Design thinking and Digital CX

Design thinking and Digital CX

Over the last decade Customer Experience (CX),  Digital Transformation and Design Thinking have each been claimed as a true differentiator for leading organizations. Today, with their popularity increasing, these phrases are now merging, being used interchangeably and collectively as the keys to success. According to design firm IDEO, which popularized the practice of design thinking in the business world, “Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”

Design thinking is useful in all manner of creative problem-solving, but it’s especially well-suited for rethinking products and processes to ensure the user (in this case the customer) is at the center of it all. Companies like Marriott, Capital One and furniture purveyor, Steelcase, were recently identified in a CIO Review article as active users of design thinking to “create seamless, intuitive experiences as they interact with a brand.”

Putting the Digital in CX

DX is vital to the success of your overall customer experience strategy. By improving your digital channels, you inevitably improve your overall CX. To improve DX, you need to be constantly capturing customer feedback across the digital ecosystem. Capturing customer feedback data helps you understand where pain points arise on the customer journey so you can iterate and improve their experience.

• Speed: Digital customer experience strategies tend to be more agile and fast moving. If a website loaded in a mobile-browser isn’t phone-friendly, 50% of users will use it less even if they like the business. Brands are expected to fix bugs and respond to customer feedback in real time, or else face losing valuable customers. Similarly, since there’s so much customer data to be collected through digital channels, CX pros must constantly capture and act on data to make these experiences fluid and simple.
• Mobile:  It includes mobile interfaces which are uniquely designed for speed and ease-of-use. It’s important to optimize both mobile websites and apps while maintaining the same standards you have for your customer service operation. Create that consistency by using the same language, visual branding, and level of service you provide through in-person channels.

Key Points to Remember:

1.  Companies are putting renewed focus on delivering exceptional customer experience (CX), and many are attempting to do so with siloed CX and design teams.
2. When transforming their business to prioritize CX, companies will have the most success by marrying CX insights with user-centered design methods of researching, defining opportunities, generating ideas, and prototyping before launching and scaling.
3. A combined CX-design approach to discovering customer needs, designing solutions and journeys, and delivering customer impact will help companies create a seamless end-to-end experience that truly meets customers’ ever-evolving needs.

Conclusion

The digital revolution cuts two ways for companies as customers with a wider range of options become more difficult to reel in. However, brands that have moved swiftly to master digital channels—gaining a deep understanding of customer preferences, crafting digital experiences, and improving offerings via social feedback—are establishing a competitive advantage that may be difficult to beat. Customization will be key moving forward, and that’s where communications platform as a service (CPaaS) comes into play. CX leaders can use custom apps, low-code/no-code development platforms and APIs to integrate the apps into their contact center or UC platforms. CPaaS provides apps such as click-to-call or SMS messaging to send reminders, delivery notifications and more.

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