At the start of the pandemic, digital transformations took on a new sense of urgency. Organizations had to either become digital-first overnight or face the consequences. As a result, nearly every industry digitized their efforts as varied as supply chains, employee training, and customer interactions.

One of the biggest challenges for businesses amid all this change was figuring out how to offer a high-quality customer service experience in a convenient and effective digital way. Those that hadn’t historically offered omnichannel digital options were suddenly trying to navigate digital service tools designed to fill a need that hadn’t seemed pressing — until March 2020 hit.

As the pandemic continues, it’s apparent that these digital transformations are more than just stopgap solutions: They are the defining foundations of the future. Consumers now expect digital communications to be a mainstay of how they interact with businesses, and businesses will be expected to keep up.

Ultimately, an optimal digital transformation is integrated into every part of a business — especially customer experience. With the right approach, creating a digital customer journey that seamlessly moves between channels and uses customer insights to inform interactions bolsters customer service operations.

Fusing Digital Transformation and Customer Experience

With an increasing number of businesses focusing on customer experience as a competitive advantage, the importance of understanding customers has never been higher. Today’s buyers expect a seamless journey that allows them to move between channels with a business without interruption or setbacks. They also want their journey to be customized to their needs and preferences, which requires analyzing and utilizing contextual data from past and current interactions.

For businesses unable to deliver this cohesive, personalized experience, it’s time to transform. Data and technology infrastructures and operational processes need to be rethought and revamped and data silos torn down. Making these changes allows for something truly transformative: digital customer journey mapping. It’s essential to delivering an optimal customer experience, allowing companies to visualize both present and potential customer journeys and examine key touchpoints to later put into action.

Key Touchpoints in a Digital Customer Journey

While each customer journey is different, there are four touchpoints businesses should continually focus on.

• The first is the discovery and contact phase, in which a potential customer finds a particular brand and makes initial contact. Digitally, this contact can be made through an intelligent chatbot that provides instantaneous answers and gathers information that can be used at the next stage of engagement.
• The next step is interacting with a live agent. Information from the potential customer’s initial interaction with a business enables agents to build on the conversation and offer seamless service, which encourages customers to continue engaging and move further down the funnel.
• This can lead to conversion. When someone has a positive experience customized to their needs and preferences, it improves the likelihood that they become a customer — and stay a customer.
• Once they become customers, interactions become focused on fostering loyalty by offering a customer experience that is hyper-relevant and tailored to their needs. Digital tools enable this by collecting information and context that can inform future interactions in a way that picks up where the last one left off.

All of this is important because it lets businesses offer proactive service. It eliminates the inefficient nature of starting every interaction from scratch when a consumer has already gone through certain steps or answered certain questions. That redundancy leaves customers frustrated and immediately hurts the customer experience, but proactive service makes them feel seen and valued.

The Importance of Digital Transformation

Offering the best possible digital customer journey requires a shift away from traditional reactive service and a shift toward proactive service. It’s the only way forward for companies that want to compete in the modern era and attract and retain valuable customers.

A digital transformation need not be a big undertaking. When businesses change legacy processes and ingrained culture, they can face some challenges, but all of the work and risk are undoubtedly worth it. With a strategic digital transformation, businesses can get a holistic view of each customer’s journey and then develop a vision of what the optimal customer experience should look like.

They should also have the tools to turn that vision into a reality. USAN offers a robust suite of contact center solutions and tools designed to do exactly that, bolstering a business’s digital transformation and the customer experience all at once.

To learn more about what USAN can do for you, reach out here. We look forward to talking soon!