Blogue

Source: ITWorld Canada

Site internet: www.itworldcanada.com

Delta can accept credit card payments using a smartphone attachment during flights.

Digital customer experience: You have seconds to impress

Steve Proctor – October 27, 2016

In the digital economy, a few seconds can make the difference between winning or losing a customer.

In a recent survey by Limelight Networks, 80 per cent of users said they would abandon a site that takes longer than three seconds to load.  Customer expectations have changed profoundly as a result of the explosion of digital choice and the acceleration of innovation. Now, the experience has to be flawless.

The cost of poor customer service can be devastating.  Research company Access Development reports that 79 per cent of customers would take their business to a competitor within a week of experiencing poor customer service, while the estimated cost of customers switching their choice of businesses is $1.6 trillion.

“If you don’t make it fast and easy, you lose customers, “ says digital marketing and customer experience pioneer, Gerry McGovern.  “We need to develop a return on investment model for ease of use.  There are huge returns, but we’re not measuring them”.

Coffee on the go

The Starbucks mobile app is cited as one of the best examples of making the customer experience easier.  It manages a customer’s loyalty points and lets them place orders in advance, so they don’t have to wait in line.  The app has been so popular among customers that it’s now used for one in four purchases.

Recent Gartner research shows that 89 per cent of companies expect to compete on customer experience, rather than on product or price.  Similarly, a Forrester Research survey confirms that the best investment an organization can make is in improving the digital customer experience.

Companies with strong customer engagement across a number of channels will be well positioned to meet consumer expectations.  At the same time, many organizations need better visibility into their customers’ behaviour and the performance of their services across all of the channels.  New application experience tools can be the key to enabling an organization to deliver a premium service that is always consistent.