Michael Epps Utley {kind=image/jpg}
The digital customer experience has changed at a breakneck pace over the last few years. 2024 promises to accelerate the pace of change even more.
Here are some digital customer experience trends you must be aware of as we enter the new year.
What Is Digital Customer Experience?
Let’s start with the basics. Digital customer experience, often referred to as digital CX, refers to all the online interactions a prospective buyer has with your business. Most of these interactions happen on your website or app. However, other channels like social media, email, and chat also contribute to digital CX.
Let’s explore ways to deliver a superior digital experience to your customers in 2024 and beyond.
Understand Your Audience
Before you can develop a digital experience prospective buyers will embrace, you must know exactly who they are.
Customer personas (also called buyer personas) can help you understand who buys your products or services and what motivates them to do so. Personas allow you to tailor your digital CX to meet the needs of the people you’re targeting.
If you don’t have customer personas — or haven’t updated yours lately — check out our guide to developing effective personas.
Develop an Omni-Channel Customer Experience
Todays’ digital customer experience is multifaceted. Think of all the ways a customer can interact with your brand — on their smart devices, through their desktop, via social media, and so on. One type of experience must integrate entirely with all the rest, including phone and real-world touch points.
Omni-channel marketing pleases consumers by providing more connected ways to interact with your business. Customers want to engage with companies through the channels they're most comfortable using.
The best way to ensure your overall buyer experience is fully integrated is to create a comprehensive journey map. Our guide explains what you must do to develop an effective one.
Focus on the Mobile Experience
This isn’t news, but it bears repeating: All online experiences should be focused on mobile first. Most people today interact with businesses through mobile devices. If your website or app doesn't deliver a simple and intuitive smartphone experience, they will move on.
If you haven’t mobile-optimized all your digital assets, take steps to do so before the new year arrives.
Adopt Active Analytics
You must always be on the lookout for novel ways to improve your digital strategy. The best way is to leverage tools that monitor your digital customer experience.
Google Analytics and Apple App Analytics track what visitors do online, allowing you to improve what is not working and do more of what is. Tools like Mouseflow and Hotjar will let you see what your visitors do online. Major social media platforms provide significant data that helps you understand whether your social strategies perform as intended. Certain email platforms like Mailchimp provide substantial data to determine whether your email tactics are delivering.
If you aren’t consistently monitoring digital data, it’s critical to figure out which metrics will help you track digital success and get started.
Request Customer Feedback
The customer is always right, and so are website visitors. That’s why more and more businesses are employing surveys and focus groups to determine whether they’re meeting customer needs. These tactics can be used to gather information about your digital UX. If you haven’t checked in with your buyers recently, it could be time for a year-end survey or focus group session.
Think Like a Futurist
The digital world is changing faster than anyone could imagine even a few short years ago. That’s why it’s no longer good enough for business owners and marketers to think like they used to. You must live in a world where things could be turned upside down tomorrow. After all, that happened when ChatGPT was launched a year ago. It will keep happening, faster and faster.
Make it a point to stay abreast of tech advances and how they could influence your digital and overall customer experience. Hold back, and you could lose out to a more future-focused competitor.
Embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is a significant factor today, and it’s definitely here to stay.
The most powerful use of artificial intelligence to enhance digital experiences is making it possible to deliver personalized ones to virtually every visitor. It can help provide customized answers to questions through chat. It can also offer meaningful product and service recommendations and engaging paths through an online journey.
If you’re still AI-phobic, it’s time to reconsider. AI-powered experiences are what people expect as we enter 2024 and beyond.
Offer Self-Service Capabilities
People don't want to wait for support if they don't have to. Most prefer to avoid interacting with others, especially when they’re online.
That’s why it’s essential to find ways to eliminate human intervention in your online experience or offer alternatives. For instance, you could:
Handle visitor questions with a chatbot rather than a phone call
Allow people to make appointments through a calendar widget rather than a rep
View a demo via video online rather than in person
Still offer in-person options for those who prefer to speak to a human being, of course.
Deliver a Great Customer Experience This New Year
2024 is just around the corner. Take time now to enhance your digital customer experience for the year ahead and beyond, using this guide as a starting point. Need digital marketing help? We would love to help you reach your goals in the new year. Drop us a line!
