Customers no longer distinguish between different online experiences, nor do they differentiate between online and offline. 

Qualtrics found in a recent study that over 65% of customers state that their experience with a website or app is a “very important factor” in if they recommend a brand. Keeping excellent digital experiences top-of-mind is critical for business success.

Seamless digital customer experiences depend on a platform that helps companies integrate their online presence. Digital experience platforms are omnichannel tools that help you meet customers’ expectations for speed, convenience, and ease.

Here’s everything you need to know about digital experience platforms, including what to look for when choosing one.

What is a Digital Experience Platform?

Digital experience platforms are omnichannel tools that manage the digital experience across various online mediums. 

Experience management can include platforms on desktop and mobile, from apps to social media content. It also considers digital environments such as voice-activated devices and IoT. Essentially, if a customer engages with your brand using the internet, this constitutes a digital experience.

Creating Amazing Digital Customer Experiences

Here are the most important practices for generating excellent digital customer experiences.

1. Standardize to Make an Omnichannel Experience

Since digital experience platforms handle all aspects of your online presence, it’s essential to standardize and improve these collectively. 

Customers often switch between your online experiences when researching your brand and making purchasing decisions, so you want the process to be seamless. You also want to avoid a clunky experience on one platform that may disrupt the ease of the overall customer journey.

2. Transparency Matters

Digital customer experiences are essential, and they appreciate your honest efforts to improve. Collect customer feedback and use it. Be transparent about your efforts to gather feedback and do better.

3. Closed-Loop Feedback

While transparency in gathering feedback is critical, you also need to practice the act of closed-loop feedback. This refers to following up with customers who’ve shared feedback about a negative experience. 

Dig deeper if needed, and explain to them that you’re working on resolving – or have resolved – the issue.

4. Long-Term Mindsets Win

The world of digital experiences is evolving, so you need to take a long-term approach. Create an ongoing program of improvements and aim to increase customer lifetime value over time. 

While changes may not show improvements immediately, small changes over time, with consistency, can make a seismic impact.

5. Resolve Issues

A poor digital experience damages your brand, and customers won’t tolerate it for long. Whenever there are issues, correct them swiftly.

6. Lead With Empathy

Customers can sense empathy, and it makes a world of difference. Being empathetic means offering timely and personal support. Be there when the experience goes wrong, and right it efficiently.

You’ll need to be proactive about creating extraordinary experiences and reactive about fixing negative ones. 

Evaluating Digital Platforms

Here are some criteria for choosing your next digital experience platform.

1. Know What’s Required to Reach Your Goals

What your company requires to reach its goals is unique. You need a strong understanding of what digital customer experience features will best help you achieve those goals before you choose a platform.

You can also parse out platform requirements based on the phase of your achievements. Your needs will likely evolve as you get closer to meeting your goals.

Here are some questions to ask that will help get you clear on business objectives:

     - What time and resource constraints are at play?

     - What’s your end goal for investing in this tech?

     - How will roles or systems change in response to adopting this software?

     - How (or is) this approach better than your current process?

2. Look For Positive Reviews

You can browse online sites such as Capterra, look for in-depth review articles, or ask companies for references when evaluating digital experience platforms. 

Dive as deep as possible here. Look for customer success stories and analyze how this vendor solved problems for companies in your industry.

3. Evaluate Ecosystems

Look at the ecosystems and integrations of each vendor and ensure they communicate efficiently. 

4. Ensure Their Tech is Future-Proof

Whichever digital experience platform you choose, ensure it integrates with the future digital ecosystem. This means finding platforms that integrate with iOS, Android, Salesforce, AWS, and more. 

Your platform should also have APIs that are in good shape and be able to integrate with data systems like Zapier. All of this should be simple and not require much effort on your end.

5. Keep Cybersecurity Top-of-Mind

Cybersecurity breaches cost you brand loyalty, and, ultimately, lots of money.

When Target was breached by its third-party vendor, it cost the company around $162 million. And, when Equifax failed to fix a software breach, it exposed the personal information of nearly half of Americans, a blunder they may never live down.

Choose a digital experience platform that prioritizes security and keeps its platform up-to-date with the latest requirements.

So, Which Platform Do You Choose?

We hope this article helped you come closer to choosing the perfect digital experience platform for your company. The software you select should be an omnichannel tool that allows you to reach your business goals as seamlessly as possible.

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If you’re looking for a platform that meets all your needs, check out EventEngage. Our future-proof, secure, and reliable platform will help you achieve your business goals and increase customer lifetime value. Learn more today!

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