Do you remember the last time you had customer service worth shouting about? Chances are high that it was easy, stress-free and personalized, and most likely the result of a brand’s strategic investment in your digital experience.

That’s because remarkable customer experiences – the ones people tell their friends, family and social media networks about – don’t happen by accident. And in the wake of COVID-19 as even more sales and services move online, the key to creating continuous “wow” moments for customers lies in delivering a unified experience across physical and digital channels. 

While the digital experience is certainly key to businesses’ survival right now, it’s also what today’s consumers expect. For 84 percent of customers, the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. And it’s for exactly that reason that 72 percent of organizations are pursuing digital transformation.

Accelerating the shift comes down to ensuring the digital platforms and solutions you implement support and enable a successful customer journey. While the shape of that journey varies dramatically depending on a brand’s goals and culture, creating a standout digital experience depends on meeting four key criteria. It must be individualized, invested, interconnected and immediate.

Individualized to their needs

Today there’s really no excuse for not knowing your customers. Data abounds, and consumers are more than willing to share it when it means they can have a better purchasing experience.

In fact, 91 percent of customers are more likely to shop with brands that recognize them by name, remember their preferences, and provide them with relevant offers and recommendations. 

A radically personalized experience feels like a curated journey across all channels and touchpoints, from marketing to shopping to support. This includes digital solutions that:

• Remember customers and speak to them by name
• Recall their past purchases and interactions
• Know their personal preferences and needs
• Provide recommendations based on purchase history
• Send relevant, personalized promotions and content

Companies win by putting customer data to work to provide hyper-personalized experiences that are ultimately focused on what the brand can do to delight individual customers, and not necessarily on the products or services themselves.

Invested in customer success

Building on hyper-personalization, smart brands develop lasting relationships rooted in knowing who customers are, what they want and why they want it. Powered by customer data, these companies make every purchasing journey as easy and stress-free as possible.

Why is this so important right now? It’s because today’s customers face a daily onslaught of overwhelming choices in every purchase they make. If given too many options, they are more likely to make unsatisfactory decisions, walk away from a brand or leave a website for good. 

Successful brands make it their mission to understand and fulfill customers’ deepest desires, motivations and goals. An optimized digital experience makes this possible because it’s driven by customer insights and offers personalized recommendations, promotions and pathways. Digital acceleration helps companies go above and beyond the traditional transactional relationship to fuel customer satisfaction and help them make decisions they’re happy with. 

Interconnected channels

Along with promoting their best interests, digital transformation helps brands deliver integrated customer service, whether for sales or support. While some customers are still quick to pick up the phone when they need assistance, an increasing number are turning to live chat, email, social media, review sites and online communities to voice their questions, concerns and feedback. An omni-channel approach that leverages an expanded, always-on digital ecosystem gives customers the ease and freedom to reach out through their preferred channel at a time that works best with their schedule.

Connecting all customer interactions across channels makes for a better experience for the individual end user. But it also makes your game stronger, enabling you to know your customer through a single digital profile that pinpoints every interaction they have with your brand.

On top of that, by employing social monitoring, companies can be sure their method of helping customers is proactive. Rather than waiting by the phone, brands are going out and meeting customers where they are, seizing opportunities to steer and transform their experience for the better.

Immediate customer service

Finally, a huge factor in the digital transformation of CX is speed. Creating an exceptional digital experience means dialing back how much time and effort it takes for customers to make a purchase, find a product or get in touch with you.

73% of consumers say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do when providing customer service. And more than 50 percent of consumers now expect a customer service response within one hour, whether that’s on weekdays or weekends.

Because it’s such a make-or-break factor in the customer journey, companies are turning to chatbot and voicebot solutions and contact centre outsourcing to level up their availability and meet customers’ demands for answers when and how they want them—24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Leveling up CX with hyper-personalized, real-time service geared to individual customer success and delivered on the channel of their choosing – in-store, online, on mobile or on social – is the new standard, and it’s here to stay. Individualization, investment, interconnectedness and immediacy are the ultimate markers of a strong digital experience. And at this point in the global trajectory to digitize virtually everything, evolving is a prerequisite to staying relevant and reputable as a brand.