6 Key Digital Customer Experience Trends

The digital customer experience is constantly evolving. Having a customer centric strategy and creating a seamless and enjoyable user experience is what matters in today's omnichannel, connected and tiktok world.

So, in order to stay ahead of the competition, it's important to know which digital customer experience trends will be taking over in 2023.

In this blog post, we will discuss 6 of the most important trends that you need to be aware of. Keep reading to learn more!

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Web3 and the return of anonymity

While web3 is still in its crawling phase, we can already feel the impact of decentralization on how the cyber world runs.

Web3 promises the return of privacy to the people. The near death of the 3rd party cookie and the rise of privacy regulations such as GDPR in Europe and The California Privacy Act, in the US, come as a response to consumers call to put privacy at the heart of their digital experience.

Web3 rebalances the powers by giving back data to its rightful owners - the people. They can decide now what information they want to share and with whom. This means that brands have to work extra hard and offer high quality content to charm users and make them fall in love.

Web3 pushes brands to be innovative: this is a new territory which means early adopters have to be extra creative. There are no examples to use as inspiration. It's blank page what can offer big wins for the brands that can master it.

Two brands that have embraced web3 to create unique digital experiences:

GUCCI VAULT in the Metaverse

Gucci wants to become a pioneer in web3 and has many ventures experimenting with this new digital world. The Gucci Vault build in The Sandbox on the Metaverse has become a space for events and experiences created by the luxury brand.

NFL ALL DAY Marketplace

The NFL has also embraced web3 by turning defining moments of matches into video digital collectibles that anyone can purchase on their marketplace. On September 18,2022 the platform registered over $905,000 worth of NFT sales.

Create a human digital experience

While human and digital might seem like antonyms, they actually can work together to create a great customer experience. When shifting the approach from brand to consumer, we can start to see all the touch points that can be improved to offer a more human experience digitally.

• There are no Users, only People: This means that considering your visitors only as data won't help you win the long game. Reframing your online strategy around the framework that your brand is serving humans will push you to consider the intention of the person on your site, what their end goal is and how you can help them achieve it. These new questions will help create more compelling experiences.
• Take a holistic approach: This is all about creating meaningful relationships between you and the people interested in your brand. Most brands that have a cult following have succeeded in creating an unbreakable bond with the people. Being true to your values and showcasing your efforts to achieve positive impact on your community will make the difference. An extreme but inspiring example would be Patagonia who has been built on strong environmental activism values and recently broke the internet by making earth their only shareholder.
• A two way communication: With all the digital channels available today, brands have many avenues to connect with people. Yet, it's not just about giving information, you have to learn to listen. Feedback, reviews and polls will be even more important in the upcoming years. They provide brands with invaluable insights about what people love, their expectations and frustrations.

         

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Create experiences based on context and behavior

Personalized experiences have been at the forefront of digital strategies for the past decade, but brands need to take it a little further. Today's consumer is looking for a more bespoke experience. The rise of shop local shows that the new generation values a more human, more personal and less transactional shopping experiences.

So how to achieve that as a brand? By embracing the community you serve and adapting to their behaviors, style and expectations.

We will use J.Crew as an example. When J.Crew opened a store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it left its polished look behind to embrace the industrial more rough character that makes Brooklyn. It didn't mean they changed identity or strategy but they adapted to the environment they were in and create more of a boutique feel vs the multi-chain store we know.

While this is a brick and mortar example, you can apply that same mentality to your online strategy. By balancing between behavioral and contextual personalization, businesses can tailor their interactions with customers and offer relevant content.

Immersive experiences using AR and VR technologies can be unique to each individual. For example, virtual try-ons bridge the gap between online and physical stores: smart mirrors enable virtual try-ons while see-in-your-room apps allow furniture to be virtually placed in homes for preview. While these technologies are still being perfected, their future is promising.

Social Media is a digital experience of its own

It feels like social media is always in constant movement and evolution and its role is crucial in creating a complete digital experience. From Facebook to Bereal and Tiktok, brands need to be where their people are and interact in a genuine, creative and compelling way.

With the rise of social commerce, the customer journey can start and end on social media. Brands must make sure they create a social media experience that offers a positive journey to people and that reflects their values.

Social entrepreneurship has brought us many successful brands that debuted on social networks. By building strong communities and learning from them, the product and services they created where instantly adopted by their followers.

Covid has put an extra highlight on social entrepreneurship where people started businesses out of their living rooms and kitchens. The beautiful story of l'Appartement 4F, referring to the apartment where it all started - shows how much the social community can lift brands and people to success.

Omnichannel Customer Success

Guaranteeing the satisfaction of your customer will no longer be the sole responsibility of your customer service team.

All different teams should be involve to create a happy customer and ensure customer loyalty. Knowledge sharing across teams is vital to the success of this new omnichannel approach.

Your social media team should be able to interact to customers and respond to enquiries about product and service, issues they are experiencing and more. All teams and department should be listening to your customers' feedback to improve and create product or services they deserve.

The idea of Customer Service has transformed into Success to highlight the relationship we are creating with our customers. We are not only solving their issues we are here to make them succeed and see them happy and satisfied.

Creating an omnichannel customer experience starts with the tools at your disposal. You’ll need to utilize a CRM system to help you organize your customer information in one central place and allow you to act on it.

But, the backbone of omnichannel will come from a headless CMS platform. Using APIs, a headless CMS can connect to multiple frontend presentation layers to give you that omnichannel experience delivery. Plus, you can integrate your CRM into your CMS to view and manage your content and your customers from one central location.

     

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Experiment, test and improve

While we are creatures of habits, in the context of technology, experimenting with new things is always a good idea. There are always new tools and techniques to try, that can improve our processes and the experience we offer people.

Experimenting should not be only about boosting conversion rate, it should be focusing on creating positive customer experiences and increasing customers satisfaction across all of the brand's touch points.

Try to think about what you could do differently to deliver the dream experience you want your customers to have with your brand. Endless experimentation, testing and improvement are key to getting the most out of digital technology.