Customer Service Glossary
What Is Digital Customer Experience?
Digital customer experience is the sum of all online, multi-platform interactions that a customer has with a brand. Also known as “digital CX,” digital customer experience involves a business process that usually begins when a customer visits a company website. The experience then expands to include digitally facilitated experiences through mobile apps, social media platforms, or linked devices, such as voice-activated products.
Put simply, digital customer experience occurs whenever customers engage with a company through a digital medium, at which point customers form an opinion of the brand. This perception then drives future interactions with the company.
A positive customer experience can lead to more product purchases, increased customer lifetime value (CLV), and less churn. On the other hand, a negative experience can result in poor reviews, lost sales, and fewer repeat customers.
Why Is Digital Customer Experience Important for Customer Service?
A positive digital customer experience relies on a seamless consumer journey and a comprehensive, omnichannel customer engagement strategy. With these two factors in mind, companies can optimize their customer service departments, ensuring that consumers can easily interact with representatives at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
As a result, companies can enjoy benefits such as:
1. Better Customer Retention.
Modern customers have high expectations for businesses. That said, when customers feel that their needs have been met and that they have received timely, personalized care, they often return to the same companies for future purchases.
Customer service departments can help maintain positive relationships with existing customers by providing a cohesive support system online and offline. In return, customers are more likely to remain loyal to the company rather than turning to a competitor.
2. Higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).
A Harvard Business Review study found that fully engaged, satisfied customers provide greater value to businesses. They spend more than their counterparts over a lengthier period of time. They are also more likely to provide referrals and recommendations to other potential customers.
Facilitating ongoing engagement through convenient touchpoints, easily accessible support channels, and interactions before, during, and after purchases often results in increased communication and a trusting relationship between consumers and retailers.
3. Lower Costs.
U.S. companies lose more than $1.5 trillion each year due to poor customer service, not because of product or service issues. At the same time, nearly 70% of buyers return to brands that offer reliable customer experiences online and offline.
Customer service departments can help reduce churn rates by prioritizing personalized, real-time assistance through company websites, mobile instant messaging apps, email, and audio or video chats.
What Is the Difference Between Customer Service and Digital Customer Experience?
Digital customer experience encompasses every interaction a potential buyer has with a company, from the initial website visit to customer service communications, purchasing decisions, and more. Customer service, on the other hand, is a key element of the digital customer experience.
Customer service representatives bridge the gap between the company and the consumer. They focus on real-time assistance, human connection, and convenient communication based on a company’s holistic support strategy.
How Customer Service Teams Can Improve Digital Customer Experience
Managing and optimizing digital customer experience can have rapid results. However, designing an integrated program can become complex without tools like a digital experience platform.
Even so, companies can begin evaluating their clients’ digital experience by reviewing bottlenecks in the customer journey, evaluating common issues, and implementing other tactics, such as:
- Accepting and implementing feedback.
- Creating a cohesive engagement strategy.
- Streamlining customer support offerings.
- Utilizing real-time reports.
- Establishing onboarding protocols.
- Including automated customer service tools.
- Integrating omnichannel communication processes.
How Digital Customer Experience Impacts Businesses
Digital customer experience, also known as digital CX, encompasses every interaction a consumer has with a company using a digital channel, such as a smartphone app or website chat.
The multifaceted approach considers every contact that consumers have with a business. However, customer service departments play one of the most critical roles in developing and maintaining a positive digital customer experience.
With this in mind, companies and consumer success teams should prioritize ongoing engagement, cohesive experiences, and streamlined services to engage customers at every stage of their journey.