Teresa just found the perfect purse and can’t wait to buy it, but just as she clicks Buy Now!, the cart value increases considerably!
She had factored in taxes, but shipping costs and packaging fees were so much higher than competitors, and all together it nearly doubled the value of the purse. Suddenly this very attractive purchase just seemed a bit too much.
That’s what bad customer experience design does. It doesn’t factor in customer emotions. It’s not just about creating a seamless process but also ensuring thoughtfulness every step of the way. Customer experience is the overall impression a customer develops with a brand, their thoughts, feelings, and experiences, based on every single interaction they have with you, and customer experience design keeps this in mind when designing the customer’s journey.
How has customer experience design evolved in the digital age?
Customer experience design is about keeping the customer at the heart of every decision you make. While this core concept remains unchanged, the digital age has seen a drastic change in how nuanced the decisions need to be.
Today’s customer experiences are personalized, delivered across platforms and devices, and designed to be intuitive. They don’t just keep the customers at the center, they put them in the driver’s seat, allowing them to take charge of their experience.
By doing so, businesses can gather insights into what the customers want, often tailoring their services and offerings to meet the needs of their audience.
Service design vs. Customer Experience (CX) design: What’s the difference?
While there is a significant overlap between customer experience design and service design, the main difference is the intent. While customer experience design focuses on the emotional experience a customer has at each touchpoint, aiming to create a friction free journey, service design is about optimizing processes to ensure efficiency. As a result, service design isn’t just focused on the customer’s perspective but also accounts for what is best for the organization.
What makes for a strong customer experience design strategy?
The best customer experiences are always evolving. They account for the ever-changing customer behaviors and buying patterns, and ensure they are in sync with the demands of the day. If you’re just beginning to chart out your customer experience design strategy, here’s everything you need to keep in mind:
1. Customer journey mapping
Begin with visualizing the journeys your customers will take. If they come across your brand on their phone, how will they navigate from awareness and research to actual conversion? Perhaps if they find your brand on the laptop or even a different platform (for example: Instagram), what page will they land on and how will their journey take shape?
When you begin visualizing the customer’s journey, you can better understand how seamless the process is and what roadblocks your customers might face.
2. Personalization and AI
Everything is tailored to you, right from Amazon recommendations to google ads that pop up when you’re simply reading an article. Customers are expecting the same from you.
That’s why you need to ensure that personalization is an integral part of your customer experience design. Address customers by name where possible. Use data-backed insights to provide customers with product suggestions and even offers they would love. AI can help! With the right tools in place, you can ensure that customers get personalized experiences that cater to their preferences. Right from product ads that are relevant to them, to suggested products that complement their search history.
While AI can be a powerful asset, it’s essential to toe the line and ensure no data privacy has been breached. Ask for permissions where needed, and amaze customers with suggestions and offers tailored to them!
3. Consistency across touchpoints
Whether a customer finds your brand from their phone, a tablet, or even their laptop, it should feel like they are interacting with the same brand. This consistency helps to build trust and leave a strong impression.
Imagine finding an amazing brand on your phone, but their website on the laptop looks completely different. Not only is this jarring, but you as a potential customer confused and wondering if the brand is legit.
4. Speed and seamlessness
Gone are the days when we are waiting over a minute for a website to load. Slow loading times now mean higher abandonment. The same goes for a confusing and disjointed experience.
To keep up with the demands of today, make sure your website is fast loading, with each touchpoint seamlessly guiding users to the next one. Assume that if a user must search for the “add to cart” icon, they have likely already shut your website and are on to the next!
5. Technology integration
The digital age demands are technology-driven business. While today’s customers demand a lot, it doesn’t all have to mean more work for you. Technology can help you catalyze efficiency without overwhelming you with additional tasks!
Use automated reminders to follow-up with customers after cart abandonment or even post purchase. You can use mailing lists to send offers to customers based on their preferences, or even pop-up feedback surveys that nudge customers to share their thoughts, so you know exactly what’s working (and what isn’t!)
6. Emotional connection
Unlike service design, customer experience design is about understanding the emotional journey the customer takes as well. It does more than improve efficiency, it creates a journey that resonates with your customer.
So, let’s go back to Teresa’s experience. When she saw a slew of hidden fees added to her order, she quickly got frustrated, possibly even felt tricked. But what if these same fees were absorbed into the cost of the product, or even explained more clearly early on? She would have factored it all in when she clicked “Buy” and likely have made the purchase!
Thinking from the customer’s perspective can make all the difference in ensuring an experience that not only resonates but guides them forward.
7. Feedback loops and continuous improvement
In an age where technology is constantly evolving, there is no perfect customer experience design. The most strategies have continuous improvement at their core. They incorporate feedback loops, listen to customers’ likes and dislikes, and are looking to constantly improve the process to keep up with the ever-changing expectations.
How can I improve my CX design?
How often do you have a gut instinct about what you need to do? Maybe if you just reduce the number of clicks it takes to get a customer from a product to check-out, it will increase sales. But when you do that, you see absolutely no difference. That’s the thing: gut instincts aren’t always right, but data is!
That’s why you need to ask your customers about their experiences. Follow-up after every big interaction, give customers incentives to share their feedback – a discount code, or even a freebie on their next purchase would work. You’ll be surprised by what you discover!
Sogolytics can help you connect with customers and gather feedback to inform your strategy. But it isn’t just about the answers. With Sogolytics, you can read between the lines, analyze correlations to better understand the different factors impacting customer behavior, and even identify the key drivers that keep your customers coming back. We help you go beyond the information avalanche to really understand the why behind your customers’ behavior.
With powerful analytics and captivating reports, you can have everything you need to win over stakeholders and take decisions that make a real difference for your business.
With these insights in place, you can leverage UX tools and even AI to deliver on your promises, giving customers an experience they simply can’t get enough of!
How effective is your CX design strategy?
You’ve made the changes, but are they really making a difference? As mentioned earlier, the best CX design strategies are built around continuous feedback and improvement. And how can we do this? By tracking key metrics!
Keep an eye on your Net Promoter Score (NPS) and see how it fluctuates. Dive deeper into what your customers are saying with Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores. Sogolytics allows you to combine key metrics with a Key Driver question to identify what drives customers to give you better reviews.
You can even create custom metrics that pertain to your business, allowing you to monitor what matters most to you.
Top challenges in creating a successful CX design
Creating an effective and impactful CX design isn’t easy. Here are the most common roadblocks most businesses face:
1. Budget constraints
When you’re looking to implement new processes or even invest in the latest technology, budget constraints can often stop you in your tracks. That’s why it’s important to win-over stakeholder approval with data-backed insights.
After all, it’s easy to dismiss your proposal for the new chatbot simply because who knows whether it will make a real difference. But when you have the responses from your customers saying they’d like an AI chatbot to quickly solve queries without having to wait around for a customer service representative, it’s a lot more convincing!
While budget constraints are still very real, and you might not be able to make all the changes in one go, having the right data to back your plan can ensure that you take things one step at a time.
2. Resistance to change
While technology has introduced the world to an all-new pace of change, it isn’t always easy to keep up. What works today just won’t work tomorrow – and that isn’t an easy thing to process (or even keep up with). As a result, it’s important to work with leadership to create an agile and flexible CX design strategy that monitors changing customer expectations and helps you stay in step.
3. Ever-changing customer expectations
Even with an agile CX design plan in place, keeping up with the rapidly changing customer expectations is no easy feat. In just a few short decades, our world has evolved from being amazed by the power of the internet to taking it for granted. To top it off, with every amazing technological advancement comes the expectation that this be incorporated into your business immediately. So, if you’re struggling to keep up with the latest customer demands, you aren’t the only one!
Experience the Sogolytics difference!
We know what it’s like to always be evolving and delivering on customer experience. As a SaaS company in the tech space, we are constantly striving to keep up with the latest advancements, delivering technologies our customers need to deliver the best possible experiences to their audience.
That’s why we offer several key features that help our customers not only make informed decisions but stay a step ahead of their customers’ expectations.
1. Create with AI
Sometimes the hardest part about getting answers is creating the survey. What questions should you ask? Where should you even begin? Instead of scratching your head, our create with AI feature allows you to simply share a prompt and see your survey created in minutes. You can then add, remove, or edit questions to better suit your needs, and you’re all set!
2. Real-time updates
You don’t need to wait until the end of a survey to get the feedback you need. With live updates, you can witness the changing customer sentiments and take immediate action, especially when customers highlight key issues that might be impacting their conversion rates!
3. Customizable dashboard
Our CX dashboard allows you to not only see the key metrics you track but also highlights what you might need to say. You can customize the dashboard to ensure that everything you need is visible at a glance so that you’re always in the loop about what needs to be done.
4. Custom metrics
Don’t just limit yourself to the key metrics. While those are important, you might need something more. For example, a cyber-security firm might want to focus on how secure their customers feel, whereas a restaurant might ask customers to rate the “deliciousness” of their dish! We help you create custom metrics so that you get the insights that pertain to you.
Ready to get started?
We’d love to work with you to ensure an experience your customers love. So, as you’re getting started on your customer experience design journey, let us help ensure that you’re making the best calls every step of the way with nuanced insights. Let’s set up a quick call and our CX executives can walk you through just how Sogolytics can make a difference for your business.
FAQs
Q1: What is customer experience design?
A: It’s the process of designing customer interactions that consider both efficiency and emotional impact across the entire journey.
Q2: How does customer experience design differ from service design?
A: Customer experience design focuses on emotions and seamless touchpoints, while service design is about internal processes and efficiency.
Q3: What are the key elements of a good CX design strategy?
A: Customer journey mapping, personalization, omnichannel consistency, speed, emotional connection, feedback loops, and technology integration.
Q4: How can I improve my customer experience design?
A: By collecting continuous feedback, analyzing customer behavior, and adjusting the strategy based on real-time data and insights.
Q5: What are the common challenges in CX design?
A: Budget constraints, resistance to change, and rapidly evolving customer expectations.
