With over 5.17 billion internet users in 2024, the world is more connected than ever. This means increased opportunities for businesses—but higher expectations, too. Staying connected and offering a consistently positive CX is a big challenge.
That’s why you need a digital customer experience strategy that works.
In this article, we’ll show you exactly how to create a detailed digital customer experience strategy. We’ll explain what it is and why your company needs one. Plus, a 12-step guide to building a strategy that drives loyalty and boosts your bottom line.
A digital customer experience strategy encompasses every aspect of how people interact with your business on all digital channels, covering:
You must focus on every touchpoint in the customer journey to guarantee a seamless, personalized experience. This is about more than just having an online presence—it’s about creating experiences that meet, and ideally exceed, expectations.
To develop a strong strategy, you’ll need to understand your consumers on multiple levels, including their:
This will give you the knowledge you need to create meaningful customer experiences across multiple digital touchpoints. Remember, the goal is to unify all these scattered interactions into a cohesive experience that’s both intuitive and satisfying from start to finish.
To help you visualize this journey a little better, here are some examples of digital channels consumers may use to interact with your brand:
It’s simple. 93% of customer service teams say expectations are higher than ever—and you’ve got to meet those expectations.
For your customers, digital experiences are often the first (and most frequent) interactions they have with your business. These experiences can significantly impact their perception of your company, influencing everything from customer satisfaction to brand loyalty.
When their digital interactions are efficient and personalized, they’re more likely to:
80% of customers feel that a company's experience is as important as product and service, which shows you how important CX is today.
Strong digital CX does more than just make people happy. It can create new opportunities for upselling and cross-selling, with 63% of customers more likely to pay more for great service.
A good digital customer experience strategy guides consumers through every step of the journey, making a lasting impression that drives them to purchase more, cultivates loyalty, and leaves them satisfied. So, what do those steps look like?
Let’s put it into more practical terms with an example:
Steve is looking for the latest and greatest gadget. He comes across one of your company’s ads on YouTube (awareness) and decides to check out your website to learn more (discovery). After researching by comparing reviews online (evaluation), he decides to make a purchase (conversion).
Once he’s got his new gadget, he’ll use it and get a feel for how it fits into his everyday life (experience). If something goes wrong—say he has a question or needs help with a specific feature—he reaches out to your call center (support).
Impressed with the overall experience, Steve is excited to see what comes next and is happy to make future purchases (buy again).
Before you jump in, you need to ask yourself a question—what does a positive service experience mean for your customers?
Every business has a unique customer base with distinct needs and expectations. Finding out what makes your audience tick—and what they want out of products and services—can be a significant factor in shaping your digital customer experience journey.
Research your target audience to understand their pain points, needs, and preferences. Then, outline what positive CX looks like to them—that’s the basis for your digital customer experience strategy.
You need to know every single touchpoint, from awareness to post-purchase support. Highlight the key moments where your brand can make or break the experience, and understand how you can make an impact at each milestone.
An in-depth map can help you pinpoint areas for improvement and identify specific moments where your call center agents can exceed expectations.
Personalization is increasingly important to the modern consumer. Even things as simple as using customers’ names in marketing communications, or providing targeted recommendations, can go a long way in shaping how people view your business.
Use data from your QA platform, customer relationship management (CRM) software, or elsewhere to personalize interactions.
76% of consumers are more likely to purchase after receiving tailored communications, which shows exactly how impactful it can be on the customer journey.
While multichannel provides many points of contact, an omnichannel experience unifies them for a seamless digital journey. Whether customers switch from a website to a mobile app, phone call, or any other channel, every interaction should feel connected and consistent.
Integrate your communication channels (email, chat, phone, social media, etc.) so customers can easily switch without losing context. This also gives your agents a single overview of their entire journey and any past interactions, so they can deliver a more satisfying experience.
User experience goes hand in hand with customer satisfaction. Evaluate every channel and touchpoint in the customer journey to ensure they’re straightforward and easy to use. This is especially important when it comes to the mobile experience, as 82% of customers already use mobile apps to communicate with companies.
Automation can streamline workflows and improve response times, allowing your agents to work on more meaningful tasks (and help more customers). Automated processes and AI-powered tools can eliminate tedious work and enable a smoother experience with self-service options.
Chatbots can revolutionize the customer experience—but proceed with caution. They’re excellent at handling routine queries and tasks (with AI-powered virtual agents going even further), but overuse can alienate some customers who just want to speak to a real person.
Make sure your chatbot is equipped to handle common queries and escalate more complex issues to a human agent. A well-designed chatbot can improve response times and increase customer satisfaction, but a poorly implemented one can quickly drive customers away.
61% of customers don’t want to have to reach out to get a simple problem solved, they’d rather do it themselves. Beefing up your self-service options—such as help desks, knowledge bases, FAQs, videos, tutorials, guides, and more—can empower your customers to take it into their own hands and find solutions at their convenience.
“Phygital” (it’s a real word, we promise) is a blend of physical and digital experiences, allowing customers to bridge the gap between online and offline interactions while maintaining a positive CX.
Examples include offering options to try on in person and buy online, adding digital kiosks in-store, or integrating online data with in-store data.
Feedback is invaluable for any business—and who knows your customer experience better than your customers?
Actively encourage them to reach out, whether it’s through surveys, reviews, social media, or anything else that connects you to them. Make it easy for them to offer feedback at any stage in their digital experience so you know what works (and, vitally, what doesn’t).
Real-time feedback tracking allows you to address concerns quickly and reinforce positive experiences. Take advantage of software that can analyze customer sentiment and show you how customers are feeling at the moment. Then, take the opportunity to intervene and course-correct to avoid escalations and help agents in a bind.
A winning digital customer experience strategy is never static. It’s a long-term process that requires attention and constant refinement to ensure you’re meeting customer needs as they (and your business) evolve.
Using metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), CSAT, and customer effort score (CES) can help you understand how your customers are feeling and where you can improve.
It’s not easy to guarantee consistent digital CX, let alone when you do it at scale—but there are solutions that can help.
AI-powered QA can have a massive impact on your business. Instead of capturing only a fraction of your interactions, tools like Scorebuddy can automatically evaluate 100% of conversations—whether it’s chat, email, social media, or anything else—without hiring extra evaluators.
AI-backed QA tools offer full visibility into every interaction, allowing you to monitor, analyze, and improve performance in real-time. This not only guarantees high-quality, consistent interactions, but more efficient operations as you grow.
Want a headstart over the competition? Get a Scorebuddy demo and see how you can guarantee a stellar digital customer experience every time.
