What is a unified customer experience?
Unified customer experience means creating consistent experiences for customers at any point of interaction. Doing so integrates customer-facing interactions across multiple channels.
Unified customer experience (CX) starts with a single-customer view. This means that all customer data and interactions are stored in a profile that is updated in real time. The profile can be accessed by any relevant team member in any department.
With a unified customer experience, businesses can improve productivity and efficiency. Plus, they can get a more comprehensive view of the customer. As the customer journey becomes seamless, customer satisfaction rates improve.
Customer success software is often used by companies to ensure that customers are happy and satisfied as they use their products and services. These tools can also use detailed analysis of past customer behavior to create a “health score" to predict future satisfaction of a customer, allowing companies to systematically grow an established customer base, identify any red flags, and increase retention rates.
Features of a unified customer experience
Providing a unified customer experience with certain software offers several features to ensure a multi-channel approach. Some of these features may include:
- Knowledge base: A collection of articles and information that can be searched by the customer. Through self-service, a customer is able to answer some of their own questions, lessening the number of tickets submitted.
- Call center software: Connects customers with agents who can help answer their questions.
- Ticketing system: Allows users to track, sort, and prioritize tickets across channels. Tickets can be assigned to one service agent or collaboratively handled by more than one agent.
- Live chat: When placed on a website, live chat widgets or chatbots encourage customer communication.
- Email, text, and social media management: One software platform can run communications through email, phone calls, text messaging, and social channels.
- Analytics: Analytics allow a company to monitor metrics and curate specific reports and dashboards to make improvements in the future.
Basic elements of a unified customer experience
A unified customer experience is one that emphasizes the value of the customer.
When moving toward a unified CX, a business should seek to include the following customer-centric elements:
- A customer-first mentality: In this model, the customer’s needs take center stage, and all employees must adopt this mindset. The company makes decisions with the goal of customer satisfaction in mind.
- Omnichannel communications: A unified customer experience platform streamlines communications across multiple channels. The goal is to deliver a unified, consistent message and voice.
- Customer profiles: Software is used to develop comprehensive customer profiles. These profiles are updated in real-time with data about purchases, service tickets, and other information.
- Customer feedback: Companies seek out opportunities to grow and improve. This includes asking customers to fill out surveys and monitoring social media comments. Organizations then use this information to make changes to processes and policies.
- Data analysis: Data is not simply collected, it is also analyzed to understand the customer’s preferences and ideal methods of communication.
Benefits of a unified customer experience
When implemented well, a unified customer experience can provide many benefits for an organization for the customer, the employees, and the company itself. Some of the benefits include:
- Boosts employee satisfaction: Often these platforms are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to automate tedious tasks. This frees up employees to spend time on more essential tasks, increasing productivity and employee satisfaction.
- Improves internal collaboration: Because software connects across departments, such as sales and customer service, employees can easily share information.
- Reduces costs: Having a unified customer experience means that customer data is stored so it can be accessed by workers across channels. Workers do not have to duplicate previous efforts. Plus, automation typically leads to reduced call center volumes.
- Increases customer satisfaction: Customers expect quick responses and appreciate when issues are resolved quickly. Improved customer satisfaction equals less customer churn.
- Increases brand loyalty: When customers are treated well, they often become loyal to the brand. Loyal, happy customers are also more likely to promote the brand through word-of-mouth.
Unified customer experience best practices
Starting a unified customer experience program involves a major shift in company culture and practices. When implementing a CX program, it is important to keep these best practices in mind:
- Develop a customer experience plan. Before starting this approach, think about the target customer. Then, consider how the company can move toward an improved experience for this customer.
- Train teams. Since this strategy revolves around a single software platform, all team members need training on the platform. Customer-facing employees should also be educated about the product, company, and customer experience plan.
- Balance AI and human interaction. AI-enhanced features, such as chatbots, allow a company to respond quickly and accurately to common questions. However, always consider which aspects of this approach are best served with automation and which ones need a more human touch to prevent customer frustration.
- Avoid silos. Often a company’s departments function as stand-alone silos. With this approach, it’s crucial that bridges are built between one department and another. Employees should understand how their role connects to organizational strategies, so they can coordinate more effectively across teams.
Kelly Fiorini
Kelly Fiorini is a freelance writer for G2. After ten years as a teacher, Kelly now creates content for mostly B2B SaaS clients. In her free time, she’s usually reading, spilling coffee, walking her dogs, and trying to keep her plants alive. Kelly received her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Notre Dame and her Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Louisville.
