3 Considerations for Creating Great Digital Customer Experiences

3 Considerations for Creating Great Digital Customer Experiences

Companies that create great experiences for their customers have always risen to the top. It makes logical sense - people are more likely to return again and again when their experience is hassle-free and they actively enjoy engaging with a particular brand. While it’s easy for most companies to understand that a pleasurable in-store experience is key to staying at the top of the pack, things get more complicated when we enter the digital realm. 

How do you make your digital brand experience meaningful enough that customers want to have it over and over? I recently spoke with Mike Welsh, Chief Creative Officer at Mobiquity, who outlined key considerations when launching or revising a digital customer experience:

1. Consider context.
   
   Your experience strategy must consider the context customers will find themselves in when acting on some impulse, instinct, or need with your brand. This step is necessary  to better manage that experience and ultimately improve your customer relationships. For example, do most of your customers log on to your mobile app when they are in your store and the line is too long? Or are they in the comfort of their home, checking in on their account? This difference in setting and state of mind should affect the design of your app, what aspects are most prominently featured and what priority should be placed on various functions. 
   
   
2. Design to create effortless experiences.
   
   Whether it’s a website, mobile app, voice skill, or other digital channel, it must be easy to use and provide value to the customer. To accomplish these goals, good design is extremely important – it can even make or break an experience.
   
   Design needs to be simple, effective, and engaging. When we’re working with a client on their experience roadmap, we’re constantly asking “who’s going to suffer if the experience doesn’t deliver?” The answer is everyone – the user, the company, the industry. The more disconnected and difficult the experience, the higher the likelihood of people abandoning the experience at a minimum, and the brand at a maximum. But when the experience is designed well, it can transform an entire company and push them to the top in their industry. 
   
   
3. Reduce friction.
   
   

   The net result of combining all of these actions is reducing the effort required to make digital interactions possible. There is a certain level of effort that every experience necessitates. For example, I have to pull my phone out. I have to look down at it. I have to open an app, and I have to tap the action I want to happen. If there’s any way to take effort out of the process, you should.
   

   One way that we think about this is by putting deep focus around silent utility. Silent utility is when something simply works without much feedback, good or bad, as the usage and engagement grow consistently. For example, Google is an information provider, Uber and Lyft are transportation methods, Facebook is a way to connect with friends. All of these platforms enable effortless customer experiences. Anyone can use them because they’re simple. You know how to get what you need, when you need it – and that is silent utility.

At the end of the day, when we think about winning digital customer experiences, whether it’s for a website, mobile app, voice skill, or any other digital experience, it all comes down to the value exchange. If brands provide value for their customers, their customers will in return exchange their loyalty to the brand and come back again and again. This exchange of value is at the heart of every successful digital experience. 

Ready to chat through these strategies and how you can make your customer experience five-star worthy? Let’s talk.