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The onset of Covid 19 has quickly and drastically forced us all to adjust to the new normal of keeping our social distance and going contactless as much as we can. Everyday tasks – like shopping, ordering food, banking, and working, are now done digitally, from the safety of home. With customers flocking to digital channels in their bid to stay safe, companies have had to fast track their digital plans to meet the changing consumer demands.

This was a path that few companies in Malaysia were prepared for initially. According to the Forrester Analytics Business Technographics survey, only 46% of Malaysian firms were on a digital transformation journey by late 2020. However, the survey went on to report that 34% of Malaysian firms understood that digital transformation was no longer optional, and planned to start their digital journey this year (in 2021).

With the rise of digital transformation, it has become increasingly important for businesses to prioritise customers and their digital experience – this encompasses all that they experience as they browse, make enquiries, share thoughts and opinions, get help and transact on your website and app through their desktop and mobile devices.

All successful digital transformation plans will focus on the customers and their engagement with your brand. Having a digital customer experience strategy in place will ensure that your vision and direction is carried out with clarity by the relevant departments and teams.

The answer to this is simple: All businesses are dependent on satisfied customers. Businesses, irrespective of the industry, depend on their customers to survive. Therefore, adopting a customer-centric approach to digital transformation just makes good business sense, and research and findings support this approach.

The Temkin Group found that companies earning $1 billion annually can expect to earn, on average, an additional $700 million within 3 years of investing in customer experience.

It’s also important to realise that customers expect businesses to understand their needs. They’ll leave without hesitation if they’re unhappy. A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) revealed that one in three consumers (32%) will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience.

Now that we’ve established WHY customer experience is so important to your business today, let’s look at HOW you can create a good customer experience strategy for your company.

Of the three elements of customer experience: success, effort and emotion, emotion has the largest impact on customer loyalty, according to the ROI of Customer Experience, 2020 by Qualtrics XM Institute.

One of the most powerful components of emotion in the digital journey, is empathy, because it helps build understanding, relationships and ultimately, trust between brand and customer.

Here’s how American online retailer, Zappos, showed empathy to a customer: When a customer returned a pair of shoes late because her mom had passed away, the retailer took care of the return shipping and got a courier to pick the shoes up. That’s not all – the next day, the customer received a condolence bouquet from the Zappos Customer Success team.

Customers won’t remember the exact digital interactions with your brand, but they’ll remember how their experience with your brand made them feel. According to a study by Qualtrics, more Malaysians would choose to buy from an organisation that treats them well (24%) over one that offers them a good price (19%).

Without the personal touch of in-person interaction, this may seem difficult to do, but it is possible:

• Introduce a virtual experience Multi-brand beauty retailer, Sephora, allows customers to virtually try on makeup products on their app using augmented reality. Their app also shows loyalty points and last viewed products unique to each user.
• Segment your email subscribers to ensure your subscribers only receive relevant content. For instance, you can divide your users into new and return visitors. You can also let your customers choose their preferred newsletter categories. Setting specific email funnels can be easily created through any of the popular email marketing services like Mailchimp, Mailerlite and Active Campaign.
• Encourage customers to create user profiles online so they can receive more accurate product suggestions and minimise search time.

While online marketing services and data analytics will give you insights into your customers preferences and habits, nothing beats capturing information in real time. Chat with your customers in real time using customer experience (CX) tools like Zendesk or Hubspot, then send out a follow up email or a Q&A through an online survey platform like Qualtrics or Surveymonkey. Ultimately, nothing beats getting feedback while the experience is still fresh in your customer’s mind.

A digital framework is a roadmap that will guide all departments in your company on the systems and processes they’ll need to follow when they embark on the journey of digital transformation.

Orchestrating digital transformation to achieve a mature level of digital customer experience will be challenging. A well-planned framework will ensure all stakeholders in this process will have a clear understanding of the company’s processes, systems, and strategies.

Measuring the results of your digital customer experience strategy will tell you if the steps you’ve taken have worked, or if you’ll need to re-evaluate them.

Measure your strategies with KPIs that promote quality interactions. Instead of measuring cost savings or time spent on a call to the customer, find out if your customers will buy from you again, or if they’re satisfied with their interactions with your call centre personnel.

Once you have your information, don’t stop there. Analyse, evaluate, and implement improvements again and again, to create a digital experience that constantly and consistently meets and exceeds your customers’ expectations.