Top Ways to Build a Digital Experience Monitoring Strategy

Author: Robert Kai

The competitiveness of any business enterprise depends on the adoption of its digital offerings by the end customers. The digital experience is arguably the underpinning factor that can make or break any digital offering in the market. When it plays such an important role in determining the success or competitiveness of any organization, why make a calculated guess on how customers feel when using its products or services? In fact, it makes sense to see what end customers think and/or do at every digital touchpoint of an organization.

This brings into the equation, the use of digital experience monitoring to track user behaviors across channels, devices, brands, networks, browsers, and geographies. By monitoring the digital customer experience holistically, business enterprises can gain more insights into their processes and find out where improvements are needed. This way, they can implement positive changes quickly and mitigate any situation arising out of customer dissatisfaction.

A digital experience monitoring strategy lets businesses know how end customers interact with various digital touchpoints, including web and mobile applications. According to a survey by Forrester, about 67 percent of IT leaders stated that accelerating their response to changing market dynamics is their top priority. At the same time, around 41 percent of IT leaders wanted to improve their employee’s experience by garnering real-time feedback. Thanks to the disruptions caused by the pandemic, businesses are looking at creating a real-time digital experience monitoring platform to understand customer behavior and take suitable measures to remain competitive.

To cite an example, your mobile or web application may look robust, secure, and responsive from an IT perspective, but may have glitches from the customer’s perspective. This can negatively impact the users’ perception of your brand, products, and services. The glitches can be related to the users’ device limitations, browser’s or OS’s sub-par version, or even a cloud outage - things not exactly in your control.

With digital transformation progressing at break-neck speeds across organizations and the Internet of Things (IoT) changing the dynamics of interaction with anything digital, customer experience assurance must go hand in hand. Further, with applications moving to the cloud, there is less visibility and control of IT in every aspect and component. This can be a challenge for organizations when delivering a high-quality service.

Why is visibility the key to a successful digital user experience?

Most business enterprises have yet to recognize the importance of digital experience, especially performance monitoring and optimization, in achieving long-term success. They need to understand how visibility into their IT landscape can help create a digital experience monitoring platform and support the needs of their users. Digital experience monitoring solutions can help them bridge the gap between performance and acceptance and deliver positive end-user experiences.

Creating digital experience monitoring strategies

Businesses need to build proper monitoring strategies to derive insights into their customers’ online behavior. By successfully implementing a digital experience monitoring platform, enterprises can focus on the most crucial element of their business customers. Below are the strategies to create a robust digital customer experience platform.

Quick Analysis of real-time data: For businesses, it is not always possible to ensure high-quality customer experiences consistently. They need to keep their ears to the ground by taking feedback from internal and external employees. It is only by analyzing data from various online sources, such as transactional information, online reviews, or contact center logs, that insights can be gathered about areas or segments where issues occur. The insights can provide much-needed time and opportunity to address issues before they escalate and negatively impact the brand's reputation or revenue.

Creating personalized content to improve interactions: Creating personalized content has become an important marketing strategy to draw customers. It may range from making product recommendations and offering dynamic pricing schemes to sending emails to nurture leads. Remember, well-thought-out personalized content can make a big difference as far as driving traffic to a digital touchpoint is concerned. Set up a proper digital experience platform to track the effectiveness of different types of personalized content for engagement and conversion. Thereafter, make suitable adjustments to generate revenue through improving interactions with digital touchpoints.

Monitor user behavior: The best way to gain insights into customer behavior is to observe them as they visit the website and perform some action. Businesses can track the activities of their customers through mouse movements and other navigational paths they follow. Even though streamlining navigation by adding a few steps could irk a few users, they could decrease bounce rates and offer an enhanced customer experience.

Harness customer data: Data analytics can be a digital experience assurance tool to garner interesting and insightful information about the target audience. It is not only necessary to know about the emerging trends in the marketplace but also how customers interact with various touchpoints of an enterprise. Knowledge about customers’ behavior, including their habits and preferences, can offer a competitive advantage.

Leverage social media analytics: Social media can be a reliable customer experience assurance platform to collect data about customers, such as their preferences, habits, and expectations. Social media offers tremendous opportunities for businesses to tap into and create brand awareness, drive customer engagement, and learn about their brand experience (positive or negative).

Conclusion

A successful digital experience monitoring strategy can provide a slew of benefits for business enterprises, including a better understanding of the behavior and expectations of the target audience. This can help businesses establish clear goals and objectives. By learning about customer expectations from the digital touchpoints of businesses, the latter can make suitable changes to fulfill customer expectations. This can increase customer loyalty, reduce bounce rates, improve retention rates and ROI, and enhance the competitiveness of brands.