What is digital customer experience and why is it so important?

Digital Customer Experience in a nutshell

The term Digital Customer Experience simply means the total of all the online interactions a customer has with your brand.

The customer experience may typically start with a Google search that leads to your company’s website and subsequent exploration, but it also includes all the customer interactions with your mobile apps, chatbots, customer service, social media channels, or any other channels where the touchpoint is in digital and virtual form.

The customers may use a computer, mobile or tablet to explore your channels, so all the various interfaces need to be counted in, if you’re looking to examine the needs and painpoints of your customers.

The importance of Digital Customer Experience

The importance of Digital Customer Experience lies in the relationship you create and maintain with your customer.

Basically, customer experience defines the customer’s relations with your brand: You should ask yourself has your brand experience been useful and helpful so that the customers want to return, or was your website so hard to navigate with confusing buttons and a completely useless chatbot that they won’t ever come back.

We might still think that physical experience is king, but those days are past: Your digital customer experience should never act in isolation from any physical presence you may have, and it should be on par with the physical experiences you might offer.

Customers expect a seamless experience whatever the touchpoint, and you need to make sure that your customers can carry out the actions they desire, such as finding your contact information or a size chart on your product page. Ultimately, you must always focus upon why your customer would choose you over your competitors.

If you're not yet convinced, the statistics are indisputable

If you’re a data-driven person like us Siilis, you might want some proof to back up our claims on the importance of Digital Experiences.

Well, here goes – our experience and several piece of research show that:

• 1 in 3 customers would abandon a brand they love for just one bad experience*
• 10 seconds is enough to alienate your customers**
• 4-8% higher revenue with a customer experience mindset**
• 84% report an increase in revenue for improved customer experience**
• 60% more profitable for focusing on customer experience**

*PWC 2018 **Forbes 2019

Basically, the quality of your Digital Customer Experience defines your brand. If it takes more than 10 seconds for your online webshop to take your customer to the next step on their purchase, they will leave and not complete their shopping. Studies suggest that viewers will not wait longer than two seconds for a video to load. After five seconds 25% have given up and after 10 second half of them have gone. The physical world is forgiving to a degree, but no such leeway exists in the digital space.

A differentiating Digital Customer Experience is thus a necessity, and a critical element for every business. In the rapidly changing digital environment, customers now expect more: personalized products and services, seamless and outstanding digital experiences, and interactions with an authentic and humane brand.

Where to start in creating great Digital Customer Experiences

Outstanding Digital Customer Experiences use insights derived from customer data to be intelligent, relevant, and personal. They provide added value for your customer and, in turn, allow you to demonstrate your own values as a brand. The desired result is an engaged, loyal customer and a committed brand advocate.

Consistency is key here, and your branded experiences must convey thought leadership in your sector. Your audience will regard you as an authority in your business space and look to you as a consistent source of valued information to help them tackle their own challenges. In effect, your products or services become pre-sold without the annoyance of repetitive emails and campaigns.

Creating an outstanding Digital Customer Experience is never just one department’s job, but a joint effort from marketing, sales, IT, data, and design. This requires a strategic stand on customer experience and making it the most important aspect of your company’s activities. There needs to be an ownership of the customer experience, and bridges must be built between different digital channels as well as organizational silos to provide a seamless digital experience.

Siili is here to help you find your path in creating compelling Digital Customer Experiences, as we are top experts in digital innovation and building world-class solutions. You can contact us and we can discuss more, our experts are ready to help you!

Or if you’d first like to find out more on Digital Customer Experiences and get your first tools for creating KPIs, recognizing your organization’s maturity level or analyzing your brand and its Digital Customer Experiences, you can download our free Digital Experiences for the New Dawn whitepaper here.