Customer Experience in Digital Strategies: Tips for Marketers

Each year, consumer expectations for a high level of service continue to grow. The fact is that today, the customer doesn’t just want a convenient product at a good price; they want a full package of services. And every interaction with a brand can lead to either a positive experience or the opposite. That is why maintaining positive customer emotions carries special importance.

In this article, we will discuss what customer experience is, the role it plays in business, and what tools can be used to ensure that customer experience works for the benefit of your company rather than against it.

What is CX and what role it plays for businesses

Customer experience (CX) is the result of all interactions a customer has with a brand. CX is a term that includes everything: from product or service quality to the customer orientation of the sales department and the ease of navigation on the website. It is CX that creates opportunities for successful relationships with customers.

The importance of CX in business cannot be overstated. According to the results of the CX Index survey, 90% of companies (regardless of the business segment they are in) reported that managing customer experience positively impacts their profits. At the same time, 67% of consumers openly state that they expect a high level of customer orientation from companies, as people are willing to pay more for special treatment.

Today, many brands in the market are striving to do everything to keep the customer satisfied. Brands are delving into the study of customer experience, researching the causes of customer churn, as well as what motivates consumers to recommend a company to friends. They collect data through various channels and use the information to improve the quality of products or services, implementing new technologies that simplify the customer's life.

The role of digital strategies in improving CX

Digital transformation is a key element of any company’s strategy. At its core lies a single task: ensuring quality interaction with customers in a rapidly changing world. For example, the introduction of new robotic call centers, where chatbots communicate with customers.

Through the application and development of a digital strategy, all business processes become more efficient. Consumers want to receive information for decision-making here and now. And if, for example, they want to learn more about a particular product, but the company requires a series of long actions before providing the information, this will turn many away. After all, everyone values convenience.

Digital transformation makes it easier for companies to interact with customers at all stages of the customer lifecycle, thus creating a seamless customer experience. For example, in the past, people had to spend a lot of time waiting in lines at stores. Today, we have largely shifted to online orders and delivery services. There’s no need to travel across the city to purchase a product, as it can be delivered from another area, and as a bonus, customers may receive a discount or loyalty points.

Investments in technological solutions such as AI and ML are essential for developing strategies to improve CX. These technologies not only enable the efficient collection and analysis of large volumes of data, but they also provide personalized and relevant offers for each customer.

The impact of CX on loyalty and retention

There is an important rule: to retain a customer and increase their loyalty, provide them with a positive experience when interacting with the company. These elements are interconnected. Research shows that 8.6% of consumers are willing to pay more for good customer service. As a result, more and more companies are choosing to invest in CX not only to retain customers but also to increase sales volumes and enhance satisfaction levels.

CX affects the following aspects of perception:

How to increase loyalty

What helps retain customers

It is important to leave a positive impression after interacting with a customer. For a customer to want to return, they should have pleasant memories of the purchase process and their emotions. To achieve this, it is necessary to maintain contact with the customer, thank them for choosing your brand, and show that they can always rely on it. This could involve helping to solve any issues they encounter or providing educational resources. Such an approach will undoubtedly turn the customer into a loyal one.

Steps to improve customer experience in business

1. Personalization of each experience

Companies across various sectors are putting personalization at the center of their business strategies. The level has been reached where competitive advantage arises from the ability to collect, analyze, and use large volumes of personalized customer data, employing AI to understand, shape, adapt, and optimize the customer journey.

Digital solutions are becoming a necessity not only for traditional marketing but also for many other areas. The best results are shown by companies that have integrated these capabilities into their business model.

Personalizing the entire customer interaction process requires the coordinated work of all communication channels. Key tasks can be effectively addressed through automation and AI-based analytics.

Modern digital technologies open up new opportunities for users to interact with brands. Systems that track geolocation and allow payments with the swipe of a finger literally blur the lines between stages: the pre-sale period, the purchase process, and post-sale service. These technologies enable a rethinking of digital customer experience, which, in turn, helps brands create value for customers and increase their engagement.

For example, Starbucks actively uses geolocation to attract customers who haven’t visited the café for a while. When they are nearby, they are shown advertisements for new seasonal drinks. A personalized offer in the app encourages them to visit the café or use the convenient mobile order and payment feature.

For companies that lack the necessary resources or technical infrastructure, the optimal solution is creating a CJM, where each decision is tied to a specific moment of interaction with a particular customer.

2. Quality of service at every stage

Before developing strategies to improve service quality, it is important to conduct a detailed analysis of current interactions. Establishing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), such as response time to customer inquiries, loyalty levels, and others, will help identify problem areas and set priorities for future development.

Next comes the development of specific actions to address the identified shortcomings. It is essential not only to address weak points but also to strengthen the aspects that are already performing well.

Activities to improve customer service quality include:

1. Training and motivating staff

2. Optimizing service processes using technology

This includes:

• Automating everyday tasks. This allows employees to focus on more complex inquiries and personal interactions with customers.

• Automating feedback collection. By analyzing feedback, companies can identify both the weak and strong points of their products and processes, determine why customers leave, build trust by showing attention, and enhance their reputation by addressing negative reviews. If a company collects feedback on its own initiative, this is usually done through surveys (via email newsletters, on the website, or social media). If it’s initiated by the customer, the work is situational. This could involve systematizing reviews to address issues or responding to positive feedback to build loyalty. Based on the collected information, satisfaction and loyalty metrics are calculated. Analyzing these metrics and their changes helps optimize business processes and make strategically important decisions.

• Analytics is used to identify customer trends and preferences. This helps in accurately forecasting marketing campaigns and developing new products.

3. Loyalty programs

3. Analytics for improving CX

Analytical systems in customer service are tools for analysis, such as business intelligence, real-time analytics, predictive analytics, and others, which are applied in the processes of providing service to company customers.

These systems allow the transformation of disparate data from various sources into tools that help meet the growing needs of customers. Such systems include CRM systems, customer data platforms, speech analytics systems, social media, and ERP systems.

46% of organizations that use analytical systems in customer service are satisfied with having the functionality that allows them to make effective decisions based on detailed data analysis.

Tools for automation and personalization

There are numerous tools that help marketers increase the efficiency of advertising campaigns:

• CRM systems. These are responsible for managing contacts and leads, automating sales and marketing campaigns, data analysis and reporting, and improving communication processes within the team.

• Email marketing automation services. Such services allow marketers to create, send, and track emails with minimal effort.

• Tools for in-depth analytics and reporting. Typically, these tools aggregate data from various sources and provide a complete view of the customer’s interaction with the business throughout the entire journey — from the first contact to the purchase. However, all of the above-mentioned services are often inflexible, especially when an omnichannel approach is involved. Their productivity in building a 360-degree customer profile is particularly evident when it’s necessary to gather information from multiple sources: websites, social media, messengers, email, loyalty programs, and customer support.

All this data then needs to be filtered and stored in one place so that every department of the company or software tool can instantly access it without involving analysts. This is where CDP comes in.

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a marketing automation tool that helps companies effectively collect, store, and analyze customer information. In today's world, where data plays a critical role in developing business digital strategies, CDP is becoming the key to increasing customer loyalty.

Thanks to CDP, businesses get a unified view of each consumer and can create personalized communication and sales strategies.

Key advantages of CDP:

1. Unification of data from various sources into a single profile, which allows companies to gain a more complete understanding of their customers, their preferences, behavior, and interaction history with the brand.
2. Deep data analysis enables companies to effectively build a customer experience strategy, make personalized offers, and improve the quality of customer experience. Built-in analytics quickly processes large amounts of information, instantly generating and displaying reports.
3. CDP helps create consistent and high-quality interactions with customers across different communication channels. As a result, customers receive a high level of service, regardless of which channel they use to interact with the brand.

How to improve CX using a customer data platform

Knowing the tools is good, but being able to use their full functionality is much better.

Next, let's look at several strategies for improving the customer experience using the CDP Altcraft Platform as an example.

In today's world, the more personalized the content for the customer, the better. No fisherman would be happy to receive a newsletter with snowboarder gear recommendations, and vice versa. Therefore, segmentation is a crucial element of every marketing campaign. Instead of making the same offer to all customers, it’s better to focus your efforts on those who actually need your product.

In the Altcraft platform, within the segmentation section, using a tracking pixel (this is an HTML or JavaScript code placed on website pages to track user behavior), you can identify certain users who have made purchases totaling over 5,000 rubles in the past month. These customers can then be rewarded with bonuses, for example, by sending them a promo code for their next purchase.

Example of conditions for segmentation in Altcraft Platform

The second example in CX improvement strategies can be the use of an omnichannel approach. For instance, the abandoned cart scenario.

Let’s consider a situation where a product was added to the cart, but after 24 hours, the purchase has still not been completed. The customer receives an email reminder that the product is still in the cart. If the email is not opened, a push notification is sent to the mobile app where the order was placed two days later. After the purchase is completed, the customer receives an email with a thank you message, information about the bonus points earned for the order, and a promo code for their next purchase.

Example of an abandoned cart scenario in Altcraft Platform

Summary

CX is the complete cycle of a company’s interaction with a customer, including the impressions and feelings after a purchase or service is provided. The importance of customer experience grows each year, and there is always room for improvement in this area.

In a highly competitive business environment, ensuring a positive customer experience is crucial. More and more companies are increasing their investments in CX to retain customers and boost sales. By making the customer the top priority, long-term and strong relationships can be built.

To ensure that all processes run quickly and smoothly, automation is necessary, as new digital capabilities create new ways for users to interact with brands. Modern marketing automation tools help companies create a 360-degree customer profile, analyze and systematize collected data, and develop strategies to improve the customer experience.