How to improve digital customer experiences

The process of measuring and improving digital customer experiences is

straightforward: gather data on each experience, find insights in the data
on how to improve, and then take action on those insights.

1. Gather intelligence on digital customer experiences

Seeing as there are multiple channels and touchpoints where

interactions happen, there are multiple methods for gathering
intelligence on each interaction.

Social media monitoring and management tools can help you monitor
social media channels and respond to brand mentions. Customer
Relationship Management (CRM), live chat, and customer support
platforms help your sales and support teams directly communicate with
customers and keep track of direct engagements. Customer analytics
allows you to track and report on how customers actually use your
service.

But, there is only one method that helps you gather direct customer
feedback and quantitative data across digital touchpoints: customer
experience surveying.
Using the right customer experience survey software, surveys can be
triggered or sent after any digital customer interaction and can be
delivered to customers via multiple digital channels.
Here are a few digital CX survey example scenarios:

• Send a Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) survey by email after a

completed customer support ticket to gauge how satisfied the
customer is with your customer service rep’s response using
our customer satisfaction survey software.
• Share a visual rating survey (5-star, smiley face, thumbs
up/down) via a link in a live chat conversation or in reply to a
comment on social media to learn how to improve interactions.

• Trigger a Customer Effort Score (CES) survey right within your

product interface after a customer uses a specific product
feature to determine how easy or difficult it was to use,
according to the customer.
• Send a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey by SMS text message
to customers after they used both your Internet-of-Things (IoT)
hardware device and your mobile app to see how happy the
customer is with your product and how willing they are to
recommend it to others using Delighted’s NPS software.
Customer experience surveys collect ratings on the experience that can
be calculated into CX scores to benchmark and improve upon over time.
But, customers are also asked a followup question (or multiple) where
they can provide written feedback on their experience as well. By asking
customers how they are experiencing your service, you gain context
from their words that numbers can rarely convey on their own.
This combo of quantitative data (CX scores) and qualitative data (words
directly from customers) provide valuable context for uncovering insights
you can act on.

2. Uncover digital customer experience insights

With sufficient, contextual intelligence on how customers are

experiencing your digital customer experience touchpoints, it’s time to
find actionable insights to improve those experiences.

You don’t have to be a data scientist to do this. You just need the right
process and tools.

Here is a straightforward process for uncovering digital customer

experience insights you can act on:

1. Read incoming feedback! With the right customer experience

management software, feedback arrives in real-time. So, it is
best to read feedback as it happens so that any time-sensitive
issues can be addressed quickly.
2. Categorize feedback based on keywords such as the location or
product mentioned, “customer service,” specific features, etc.

3. Sort feedback within your keyword categories into positive and

negative sentiment.
 4. Take note of trends based on the keywords you are filtering by,
your sentiment sorting, and the customer experience scores for
each of these segments.

5. Compare feedback and CX scores across your segments (filters,

sorting, etc,) and with other data you have collected on the
surveyed customers, such as notes in your CRM, past support
conversations, and the actions each surveyed customer has
taken via your customer analytics tracking.
The above process helps you add context to your customer feedback
and CX score data for your various digital customer touchpoints. Context
that will help you prioritize what needs to be improved first and how to go
about it.

Now, you could do all of that manually, but it is much easier with the right
customer experience survey platform and the other tools used for
customer data collection and reporting mentioned in step 1.

3. Take action to improve digital customer experiences

Now that you uncovered insights for improving your digital customer
experiences, it’s time to get work!

First of all, there are likely customers that have provided feedback and
are eagerly awaiting resolution. More than half of consumers expect a
response from customer service within an hour, even on weekends.
Beyond resolving immediate issues, you should aim to close the loop with
your other customer segments.
• Follow up with passive customers
Your digital customer experience data and feedback collection
will uncover customers that are neither extremely happy nor
unhappy with you. This is often a large segment that provides
great opportunity for improvement through proactive
engagement. Reach out to get to know what will turn them into
a promoter that raves about your service to others.
• Turn happy customers into advocates
Customers that provide positive feedback shouldn’t be taken
for granted. Give these customers an easy path to promote your
service to others. Show them how they can gain additional
value from you that could increase the amount of money they
spend with your business.
• Learn from unhappy customers
Negative feedback or complaints shared by customers online
can feel personal, but it is important to consider unhappy
customers as opportunities to gain constructive insights for
improvement. You may also be surprised how quickly vocal
unhappy customers can turn into vocal brand advocates with
tactful engagement.
To enable proactive customer engagement and quick follow up, your
digital customer experience data and insights need to be in the right
hands at the right time. Do this by using tools that connect well with each
other for a seamless flow of information.
Insights readily available across your teams also make it easier to inform
larger efforts, such as new product development, business strategy, and
operations policy.

Conclusion

We live in a new digital age where consumers expect quick responses to

their issues with your business and proactive improvement to their
experiences – across a multitude of digital channels.

With the process described in this post and the right customer
experience platform, you can have an effective digital customer
experience strategy up and running in no time.

Delighted makes it incredibly easy to execute the digital customer

experience strategy detailed in this post through our experience
management software. From sending surveys and collecting feedback, to
benchmarking data over time to enable continuous improvement across
your digital customer journey. Sign up for a Delighted free trial and get
started!