Hard truth – your customers’ loyalty is intrinsically tied to the quality of your customer experience (CX).

Of course, customer loyalty is fleeting and easy to lose. We must all bend over backwards to understand the best ways to earn and keep customer loyalty, as it directly impacts your bottom line. In fact:

• 17% of U.S. consumer will walk away after just one bad experience
• 59% of consumers will stop supporting a brand they love after several bad experiences

We’re all walking this tight rope – trying to engage our customers and attract their attention on many different digital and in-person channels, each rife with opportunities to tumble off that highwire.

Luckily, we’re more empowered than ever by digital technology to understand our customers’ needs, frustrations, and motivations, and deliver increasingly better customer experiences.

Let’s take a look at why getting customer experience and service right is so vital and the many digital technologies available to deliver on our promises to customers.  

Table of Contents

1. What is digital customer experience?
2. What are the digital technologies for customer experience (CX)?
3. What is an example of digital customer experience?
4. What is the role of technology in customer service?

What is Digital Customer Experience?

Digital customer experience (DCX) describes the many interactions customers have with a business or brand across digital channels (like their website, social media accounts, emails, SMS messages, digital advertisements, mobile apps, customer service portals, and more).

More important, DCX aims to measure the holistic impression a customer has for the business following these interactions.  

It’s important to remember that to customers, every experience – positive or negative – builds their overall impression of that business.  

This is major, because if a business is providing an inconsistent or frustrating experience on any single channel (and, we’re all managing so many!), they risk tanking the overall positive impression gained on another channel.

So, how does technology safeguard our business from this risk, help us improve customer experience, and ensure we fulfill our customers’ needs more quickly, efficiently, and satisfactorily?

What are the Digital Technologies for Customer Experience (CX)?

Whether it’s data management, content management, marketing automation, chatbots, augmented reality, or so much more – there is a CX service, focus area, or tool to solve just about every problem at every price point, in the market.

In fact, the global customer experience management market is projected to grow from $16.91 billion in 2023 to $52.54 billion by 2030, exhibiting a CAGR of 16.6%.

Many of these tools have been around for years and are now table stakes for any integrated digital customer experience strategy.

Customer experience technology examples might include:

• content management systems (CMS)
• customer relationship managements (CRM) systems
• ecommerce tools / digital experience platforms (DXPs)
• marketing automation / email automation
• chatbots / virtual assistance / automated customer support
• customer data platforms / data analytics tools

CX tech is always evolving with changing customer and business needs.

For the last three-to five years, it’s been all about how do you leverage your data better, to understand those crucial points of the customer experience and make it more personal and relevant for your customers.

So, digital technologies like business intelligence (BI) tools and customer data platforms (CDPs) became crucial, as they enabled us to:

• feed data into a single platform from various channels
• understand it to find areas of friction or opportunity
• build data models, like churn models or forecasting models to make better strategic predictions, and
• act on it, by triggering all sorts of personalized, data-driven engagements, via our CMS, marketing automation platform, SMS, and more.  

Of course, this is only getting faster and smarter with AI. Whereoware’s Chief Technology Officer, Eric Mackenzie explains:

“Today, it’s not only leveraging those underlying data and technologies like CDPs, but now we’re adding an AI layer on top of that – to make decisions quicker and use data faster to personalize and improve our customer engagements.”

‍Mackenzie continues, “We’re also seeing a continued push around augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). So, when you think of ecommerce stores and products, AR/VR enables users to start really seeing those products in their own environments – you can’t get more personal. That’s a huge leap in our ability to create a better user experience.”

Not only that, AI and ML tools play a pivotal role in empowering employees to enhance customer experience across various touchpoints.

These tools can automate routine tasks, provide insights into customer behavior, and enable personalized interactions.

It’s an exciting time to see AI embedded in all kinds of CX tools, enabling us to uplevel the digital customer experience.

What is an Example of Digital Customer Experience?

Every time a customer browses your website, fills out a contact us form, or comments on your LinkedIn post, they’re engaging in your digital experience.

This may sound surprising, but the best digital customer experience examples aren’t even noticed by your customers – and that’s how you want it.

When your customers can quickly find the exact gift for their grandma, they’re thinking about the look on her face when she opens it. They aren’t taking note of your rich product detail page (PDP) or the personalized product recommendations – they just remember your site made it easy to find the perfect gift.

When a B2B buyer quickly logs into your retail portal and finds all their previous invoices with a few clicks, they’re just happy to look like an organized, all-star team member in front of their boss – not applauding the technology powering that buying experience.  

Sure, when it comes to technology and customer experience truly innovative and exciting capabilities can give customer a thrill – getting to superimpose a new couch in your living room using augmented reality, for example, and rotating and zooming it around the room to find the best location.

But, these awe-inspiring moments are few and far between. The goal is instead to help the customer take action and get out of their way –and great CX technology is the enabler of these seamless experiences.

For our clients at Whereoware, we focus on identifying the right strategies to bridge the gap between our clients’ AND their customers ’goals.

We analyze whether the digital experience is truly customer-first, while guiding clients on how to maximize, capitalize, and profit on the promise of emerging technologies and trends.

Of course, we’re not only talking about the end user experience. Let’s take a look at how technology empowers better customer service.

What is the Role of Technology in Customer Service?

Customer service is one of the most critical points in CX. Customers interact with support when they have a question or need a resolution. They may be frustrated or emotionally charged.

Luckily, the days of customer support lines as the main defense against customer irritation are long gone.

Today, technology is embedded in every aspect of customer service – giving customers many different options to solicit support and helping businesses resolve customers’ concerns faster.

Customer service technology examples might include:

• Asking a chatbot for an update on your delayed package
• Using a self-serve portal to submit an auto repair request
• Completing a post-appointment survey via an automated phone call
• Getting warranty expiration reminders via automated and personalized emails

That last one? True story.

We helped Yamaha Golf Car launch a highly personalized email nurture program to remind customers when their vehicle warranty offer was about to expire (personalized with each customers’ exact vehicle model, warranty number, and warranty expiration date).

This successful and highly integrated campaign contributed to more than $1 million in revenue – proving that personalizing the customer service experience is good for customers and good for business.

The Takeaway

CX technologies are any supporting infrastructure, software, or tools used to create a better customer experience for your users.

There’s no negative impact of technology on customer service or customer experience, just endless options and capabilities to solve every unique challenge in the book.

Plus, a ton of smart partners, like Whereoware, can help you choose the right technology and techniques for your needs.

Don’t wait to get started! Partner with us to get your customer experience right through smart data, powerful technology, and an obsession with delivering customers value at every turn.