Elements of an Effective Digital Strategy

Elements of an Effective Digital Strategy

Since a digital customer service strategy is one facet of an overarching customer  experience strategy, it’s critical to first determine the overall vision and strategy  for the organization. This strategy should then dictate what digital and traditional  channels should be used.

To make any digital customer service strategy a success, utilize individuals  from IT and customer-facing teams to form an official committee that will be in  charge of executing the digital component of the customer service strategy.

Do not forgo this step just to jump into actionable items, but rather, take the time  to set aside a team that is responsible for not only setting overarching customer  service goals and tactics, but also acquiring and implementing the technology  needed to successfully bring that vision to life.

Once a committee is formed, there are three essential elements they must  consider when crafting an excellent long-term strategy:

1. Understand Current Customer Journeys

Ultimately, every element of customer service needs to support the customer  and make their experience better. This will require in-depth knowledge of how  a typical customer interacts with the business.

Elements of an Effective Digital Strategy

Emphasis on Omnichannel Experiences

Customers interact with a number of different channels and touchpoints in  their journey; this can include customer portals, public websites, apps, etc.  These interactions cannot be siloed, but rather, must deliver consistent  information across every channel in order to provide a unified experience  to customers. For example, if a company policy is updated, it may need to be

updated across websites, messenger bots, live chat scripts, social media channels,  call center scripts, and other available touchpoints; doing so efficiently and  successfully will prove to be a powerful competitive advantage.

Assess the current channels being provided;

  • do they all provide an engaging  experience for customers?

  • Are there channels that customers prefer to use that the  business is not offering, or even are there channels that customers aren’t using?

Note that not every channel will make sense to include; leaders must determine  whether the new channel is worth the time needed to integrate and manage.

Before considering any new channel, first evaluate to see if the customers  requesting it are actually your core audience or if the channel will give you  access to a new audience that is critical for your growth.

No matter what channels are used or being added, traditional or digital,  strategize how all can work together to deliver an experience that will satisfy  customer demands and establish a competitive advantage for the business.

2. Implement the Necessary Technology

With a more comprehensive understanding of typical customer behavior,  assess and implement the technologies needed to execute the overall strategy.

Investments into these different technologies should not be made in isolation  or simply to keep up with the latest trends, rather need to make sense for  customers, within the context of the larger customer service strategy and  business requirements.

There are many different emerging technology trends, but we will cover a few of  the most important in this guide.

Self-Service

The first step to excellent digital customer experiences is self-service.  Empowering customers to find the content and information they need  themselves is not only how customers prefer to interact with businesses but  also brings immediate benefits such as cost-savings and productivity gains by  reducing the amount of calls into the customer support center.

Elements of an Effective Digital Strategy

Source: Gartner

Businesses should be working towards digital-first customer service, having a  limited number of highly skilled service representatives that are able to tackle  difficult situations, with the majority of customers being guided through self-service offerings.

Consider how to begin offering self-service channels; by implementing self-service into different channels, such as websites and  customer portals, it will be more scalable to deliver consistent experiences throughout. An investment into self-service will be an investment into building a better long-term digital strategy.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

AI technologies will become more commonplace in enhancing existing applications and processes. Although many businesses want to seize the opportunity tou se AI to enhance customer service, many are struggling to discover the right use case for AI.

By 2025, customer service o“rganizations that embed AI in their multichannel customer engagement platforms will elevate operation efficiency by 25%.

Like investments for any technology, businesses need to first identify how AI  should fit into the customer service journey or what specific pain point it  should resolve. Some popular use cases for AI so far include leveraging the  technology for more personalized self-service, virtual assistants, or automated  case management routing and workflow assignment.

The Role of Digital Experience Platforms

As the number of technologies used and digital channels added increases,  customer service technology stacks will start to contain disparate,  overlapping systems leading to disjointed customer experiences.

To combat this risk, digital experience platforms (DXP) can facilitate the  integration of existing services into a one, unified user-friendly platform.  Within a DXP, systems and applications can be easily connected to provide  consistent omnichannel experiences.

Additionally, DXPs are built to be flexible and extensible, so the platform not  only can unite new systems and incorporate emerging technologies as they arise,  but also can be extended for other future needs. For example, a robust DXP can  build multiple customer-facing solutions, all on the same platform. Instead of  separating every touchpoint onto different sites, businesses can build self-service customer portals, communication hubs, status update websites,  and other solutions that can connect to third-party applications and legacy systems,  all on one site.

This allows businesses to save resources by not only needing to manage  fewer systems, but also reusing existing elements to build new sites and  touchpoints much faster while also maintaining brand consistency, rather than  having to start from scratch across a range of point solutions.

3. Measure Success

Equally critical to implementing a strategy is measuring its effectiveness.  Track metrics such as:

  • How long it takes for customers to resolve their issues

  • The volume of calls to customer support

  • How many users log onto each of the digital channels provided

  • Cost-savings from adding digital channels

It’s also beneficial to have either customer support teams or a neutral third party  reach out to customers to rate or review their experience. Make sure to incorporate  a regular assessment of tactics and channels to implement improvements and build  out an experience that will actually be beneficial for customers.

Putting Everything Together

Getting started on a digital-first customer service strategy may seem difficult and  resource-intensive; however, the investment and commitment put into maturing  a digital customer service strategy will be well worth the benefits of optimized  business efficiencies, increased agility and scalability, and ultimately enhanced  customer experiences.

Don’t feel overwhelmed by the task ahead; start by determining overall customer experience goals and understanding how customer service fits  into that overarching strategy. From there, it will be more clear what different  traditional and digital channels can be leveraged to fulfill that vision.

Then, adjust the strategy and tactics as more data is collected and customer  satisfaction is measured.

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