User experience digitalization
During the relationship of a consumer with a brand, different situations and impacts arise, that are either transactional or not important, or generate an intense experience (positive or negative) that makes the client remember the brand. In the customer journey, the product purchase or service contracting processes, different interactions take place that configure the client’s experience. Each day, digital interactions are more and more relevant: They aren’t just an addition to the traditional channels, they carry their own weight and operate autonomously, being positioned in many cases as “Moments of Truth” (with great importance in the global consideration of the client experience).
This way, during the management process of the client experience, companies need to think about channels beyond the phone or the physical presence, opening themselves to online contact channels within the digital world. Although it is true, this is not easy and is a major challenge because it complicates the generation of emotions in the client linked to empathy, to the extent that there is no perception of direct person-to-person treatment. Without a doubt, showing a more human side of the brand is more difficult through digital channels (website, social media, email, etc.), which also makes it hard to create an emotional bond with the client.
Despite that, the bet on digital channels must be firm and immediate, without losing the orientation towards making brands more human, since that is precisely what will generate engagement with the clients.
Throughout the customer journey, the touchpoints are infinite. Nevertheless, it is the moment to keep moving forward and go from sending satisfaction surveys to receive feedback to sending a series of value-added digital impacts.
Why are there digital touchpoints?
Or rather, why is the client more digital each passing day? The answer is simple: the number of devices with access to the internet (phones, tablets, etc.) has incremented notably and has become a standard for everyone. The increase of devices and digital tools in the day-to-day of the consumers is a reality. Many of them are made available by the brands themselves, bridging the gap between their business, their product and service offerings and their clients.
Due to the increase in devices, tools and applications that facilitate relationships with the brand, the clients’ expectations have increased too.
They understand the digital experience must be equal or more effective and satisfactory than the one they would get in person.
Thus, customer behaviour is extended and multiplied by each of the digital channels in which the brand is and should be. Here we find the concept “omnichannel”, transforming the relationship model with the client, more complex as time passes by. Digital clients are informed and interact in parallel in the online and offline world to become unpredictable. The decision of trying to relate to the brands in one channel or another varies depending on the sectors and the profile of the clients we will find. However, the relationship flows with the brand are infinite due to the many ways of interacting and the many differential variables that define the user.
This vision comes at a time when we are talking about the era of customer knowledge, qualification and customization. And the question is, how should brands deal with it?
Sales process digitalization
There are clients that interact in the brand’s digital channels but also visit the on-site sales facilities and are impacted both ways, which is why it is important to define omnichannel strategies that consider the integration of the online and offline worlds. It is the only way of optimizing the global user experience.
There is no doubt that the result must be aligned and be consistent with the brand’s personality, regardless of whether or not the customer journey includes digital touchpoints. In short, there should be no lines that differentiate the image that the brand projects on the market if the communication is done offline or online.
The integration of both worlds isn’t explained by the existence of multiple channels but because it isn’t always possible to perform different digital actions related to the brands. Although organizations are immersed in digital transformation processes and each day count with more tools developed to speed up the different processes of the customer journey, there is still a lot of ground to cover. Not all management can be done through digital channels. Therefore, the naturalization between both worlds must be done in a measured way, to reflect a coherent process: fluidity in the relationship channels, consumer knowledge systems that streamline the different interactions, constant collection of customer feedback (not only for the identification but also for the implementation of areas for improvement), etc.
The digitalization of the sales process and the customer journey is essential and must be a priority for companies. This fact shouldn’t destroy the existing processes but rather build upon what we have, coordinating the whole experience. For this, technology solutions are the paradigm of change. In fact, investing in tools to transform our sales processes digitally has a direct influence on the clients' better assessment of the experience.
Technology for the transformation of user experience
In the search for a better digital user experience, we need attributes such as efficiency, security and design, without forgetting about the role played by innovation and customization. The differentiation of the technological bet lies on these two factors.
Digitalization may come from the use of different technologies such as AR/VR, IoT, chatbots and virtual assistants, social commerce, geomarketing, etc. They all contribute to performing operations in a quick way, getting rid of complexities in the process. They all allow creating digital ecosystems that are friendlier and with better usability.
Digital trends are known, and due to the key role taken by customization of the digital experience of the clients, marketing automation tools have become a great ally in the digital transformation of the brands’ customer journey.
At Integra, we have a digital marketing team specialized in the definition of digital strategies through innovation and automation. We are certified experts in technologies such as Acoustic (formerly IBM Watson Campaign), ActiveCampaign, Hubspot, SendinBlue or Salesforce. If you are interested, contact us and we will be happy to help you carry your clients’ digital experience to the next level.
