Yes Digital is in & very important! but is Digital experience enough ?
Online Apps & websites are critical today for online marketing, posting reviews, convenience of purchase, service support and engagement, for any organization…but not at the cost of the other channels..
What would happen if the online/digital experience is smooth/fast/easy to access/frictionless – but experience on the other engagement channels- say on the phone or via chat/email or in-store(brick & mortar) or the experience of the product per say or delivery or service/complaint resolution of the product is sub-optimal ?
Problems, and dissatisfaction will start brewing amongst the customer community.. and eventually sales will suffer….can we can think of quite a few organizations/brands which have a great digital upfront experience – but poor overall ?
Hence when we shift our focus to Digital…its critical that we do not “just focus on the Digital experience” …as overall experience is what matters to the customer….in which all other organizational departments such as product, delivery, packaging, service support, complaint resolution, etc all play an equally important role..
Listening to Customers: soliciting & capturing customer feedback and analyzing service quality data: are amazing areas for identifying CX gaps & enabling product & process improvements; and thus overall CX enhancements.
Design thinking led Customer journey mapping (CJM), is a great method to identify quick to implement improvement areas to smoothen the customer experience (CX) and optimize end customer satisfaction.
Once some of this is implemented and results obtained– thereafter its recommended that to achieve the next level of CX sophistication organization’s consider leveraging our 5Ps TICSI customer experience improvement : 1000 point framework https://www.ticsi.org/- to further diagnose operational opportunity areas across the organization’s - product, distribution, delivery, people practices, processes, measures, KPIs, etc.
So, ironing down last mile issues and inter-connecting departments smoothly is as important, since Digital is usually handled by marketing – while CX is everyone’s job. In many organizations’, each department often does a great job, but owing to gaps at the inter- departmental “hand offs” or some departments just don’t have a good appreciation of what is important for their end customer (not just their internal customer) – end customer gets needlessly mishandled, generating a sub-optimal experience.
Today, customers:
· expectations are going up at rocket speed….SPEED is key!
· can become irrational or can have irrational expectations.
· Do not expect to be funneled into a phone or a specific engagement or service channel…expectation of customer convenience is so overwhelming that customer expects the same level of engagement & support ….regardless of the channel!
· is expecting a smooth – frictionless experience all through the engagement –purchase -fulfilment – service-complaint resolution cycle – not just at the sales end – when he/she logs into the Digital app/website at the exploration or purchase stage.
In the future:
Customer convenience & experience will become the most important pillar of an organization driving all strategic & operational aspects including product development & improvement.
Seems interesting? have other thoughts ? want to share your views on the subject or just your unique experience in your start up or your organisation that you’d like to share with us …go ahead - we are eager to hear from you and would love to understand your point of view….