The customer experience has gone from high-touch offline interactions to “instantaneous digital experiences across and ever-growing number of channels,” according to a recent column in Forbes from Vijay Chittoor, the current co-Founder and CEO of Blueshift and former co-Founder and CEO of Mertado. Rather than just a few well-known brands, customers now have a wider selection. This has made it harder for firms to stand out in the crowded marketplace.

That’s why bringing the customer to the experience is no longer the way to go—firms must bring the experience to the customer, Chittoor notes. To do so, firms can: 

• Trigger messages to each individual at just the right times
• Immediately provide the next best actions, such as sending a perfect piece of content to help drive a purchasing decision
• Use “hyper-precise audience targeting” to put their knowledge of their customers to work.

“Where a marketing channel and a customer experience channel begin and end has blurred,” the article notes. To succeed in the new environment, marketers need to have a customer-centric mindset rather than just focusing on a sales channel, Chittoor notes. To do this, they need to invest in:

• Data unification so they can know their customers
• Artificial intelligence so they can manage and make good use of their data
• A distribution hub to help connect decision-making across all customer and marketing channels.

What Should the 2020 Holiday Season Customer Experience Be Like?
With the end of 2020 fast approaching, CMS Wire offered a handful of marketing and customer experience tips to help firms stand out this holiday season.

First, firms should chuck their previous marketing playbook, as the pandemic has changed customer behavior and needs. “Consumers’ habits, behaviors and preferences have changed since the pandemic, which is why it’s crucial that marketers don’t rely solely on campaigns or tactics that have worked in previous holiday seasons,” Drew Burns, head of product marketing at Adobe Target, told the publication. “Brands must focus on delivering personalized experiences at every customer touch point.”

Burns said firms should focus on providing recommended content that is relevant and make sure the top navigation of the app or website is auto-personalized. They also need to make sure they have the right infrastructure to measure campaigns and allocate enough resources to ASO—App Store Optimization.

Because of fierce competition for customers this year, it may be hard for firms to get their app noticed in the app store. Therefore, firms should focus on the right keywords and lots of visuals. Firms should also incentivize their web consumers to install their mobile app. “Data shows that in-app performance is substantially higher than mobile web thanks to a superior native user experience and the ability to use push notifications,” according to a source quoted in the article. “By incentivizing mobile web users to download your app through your owned media channels —for example by offering a discount on their first in-app purchase—you will be able to build a loyal and satisfied user base.”

Finally, the article recommends firms make their UX perfect, invest in BOPIS (buy-online, pickup in-store) experiences, and be sure not to lose the human touch amid your technology.