Deep dive: What a digital customer experience should look like

Customer interactions with brands are increasingly being carried out in the digital space. As a result, the digital customer experience has become a major, if not the major, aspect of customers’ overall journey with digital media brands. In addition, with technology continuing to push the way we interact with each other online, content providers and media companies have also changed radically to accommodate their audience in the digital landscape. 

But catering to a digital audience isn’t as simple as “post content, get benefits”. Readers and subscribers are increasingly looking for added value from their interactions and looking for a holistic experience rather than just a great product or service. More than these, it’s the lasting impressions made on an audience that’s the key to having them come back time and again to your platform; the kind of impressions you can build through Viafoura.

In this article, we’ll go over why you need a digital customer experience strategy, what the key aspects of this experience look like, and how it’s essential to the growth of your digital media brand and its orbiting community.

There are some essential facts about today’s online audience that highlight how important it is to tailor a digital customer experience around your brand. Consider the following:

• Two out of three consumers expect brands to understand their needs and what they expect from them 
• Consumers are 26% more likely to recommend a brand to their friends and family if they feel emotionally connected
• 73% of brands that devote resources to an improved customer experience perform higher than their competitors

From both a financial and audience retention standpoint, it’s clear that an elevated digital customer experience plays a huge role in the success of a digital media brand. If your customer doesn’t feel valued or feel that the unsatisfactory aspects of their interactions aren’t reasonably addressed, they’re more than ready to leave without looking back. As we head into an ever-growing digital era of interactions and commerce, taking the time to make sure your web platform supports a healthy digital customer service experience will be virtually mandatory to sustain audience interest.

A digital customer experience strategy is usually tailored to the specific needs and circumstances of a brand, so we won’t be able to provide an assessment, nor the exact steps you need to take to improve your own customer experience on the web. But we can identify some critical components that form a solid foundation for good digital customer experience management. Making sure your strategy takes these into account will show results through increased engagement and satisfaction with your brand.

Consumers aren’t switching channels because they want to ride the bandwagon; it’s because, above all, consumers value convenience and ease of use. As long as elements of your strategy take the hassle out of things and provide the most convenience, your audience will respond favourably. Making it easier to find content, share opinions, have discussions, and contact you are just a few ways your brand can provide convenience.

Your audience is unlikely to be interested in all the content you offer, because everyone has their own tastes and preferences. Recognizing this and adjusting what you offer them is key to keeping them interested and engaged. Most digital customer experiences involve using gathered consumer data to make smart, automatic decisions about content recommendations. While external services and tools can do this for you, the best practice is to collect and analyze this data on your own and adjust your digital customer experience strategy accordingly.

The digital customer experience starts when they arrive on your site and ends when they leave it on a web platform. Everything from how they log in, the content they read, and the tools they use to engage with the platform and each other, are part of the impression that’s made. It’s also important to consider any non-digital interactions since your audience will not differentiate between their online and offline experiences.

A significant portion of your audience is highly likely to engage with your platform and content through mobile devices. In fact, consumers actively prefer to use multiple channels and methods to engage with brands, so it’s essential to make sure that your mobile digital customer experience is just as highly tuned as your desktop interactions. Ensure your platform has an alternative, mobile-friendly formatting and maximize how many features carry from desktop to mobile browsing.

Since consumers are driven by the emotional impact and engagement they receive from a brand, supporting the ability to participate beyond simply reading your content is key to a successful digital customer experience strategy. Consider integrating the ability to comment, reply to posts, and like their favorite content to have your audience switch from passive to active interaction. These interactions are more likely to leave a lasting impression on your audience and, in turn, more likely to get them coming back for more.

Having a digital platform isn’t enough to keep your audience engaged with your brand; it’s important to consider the overall digital customer experience. Remember that an audience looks for convenience, consideration, responsiveness, and lasting impressions. Your audience will also respond well to active engagement, and one of the best ways of doing so is through online community engagement and management software. Viafoura offers you the tools you need to take your engagement to the next level – so if you want to build upon your digital customer experience, contact us to schedule a demo and learn more about how we can help you connect with your audience.