If your customers aren’t getting a good digital experience, you’re losing business. In 2021, customers expect to be able to buy products or use your services online in a smooth, seamless fashion.
According to one study, organizations that commit to and invest in digital transformation are 3 times more likely to exceed their annual business goals.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the big digital customer experience trends right now and how you can leverage them to provide customers with a better digital experience and maximize your productivity (and profitability).
What Is a Digital Experience? What About the Digital Customer Experience?
A digital experience is a digital interaction between a person and an organization (B2C) or between 2 organizations (B2B).
The digital customer experience is what your customer, either an individual or another company, experiences when they buy a product or service from you.
In order to maximize productivity and profitability, you should look for ways to make your company’s digital customer experience automated, personalized, and streamlined. In other words, give customers plenty of reasons to come back and buy from you again and again.
Top Digital Customer Experience Trends of 2021
Digital experience platforms (DXPs)
A digital experience platform, also known as a digital customer journey platform, allows you to manage all of your digital assets in one place. Instead of having to monitor customer experience across tons of different platforms, you can manage the whole customer journey from just one.
This means you can see valuable data and insights into things like site performance and content performance from a centralized dashboard, which lets you quickly spot where you can improve the digital experience for your customers.
DXPs are really a conglomeration of a bunch of different types of customer-experience-oriented software. Some examples of the various components of DXPs are customer revenue management (CRM) software, content management system (CMS) software, marketing automation software, data management platforms, and personalization software, to name a few.
No-code development
No-code development platforms are a revolutionary new way to build web-based apps and software to improve the digital experience for your customers — no coding required. A no-code front end development platform lets you turn ideas into fully functional apps using visual, drag-and-drop design technology.
Since there is no actual coding involved, anyone in your organization can build an app using a no-code platform. For example, someone from your sales department could build an app to improve the sales experience for customers and clients that helps close deals faster, reducing sales cycles times and increasing overall productivity and profitability.
Employing no-code development also frees up your IT teams for more complex tasks and helps reduce productivity bottlenecks in your company.
Prioritizing customer needs
When you prioritize customer needs over short-term profitability, you’re bound to increase customer loyalty and lifetime value, resulting in higher long-term profitability.
You can do this by focusing your digital efforts on creating a smooth customer experience along every step of the way, from before a sale starts to after you close the deal.
When your customers see how easy it is to do business with you, they’re more likely to keep coming back and continue to choose you over your competitors.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning
AI and machine learning offer exciting new ways for brands to connect with their customers and provide a great digital experience.
For example, things like chatbots can streamline your customer service by giving customers instant answers to frequently asked questions. They also mean your customers have 24/7 access to customer support, rather than only being able to get questions answered during business hours.
AI and machine learning technologies can also help you provide customers with unique, tailored experiences based on their past shopping habits. For instance, your eCommerce site can learn what types of clothing a customer likes based on their previous purchases and direct them to similar products right off the bat.
Shared values
Customers have historically been happy with digital offers like free shipping and discounts, but they are increasingly looking to buy from companies that share their values — especially when it comes to environmental issues and climate change.
To capitalize on this, look for ways to incorporate eco-friendliness into your digital experience. For example, you could donate a percentage of every sale to an environmental organization or ship your products in packaging made of 100% recycled materials.
Sharing these types of values with your customers is another way to increase brand loyalty and maximize lifetime profits for your business.
An emphasis on the mobile experience
Your digital customer experience may be great on desktop computers, but what about mobile devices? Considering that more than 70% of eCommerce sales are made through mobile technology, you definitely want to place emphasis on the mobile customer experience.
This means optimizing your website, landing pages, ads, emails, and everything else your customers see for mobile devices.
Not only should you test everything on different browsers and screen sizes to make sure your content is fully adaptable, but you should also do everything you can to ensure quick mobile load speeds.
If your site is hard to navigate or doesn’t load quickly enough on a potential customer’s smartphone, they’re highly likely to hit the back button and visit one of your competitor’s sites instead.
Focus on Improving Your Digital Customer Experience in 2021
An excellent digital experience for your customers is more important than ever in 2021. If you’re not already fully committed to and investing in digital transformation within your organization, it’s time to start now.
By placing an emphasis on your customers and their digital experience when buying from your company, you’re increasing the lifetime value of each and every one of your customers and clients.
It doesn’t matter whether your company is B2C, B2B, or a mix of both — by looking at the trends we discussed in this article and using them to help you transform your digital customer experience, you can greatly increase your company’s productivity and profitability.
