Digital Customer Experience Trends & Strategies

In Verint’s “The 2022 State of Digital Customer Experience Report,” 59% of respondents said digital-first customer engagement is a top-priority initiative among organizations in 2022. To become leaders in a market populated by digital natives, companies must create the best digital customer experiences, sometimes despite limited resources. In this blog article, we’ll discuss trends shaping the digital customer experience and practical strategies to optimize CX.

Digital Customer Experience Trends

Digital experience is key to engaging audiences of all ages. Verint’s report found that younger shoppers give heavy preference to digital channels (56% of customers aged 18-44 years old compared to 44% of customers aged 45-75 years old). However, the same report also describes older customers who value digital experiences (7 in 10 consumers aged 45 years and above).

These figures highlight the importance of staying on top of new and emerging trends so brands can engage a wider variety of audience segments. Some digital customer experience trends for market leaders and players to consider include:

• Privacy. As both the number of online customers and digital channels grow, so does the focus on privacy. Brands must be able to declare and demonstrate trustworthiness in their customer data management practices.
• Predictive Analytics. CX teams use predictive analytics with increasing frequency to anticipate customer behavior and identify opportunities along customer journeys.
• Chatbots for Customer Service. Chatbots are proliferating on brand websites to answer customer questions. These AI-enabled assistants shorten wait times and field common inquiries at various points of the customer journey.
• Quantifying Brand Differentiation. Quantitative and qualitative insights help brands improve perception through targeted CX initiatives. Brands can quantify customer perception by using customer journey data, brand audits, social sentiment analysis, and surveys that evaluate brand differentiation.
• Omnichannel Customer Service. Customer service is available to more customers via websites, mobile, and self-service support platforms. An omnichannel customer service strategy means customers can find answers from multiple channels and not just at the help desk.
• Implementing Habit Loops. Brands keep consumers engaged in the digital process by tapping into the human tendency to form habits. For example, brands can push notifications on mobile and social media—where consumers spend most of their time—instead of on channels used less frequently.

Digital Customer Experience Strategies

The following practical strategies can help brands optimize customer experience in spite of fluctuating digital CX trends.

Understand Your Target Audience

Knowing an audience at the individual and segment levels allows brands to create journeys centered around customers’ needs. This enables teams to apply only the trends most relevant to their target audiences instead of trying out several new CX developments.

Having a deep understanding of customers can make interactions more personal and meaningful—even on a digital platform. To get a complete picture of their customers, brands need to build unified profiles using both online and offline data.

Personalize Mobile Experience

Digital channels like websites and mobile can seem impersonal to customers seeking the assurance of human assistance. However, brands can effectively engage consumers on mobile channels by learning about their usage habits and personalizing experiences accordingly. Pushing notifications at times when users are most likely to engage, tailoring content to customers’ preferences, and adapting tone and messaging to specific segments can make customers feel their needs are understood, even without direct human contact.

Analyze Reporting Metrics

In the looming cookieless world, brands can still extract customer data and insights to improve the digital experience. Tools like Google Analytics (GA) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) help brands collect data about digital events—responsibly—and construct users’ journeys to identify conversion opportunities.

Use Customer Feedback

CX teams should not neglect direct customer feedback when optimizing digital journeys. Brands can collect and evaluate customer opinions via surveys and response forms. Direct feedback can then be correlated with indirect feedback like engagement rates, channel usage, online traffic, and other relevant metrics to extract insights about customers’ experiences.

Stay Informed

Lastly, CX teams must keep themselves actively informed about relevant trends and what customers consider obsolete during brand interactions on digital channels. It’s well known that one bad experience can turn away even the most loyal of customers. Staying attuned to what resonates with customers can keep brands from becoming distanced from audiences and prepare CX teams to move quickly in response to emerging trends.

In summary, digital customer experience trends include heightened concern over consumer privacy, predictive analytics, and omnichannel customer service, among others. Brands can optimize digital CX in spite of fluctuating trends by knowing their target audiences, personalizing experiences on important digital channels like mobile, and staying informed about relevant developments in customer experience.

Optimize Digital Customer Experience With Treasure Data

Treasure Data’s enterprise-grade customer data platform is trusted by Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies around the world to improve customer experience and orchestrate journeys toward conversion. See what you can do with Treasure Data:

• Collect and centralize customer data from all sources
• Unify customer profiles using online + offline data
• Orchestrate customer journeys
• Derive actionable customer insights using machine learning techniques
• Personalize customer experience at all customer journey stages
• Track and improve performance of CX initiatives
• And more

Treasure Data Customer Data Cloud is an integrated suite of cloud-based customer data platform solutions. Treasure Data provides insight by collecting and centralizing customer data, unifying profiles, and analyzing journeys to identify hidden trends in customer behavior.

To learn more about how you can use Treasure Data Customer Data Cloud to improve your brand’s digital customer experience, consult an expert today. Want to learn more? Request a demo, call 1.866.899.5386, or contact us for more information.