Why the ‘gold standard’ of CX is more than digital journey

Global PwC analysis has shown a third of customers would be willing to leave a brand they loved after a single bad experience. Establishing a solid strategy for a consistent first-class customer experience across every available channel is a must-have for building and retaining long-term brand loyalty, says Laura Mullaney, customer director at BGL Insurance.

However, this means far more than simply adding tech deployments to your call center – she argues the digital experience must deliver excellent journeys and outcomes that leave the customer valuing the interaction and with a positive, lasting impression. 

The need for a solid digital experience is now a significant differentiator for customers. With customer expectations higher than ever and continuing to rise, particularly when it comes to personalized and timely support, how a company executes its digital strategy is key. 

If customers are unimpressed with the overall customer experience, it is easier than ever for them to simply take their custom to another provider. Businesses that prioritise digital transformation are therefore well-positioned to create highly engaged and satisfied customers through excellent experiences. 

The stakes are high – so make excellent experiences your brand differentiator 

Digital customer experience can be defined by how a business enables its customers and prospective customers to engage with the products and services it offers online. As customers increasingly choose to interact with businesses through websites, mobile apps and chatbots, it is vital the impact of interactions across all channels are carefully considered, assessing how easy customers find these services to use, and the customer’s general perception of the interactions they have. 

Industry research certainly confirms the value placed by customers on both excellent CX and service availability across digital channels: 

• According to the Avionos B2B Buyer Report, 90 percent of buyers would turn to a competitor if a supplier’s digital channels did not fit their needs.
• Fully engaged customers will give a 23 percent greater share of their wallet, Gallup analysis shows.
• Zendesk research into customer service trends found 70 percent of organizations see a direct connection between customer service and performance – yet 54 percent of consumers feel organizations still treat it as an after-thought.

Forget channels, think outcomes 

These findings reinforce the importance of a strong digital experience across all channels. It has been particularly interesting to witness many companies who have now outright stopped talking in terms of ‘digital’ or ‘channels’ and have instead moved to simply referencing ‘customer experience’. This implicitly assumes a high degree of customer autonomy and easy access to products and services.  

It is vital that when brands focus on their digital experience, they do not see this as simply adding new digital tools. Rather, it is an outcome of how customers experience the online journeys and how they access live services when and wherever it is important for them to do so. 

The digital experience has significantly shifted how companies think about customer engagement. There is now a need for continuous analysis of how online activity and live services combine to deliver the overall customer experience. Ever-changing customer demands mean the digital customer experience must be both innovative and highly adaptable. This is why it is more important than ever for any design or journey change to be customer-centric – led by insight and designed with the user experience in mind. 

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Excel across every channel at critical touchpoints 

To the customer, the channel is often irrelevant. Whether speaking with a company’s representative directly, or engaging via automated digital channels, customers expect this to be seamless. They expect to receive a consistent experience whenever and however they engage with a business and therefore, the contact center must be an integral part of the overall customer journey and not simply remain as a traditional, single channel, telephone-based contact center. This means that not only are customer servicing teams part of the solution, but they are also engaged in the design and testing of new experiences across channels. 

The value of the assisted service agent is to optimize the customer experience, delivering value to the customer and the business and creating longer-term relationships. 

Act now to digitally strengthen contact centre operations 

Effective digital transformation for a contact center should incorporate digital technologies that provide customer insights, enable call deflection, optimize personalization and automation. We need to shift the ‘traditional call centre’ model into one that can genuinely be described as a contact centre of the future, using true change ownership models to identify, design and deliver these new interaction points with the servicing teams and technology delivery, collaborating from start to finish.

Deploy these technologies in a mindful, customer-centric manner that simplifies and enhances the customer journey, and excellent customer experience can become a true differentiator for your business.