If you’re in marketing, you’ll know the industry is always keen to coin definitions of channel strategy. The most popular approach today is multichannel or, if your business has really nailed its strategy, omnichannel marketing. The proliferation of channels shows no sign of slowing, so aligning offline and digital customer experience and keeping the customer front of mind at all times is key.
For that reason, you can’t afford to consider consistent digital customer experience (DCX) as an afterthought. Brand values, appearance, service and experience must remain the same however the consumer decides to interact. Get it right and you can convert browsers into buyers, and benefit from repeat purchases and loyalty.
The importance of experience consistency across channels
A seamless user experience requires the design and implementation of a strategy that works across every channel your brand uses.
Consumers don’t just consider this a nice-to-have from brands: they’re actively expecting it. Consider self-service, a rapidly growing area of user experience. Users want convenience and rapid resolution, and demand the ability to solve their problems and satisfy their demands by doing it themselves.
Whether interacting with a chatbot, finding the help they require or simply completing a transaction online, they want slick and recognisable service, with brands that behave consistently across channels.
Self-service is just one feature of wider brand consistency across channels. Creating a consistent user experience doesn’t just engage, enthuse and satisfy customers. It brings multiple benefits for brands, too:
Consistency builds trust and familiarity, both of which positively affect brand recall
Exceptional digital experience makes customers keener to return and even advocate your brand
The predictability caused by consistency is satisfying for consumers, making referrals more likely
Designing consistent user experience across channels naturally streamlines processes, and therefore costs
Six steps to a consistent DCX
MMT takes a holistic approach to user experience design. This helps to ensure omnichannel consistency in the way brands operate and communicate with their customers; preventing frustration and abandonment, and building stronger relationships. Broadly speaking, our approach to DCX excellence is built on six pillars:
1. DCX Strategy
A clear vision along with user research, competitor and market analysis are the first key steps to informing the experience your customers desire.
2. User Research
Unlock the insights into your current and prospective users’ practical and emotional needs, as well as their behaviours and perceptions of your site. Leveraging these insights builds clarity into the design process, pinpointing priorities and creating more efficient workflows. We use a range of user research techniques, from web analytics to one-to-one and group user interviews, surveys and validation testing.
3. UX Audit
Examine how your users interact with the content across your digital channels. What do they expect from different parts of your digital estate, and what actions do they take in response? The answers you’ll glean from this UX audit provide a robust foundation for future consistency.
4. Usability Testing
De-risk the effectiveness of user journeys by testing prototypes with users, then test them again and again to optimise the user experience. At MMT, we employ one-to-one testing, guerilla testing and online testing strategies. With the findings to hand we’ll analyse the data to understand how to influence design for future iterations and a seamless customer journey.
5. Accessible & Inclusive Digital Experiences
Universal accessibility and inclusivity are at the core of a great digital experience. Consider health impairments and other factors that may limit the digital user experience. Health, socio-economic conditions, culture, community, and wide demographic factors are all considered as part of web design efforts provided by MMT’s expert team. We believe that every user deserves a clear, consistent, and consistently satisfying, experience.
6. Digital Product Design
Provide clear direction for your web development and design teams and ensure consistent communication. Great digital product designers approach their work holistically, understand the vision and contribute to the wider business goals. MMT can support your web development team with every aspect of the digital development journey, including prototypes, to ensure user experience is as consistent as it can be. That means generating ideas using sketches, concepts and wireframes to inform prototypes that we build in high-fidelity designs and code.
We live in a world where consumers crave certainty, in the form of a predictable - even comforting - presence from their preferred brands, that stays the same regardless of when, where and how they interact. Give your users a uniform digital experience across channels and the results you achieve will be consistently strong too.
If you would like to discuss how MMT can create a consistent digital experience across channels, get in touch today.
