Beginning from the production concept to the selling concept and finally the marketing concept, businesses sure has traveled a long way. However, the latest buzz is the digital customer experience. In the earlier times, companies would differentiate themselves altogether on the kinds of products they developed and services that they would offer, soon that criteria was shifted to the ability of the companies to produce quickly and efficiently but even that lead to the plateau in performance as after a while, no further levels of efficiency could be achieved. Finally, with the introduction and the widespread acceptance and utility of the Internet medium, there was a new benchmark available to the companies to differentiate and judge their performance,i.e. Experience.
Today, the differences between the offerings of two companies, is getting diluted with time and hence the only potential differentiators available with the companies, is to provide an experience to the users, which stands out unmatched and unrivaled by the fellow contemporaries.
Multiple Channel Options: The Advantages and the Challenges
Today, the users are spoiled with choices. Highly sophisticated and precise technology has emerged and owing to various smart phones, tabs, iPhones etc, people carry the internet in their back pockets. The same has also provided the companies a myriad world of developing relationships with the users and provide them with the experience that will help in forming long term symbiotic relationships.
However the problem arises when the companies has to develop a strategy that would take care of the multiple options available to the end users. Since the companies have had more exposure to the channel approach for formulating strategies, they try and implement the same in the new touch points which are made available to them. This is basically a failure on the part of business strategy makers, as such an approach has the potential to confuse the customers and provide them an unorganized experience. Also, the businesses can not out rightly specify the audience they wish to concentrate their efforts on, thus allowing a room for wastage of important resources in chasing what is not really required.
Instead of focusing on the channel specific marketing, the companies presently need to develop a digital customer experience strategy that will organize the website design basics, behavior and content etc to provide the users with an enriching and optimum experience.
Getting Started With Building the Strategy
Getting started with the digital customer experience strategy is a prerequisite, as it lays down the ways available with the business owners and entrepreneurs to adequately utilize the resources available to them and provide the customers with a splendid digital experience. This requires the businesses to understand the nature and the individuality of the targeted customers and provide them with a thorough and complete experience. If you have been flirting around with the getting getting started with the digital customer experience strategy, we provide you with the ways of ensuring you get it right the first time. Read on to know more:
1. First Attention – The Company and Brand Strategy
One cannot move a step ahead without developing a concrete action plan – a strategy! The endeavors pertaining to providing digital customers an unparalleled experience must be included in the very mission and value statement of the brand. The objectives laid down by the top level management must be churned down into an actionable plan and has to be included in plans laid down for every digital channel.
2. Mention the Anticipated Digital Experience
Strategies tend to get a bit vivid and generic when it comes to actual implications. The strategy may include the point like how the digital interactions of the company will meet the needs of the customers, provide them a more easy and comforting environment, and an amusing and enjoyable experience in general. And although all these aspects are essentially crucial, the strategy must also contain the certain anticipations and aspirations, that would make the company stand apart in the clutter.
3. Perform the Activities and Tasks Which Back Your Strategy
The only way companies can set themselves apart from the clutter and provide a better digital experience, is either by performing activities which their competitors does not, or by performing the same activities, but with such a flawless expertise, that customers are drawn towards the business. If you wish to provide the unmatched experience to your users, develop a clear vision of everything that you should do and how, and then execute the same. The clear vision and understanding is the only way let you achieve the digital customer experience goals.
4. Plan the Digital Channel Investments
To achieve the goals set in the formulated strategy one must carefully plan the investments being made in terms to customer interactions. They must add the value in the endeavors of the brand to fulfill their promise and not just waste the efforts on shiny yet dicey opportunities. A clearly defined strategy helps the companies to invest their resources in the productive business endeavors, instead of running behind acquiring such features which might work for some other company, who has a completely different strategy altogether.
A few years ago, developing a digital customer strategy, would have meant nothing more than owning a (perhaps feature rich) website and developing the website strategy. But in the present competitive world, where technology has provided everything at the disposal of the users and they themselves are as much aware of the technical developments as the market experts themselves, one needs to develop a highly directed and competitive strategy. If you feel that the customer experience is significant to the business and the digital channels are the best way to provide them with an enriching experience, it is due time you got started with the digital customer experience strategy.
