Driving Customer Experience with Design

When it comes to standing out from the crowd in this modern age, the best brands do it in the same way — delivering strong design-oriented customer experiences. It’s not just about delivering the aesthetic of your brand, it’s about creating an environment where meaningful engagement can be achieved through the stories you tell. When it comes to managing the challenges of digital transformation, it boils down to these things:

Putting your customers first

A good brand always puts its customers first. In this ever-changing modern world, it’s not enough that you’re delivering something in demand to the masses. The challenge today is creating a connection between your brand and your customers through content and social media platforms. By using key research and data collected from the buying behaviour of your customers, you can narrow down the focus of your design.

Building grounds for interactivity and consistency across the board for two-way communication and satisfying the needs of an ever-demanding audience is key. Every touchpoint of the journey impacts the experience, so it’s important to make sure you get it right the first time.

Balance creativity and efficiency

Figuring out the best way to involve your customers in the conversation when it comes to design should be easy enough, right? All you need to do is figure out what they want and deliver it. The reality of the matter is, striking a balancing act between meeting customer expectations and staying true to your brand may not be as cut-and-dry as originally thought. The challenges often stem from three main points: designing for efficiency, pace, and scale.

Delivering an efficient design that can match the demands of a fast-paced digital world and the scale of your brand’s customers can be daunting. Focusing on some of these points may help ease the journey along the way:

Utilise research and data as much as possible

The research and data collecting your team does, produce numbers that have more power than you realise. What better way to put all of that to good use than by using it as a driving force behind your design? Utilising data lets you identify the overarching wants and needs for your specific target audience. It’s not enough to just deliver something your customers want to see, but you need to do so with a creative flair. It’s about anticipating the needs of your customers in order to keep up with demand, and that takes some foresight — and definitely a bit of research.

Telling great stories = forging human connections

The most important thing about the customer journey is leaving your customers with a lasting impression of your brand. It’s about telling great stories and building brand credibility and trust. When you’re building a customer experience, you’re telling a story through design. You’re creating something that encapsulates the creative design and story of your brand. Amidst the progress of developing automated processes for the digital realm, keeping a humanised touch to your customer journey builds connections with your audience that turns them into loyal customers.

Collaborate and listen (establishing a cohesive brand-agency relationship)

Moving through the adjacent markets of your brand isn’t a one-man effort. It certainly isn’t a one-brand effort, either. Taking the time to collaborate and foster strong relationships between your brand and digital agencies, help you manoeuvre through new opportunities and relationships across industries and markets.

Building a great customer journey doesn’t just focus on the sales funnel, and designing the facets of a great brand doesn’t just rely on pretty aesthetics. Finding the right balance of creativity and efficiency creates a brand that lasts the test of time.