reimagining the way data and tech are used and viewing your overall CX approach through a more strategic lens.
While emerging technologies like generative AI, machine learning and predictive analytics provide opportunities for innovation, just as important as knowing what new technology can do is learning how to best apply it to the CX discipline. The goal should always be to make it as easy as possible for customers to do business with you.
Whether your CX tech stack is an assemblage of quick-fix decisions or the thoughtful collection of best-in-class products, it’s never too early to take inventory and begin optimizing in one or more of the following four areas.
1. Elevate your understanding of customers
CX teams can use AI and machine learning to better understand customer needs and sentiments and determine the best and fastest ways to assist them at scale. AI models can be built to guide customers if they are getting stuck and match them with the appropriate self-help resources using their preferred channels when support is needed.
Unifying customer data is critical to understanding your customers. It ensures that all internal teams are operating in synch and that every digital and human engagement is based on the same 360-degree view into the customer. Nothing is more frustrating for customers than doing business with a company that has no idea who their customers are, what they have purchased or what their challenges are.
RELATED CONTENT: The complete guide to generative AI
for customer experience
2. Identify high impact areas
Never implement tech for the sake of checking a box. CX apps need to aid customers in their journeys by simplifying interactions and transactions, and by lending new value in each phase of the lifecycle. Consider how generative AI can be used by internal call centers and customer success teams to deliver better, more accurate support. AI models can be built to generate quick responses to inbound messages (via phone, chat or another form of virtual assistance) using automated template replies that address the most commonly received questions, or to provide relevant visual aids or self-help resources at the right time in the customer journey. For example: how interactive seating charts on websites as well as via chatbots give airline customers greater control and more convenience over the flight booking process.
3. Innovate processes to leverage tech advancements
To be effective and efficient, CX must be a company-wide discipline – it cannot be departmentalized. Set up a committee to manage innovation and drive cross-company collaboration – one that brings together SMEs from different business units, IT, marketing and customer success. Take inventory of existing CX tech and the projects underway and rationalize these investments. You want to promote innovation in a way that the entire company benefits -- where rigor and knowledge sharing are applied, and redundancies are avoided.
4. Create frictionless experiences
Reevaluate customer journeys to reduce clicks and hide business complexity, starting with the most common use cases. For example: how easy and intuitive is it for customers of subscription services to renew, cancel or make changes to services? And for businesses that sell multiple services to different customers within the same company, consider how to manage the entire customer experience – from pre-sales and onboarding to adoption and renewal across your entire portfolio – to make sure you present as one company, offer consistency across digital interactions, and grow value for all your customers.
Innovation is a constantly moving target, so a company’s approach to managing CX needs to be iterative. Revisit your approach regularly to build upon what’s working and make changes to – or eliminate – what isn’t. After determining where to further innovate in CX and the business case for it, create the necessary workstreams, build the best team possible, and dive headfirst into solving the problem.
Always view innovation with this simple truth in mind: it is never about what new technology can do for your company, but rather, what it can do for your customers to improve their digital experience.