What fast-paced digital evolution means for customer experience transformation

Reduce cost-to-serve and churn: improve your CX

Changes to consumer behavior because of COVID have accelerated the propensity for consumers to switch to digital communication channels.

But just facilitating the switch to digital isn’t enough to ensure a successful customer experience (CX). There are several CX factors that must be addressed when transitioning to digital. Otherwise, organizations risk increasing their cost-to-serve and customer churn rate.

Consumers want the option of print or digital

Yes, the demand for digital communications is gaining momentum. According to a recent study commissioned by Quadient and Computershare, 48.5% of consumers who still receive paper communications plan to move to digital communications in the next 12 months.

But there’s a catch.

According to the 5,000 people surveyed, 28% of consumers prefer a mix of digital and paper communications. In other words, they prefer digital for some of the communications they receive and paper for others.

If a company fails to provide this flexibility, they risk disappointing customers and seeing them move on to another provider. The bottom line: having the ability to choose between digital or paper for their communications is very important to consumers.

They expect the customer experience to be great

Consumers want the companies they do business with to have the same digital maturity level that they have. 

The pressure is on. 

The expectations are high. 

It's simple. Companies that are slower to embrace digital communications, and execute an omnichannel experience that is equally great across both digital and print, are vulnerable. If there are competitors in the marketplace doing a better job at delivering this, they can easily lure customers away. 

Communications must be easy to understand

In the Quadient and Computershare study, subjects revealed that digital communications should meet or exceed their printed counterparts for clarity and ease of use. Again, this illustrates the zero-tolerance attitude consumers have for digital communications that don’t deliver on expectations.

There’s no room for error. 

When companies are designing their digital (and even print) communications for essential and transactional consumer interactions, they need to ensure they are easy to understand and navigate. Failure to do so will confuse and frustrate consumers. When this happens, the first response for most consumers is to phone the company’s call center which will increase the business’s cost-to-serve. In more extreme cases, unclear communications can lead to customer churn. 

Customer communications must work on their preferred device

Providing consumers with personal choice extends beyond giving them the ability to select which communications they receive via digital and which ones via print. 

Consumers also have device preferences.

For example, the device a consumer orders groceries on may not be the same device they want to read their bank statement on. Plus, often consumers will choose multiple channels for the same provider depending on the time of the day, the size of the transaction, or the importance of the communication.

Whatever device a customer chooses to use, a company must be ready for it. 

No matter what device is selected, the customer will expect the experience to be fantastic. Disappoint a customer on one device and you may as well be disappointing them on all devices. This could lead to customer complaints and churn.

Conduct regular reviews of your CX

Change within the world of customer communications is evolving at a rapid rate. Awareness and adoption of digital innovations by consumers can be fast and furious. With that adoption comes a heightened expectation of what a superior customer experience should include. The only way companies can ensure they are keeping up and continuing to meet those desires is by conducting regular reviews of their essential communications. By doing so companies can keep pace with customer wants and keep cost-to-serve and churn rate at a minimum.

Discover more actionable insights you can leverage to fine-tune your customer experience. Download the “The Pace of Digital Evolution” research study.