How Technology is Changing Customer

Experience

What is Customer Experience?

• An awareness of the customer journey as a

whole process, rather than focusing on one

aspect such as a retail store, or website.

• Understanding customers’ needs to provide

memorable experiences.

• The aim of Customer Experience is to convert

customers into fans of your business.

“Customer

experience (CX) is the

sum of all experiences

a customer has with

a business, from a

phone call, to an in-

store purchase.”

Customer experience is as much a

methodology as it is a consideration. It

allows a company to evaluate all of its

customer interactions, and improve each

contact point to improve the customer

journey.

A ‘User experience’ is related to the

workings of specific interactions, within the

customer experience.

What does a better customer experience mean for business?

• More human relationship with your customers.

• More consistent brand message across

customer touch points, as each interaction is

considered and refined.

• Better customer interaction.

• Can increase engagement leading to more

sales.

• ‘Customer Experience’ becomes a new metric

which assists with sales targets.

New Technology

There are a number of new technologies that

are influencing customer experience:

• Wearable technology

• Mobile Apps

• Data in the cloud

Mobile products allow businesses to develop

services that use complex sensors on the

device to gather data based on their

experiences. The data can then be used to

understand the customer and improve the

service.

Mobile

Mobile apps allow a

permanent method of

communication and live

feedback to design teams.

User Testing

Tools are now available to

any company to test digital

platforms and use the info to

to better the customer

journey.

Industry Change

These tools amongst others

have led to a slow change in

a commercial awareness of

using technology to improve

customer experience.

Old Tricks, New Tools

Industry Examples

The Telegraph

The Telegraph invested in simple user testing

equipment to use against a sample population of

users to test their experience of the app.

Interesting data was discovered which

consequently changed the UX of the app and

altered brand messaging. The customer team

were re-trained with this in mind, to create a

smoother customer experience.

The result led to a vast increase in customer

sign ups, with free trials taken for their app

subscription service.

Airbnb

During the recent rebrand, Airbnb readdressed a

design issue - to correctly promote the

experience the customers are likely to receive,

through high quality video and photography on

their homepage.

Using an updated version of their website and

app, the team opened up communication

channels to customers to promote feedback

about the services, and reviews of the property

they stayed in.

Feedback provides invaluable information to the

design team, as well as increases the power of

the customers, as their feedback is then placed

back into the system for others to see.

Disney

The team at Disney adopted technology

rather than a process change to increase

customer engagement to provide

memorable experiences.

By adopting wearable technology,

customers can navigate their theme parks,

with tailored experiences based on their

geo-location, and defined interests.

In the first quarter of this year, when

MagicBands were in the testing

phase, revenue in Disney's parks

increased 6%. Clearly investing in this

technology benefits both business and

consumer.

Benefits to the Customer

• A greater importance placed upon the customer by

understanding them.

• Greater market choice, the companies that adopt a

customer-centered approach first are likely to

succeed.

• A new commercial understanding of the need for a

well-designed service.

• With reference to digital apps – faster upgrade

cycles due to the tight feedback loop.

• In certain cases, it provides a more memorable

experience e.g. Disney MagicBand.

Conclusion

With examples from the likes of Apple and Google, it

has become clear that well-designed products and

services sell. The next level to this is a solid customer

experience, to match the well-designed product and

user experience. Therefore there is a need to ensure

that all customer touch points of any business are

smooth and well handled.

At Yoyo we specialise in digital design, understanding

the need to adopt technologies to stay ahead of the

game, assisting businesses with a bespoke online

platform to match their well designed products and

services.

“Fundamentally,

designing good

customer

experiences

increases the

bottom line.”

Jane Austin

Head of UX

The Telegraph

Yoyo Design Ltd, 90 Calverley Road, Tunbridge Wells. TN1 2UN. UK

+44 (0) 1892 619555 | info@yoyodesign.com | www.yoyodesign.com