Digital customer experience report 2020

DISCLAIMER:
The information in this piece does not constitute as legal advice and so should not be regarded as such.
DIGITAL CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE REPORT 2020
Customer experience experts reveal their views on digital experience design, customer behavior analysis and automation

2
Digital customer experience report 2020
As the Covid-19 pandemic forces millions around
the world to work from home and rely on digital
technology for the majority of their communication
needs, it has become mission-critical for brands to
provide high-quality, reliable digital experiences to
their customers.
McKinsey’s COVID-19 recovery digital study
estimates that within weeks of the pandemic
beginning, five years’ worth of consumer and
business digital adoption had been triggered.
Further McKinsey research also found that these
are not transient changes, revealing that three-
quarters of individuals who used digital avenues
for the first time because of the pandemic
plan to continue to use them after the global
health emergency recedes. Unsurprisingly, CX
Network’s Global State of Customer Experience
2020 revealed that digital CX is among the top CX
spend priorities for CX practitioners this year.
As customers become more comfortable with
remote services over those in-person, businesses
that have poor digital performance will struggle to
maintain or grow their market share.
There is certainly work to be done around the
digital experiences provided to users. According
to CX Network’s 2019 Defining Digital Experience
report, around three-quarters of 200 marketing
and CX professionals surveyed struggled to provide
consistent experiences across digital channels and,
even though understanding customer behavior was
flagged as a big priority, half of the respondents
admitted they lacked a strong understanding of
customer behavior across digital channels.
Following on from The Global State of Customer
Experience 2020 which witnessed that the global
pandemic’s disruption has not damaged, but in
fact amplified the growing prestige of CX, this
report gathers insights from more than 148 CX
experts to map digital experience opportunities
and hurdles. We invite CX professionals to utilize
the results by benchmarking their organization’s
progress against peers and competitors revealed
within its research, as they plot their path for the
rest of the year and beyond.
Foreword
Contents
About the research - Pg 3
Governance - Pg 4
Covid-19 impacts - Pg 6
Digital experience design - Pg 7
Channel integration - Pg 10
Final remarks - Pg 12

3
About the research
CX Network’s second annual Digital Customer Experience Report research was launched in July 2020 and closed a few months later as the global coronavirus pandemic continued
to cause havoc to populations around the world. To get a better understanding of the survey results, here is a visual breakdown of the 148 CX experts surveyed, including their
seniority, company size, industry, geography and budget.
Industry
RegionJob title
Job function
Financial services
High tech
Healthcare
Manufacturing
Telecoms
Consumer goods
Government
Tech
Media/entertainment
Real estate
Retail
Logistics
Employment services
Utilities
Employment services
Travel/hospitality
Other
Customer experience
Executive team
Operations
IT
Customer insight
Customer service
Sales
Digital platforms
Digital marketing
Contact center
Marketing
Online CX
CRM
Other
25%0% Respondents (%)
12%
13%
22%
18%
21%
8%
6%
C-level
SVP/VP
Director
Department head
Manager
Analyst
Other
Global
Europe
Asia-Pacific
North America
Africa
Middle East
EMEA
South America
23%
21%
16%
14%
11%
10%
4%
1%
25%0% Respondents (%)
25%
0%
Respondents(%)
22%
12%
10%
9%
7%
4% 4% 4% 4%
3% 3%
2% 2% 2% 2% 1%
9%
30%
0%
Respondents(%)
27%
12%
10%
7% 6% 6% 6% 5% 4% 3%
2% 2% 1%
9%

4
Governance
What is your organization’s current state of customer data infrastructure?
Yes
No
We are in the process of creating one
Do you have a dedicated team for digital experiences?
Digital CX governance
Bernard Slowey, worldwide lead for digital customer
support at Microsoft, maintains one of the biggest
mistakes in digital CX is not having a dedicated team.
“A lot of companies have teams of people focused on
call centers, as well as improving minutes-per-incident
and handle times for voice calls with customers, but
then digital is merely treated as a bolt-on to support
organizations,” says Slowey.
More than a third of our research group (36 per cent) is
seemingly making this mistake. For these brands
digital experiences are supported by multiple
functions, potentially between marketing, CX and
customer service departments. This dispersed set-
up can result in customers receiving conflicting and
disjointed digital experiences.
However, the majority of the respondents (64 per cent)
recognize the value of dedicated digital experience
teams, which is an 18 per cent year-on-year increase.
Within 18 months of building its dedicated digital
customer support department, Microsoft’s digital team
achieved a 3× ROI (return on investment). This result was
obtained by solving customer issues digitally and so
reducing the volumes shouldered by more expensive
support channels such as voice.
Data is accessible and unified from most sources, but we only
use it for a limited amount to drive customer experience
Data sets don’t tie together into a unified view of the customer
Data is accessible and unified from most sources, but we don’t
use it to drive customer experience
We don’t have any customer data challenges, because unified
customer data is core to our business
Data is siloed by channel or business function
We can’t access or have limited access to customer data
26%
25%
13%
13%
12%
11%
40%
36%
24%

5
Governance
Current data infrastructure
More than one-third of respondents said they use
baseline metrics to govern the overall quality of
customer experiences (CX). The vast majority, however,
appear to lack the data infrastructure needed to fully
optimize digital experiences. Disconnected customer
experiences caused by siloed data is one of the
toughest challenges faced in the CX industry, according
to recent research. More than 35 per cent of our
respondents acknowledged severe data fragmentation,
which is a similar result as last year.
Conversely, around 50 per cent of the group reached
a unified view of customer data. This visibility will allow
them to better understand target audiences and, in
turn, make wiser product and service decisions to fulfil
or exceed customer expectations. However, more
work is needed on cultural and technological levels, so
data consistently improves customer experiences. Just
under 40 per cent of the base have some level of data
unification but fail to successfully use it to empower
customer experiences on a consistent basis.
In its 2020 UberEats Cravings report, UberEats delivered
intelligence on the most popular dishes and cuisine
customizations. This rich, preference data is invaluable
to UberEats’ partner restaurants as it can guide the
optimization of digital experiences and thereby enhance
conversion rates.
Digital automation
When applied correctly, data will allow elements of digital
experiences to be automated so brands can constantly
fulfil customer needs and build trust with ease.
Adeel Ahmad, CX analyst at PayPal, highlights that
personalized and targeted CX automation requires the
right alignment of customer and organizational data.
“Automation is only as good as the data and content it is
based on,” Ahmad remarks. “It is important to understand
the level of data maturity for the process you are
automating. If the data is not enriched with a multi-touch
cohesive system like a journey map, the automation is just
passing on the problem to the next touch point.”
Customer journey maps help brands understand which
areas of their datasets are ripe for automation such as
contract renewal reminders.
Ahmad explains: “The maps not only help you understand
where you would benefit most from automation, they
also help you stay aligned to the larger vision of your
overall customer strategy. Automating in silos is useless;
automation must enhance your entire CX strategy.”
Digital governance and data infrastructure are
foundational elements that directly determine the
quality of digital experience felt by the end customer.
“Automation is only as good
as the data and content it is
based on. If the data is not
enriched with a multi-touch
cohesive system like a journey
map, the automation is just
passing on the problem to the
next touch point.”
Adeel Ahmad,
CX analyst at PayPal

6
Covid-19 impacts
How has Covid-19 impacted your business?*
*Participants could select multiple answers
Digital CX has proved crucial in response to the Covid-19
outbreak, allowing brands to deliver services customers
need while adhering to social distancing mandates.
“The need to enforce social distancing and shut down
commercial activity all over the world prompted us to
quickly enable the entire workforce to work from home”
notes Thomas Reby, head of product support at Google
and a member of the CX Network advisory board. “For
the time being, we switched the entire operation to
chat and email operations, effectively diverting phone
operations to these channels.”
Recent research from CX Network uncovered that
more than half of CX practitioners surveyed identified
digital CX and digital transformation as their leading
investment priorities, with self-service being one of
the more prevalent manifestations of this trend. Live
chat pop-ups have been added to certain high-traffic
webpages to allow chatbots and virtual assistants to
shoulder additional customer care burdens.
Some 75 per cent of CEOs surveyed in recent Deloitte
research agreed with our survey respondents that
the Covid-19 crisis has accelerated their digital
transformation plans.
Olivier Berthier, CEO of fintech firm Moneythor, says that
as brands push forward with digital experiences they
should augment them with core human needs such as
empathy and personalization.
Humanness is absolutely necessary in CX today. Humans
have the ability to innovate based on initiative and
create truly unique experiences that win customer
loyalty, trust and rapport, as opposed to being confined
to generating canned, artificial responses that fail to
empathize with customers’ needs.
Berthier maintains: “More and more customers are going
digital as brick-and-mortar businesses have been in
lockdown during the pandemic. While the channel
may be digital, customer expectations of good service
and support remain the same. Businesses that have
traditionally used digital as a secondary channel now
need to focus on providing the same personalized
service as they would in-person, online.”
As brands adapt to provide value in a post Covid-19
world, virtual and augmented reality experiences
are pegged for more prevalence as they can provide
customers with a level of immersion at a distance. Retail
brands, such as IKEA, are providing augmented reality
experiences so users can use their mobile devices to
experiment with staging new potential purchases in
their homes.
62%
More customers are using
digital channels
40%
We have had to fast track our
digital transformation projects
38%
More customers are using self-
service options than before
21%
Customers are
more patient
17%
Customers are more
likely to churn
16%
Customers are
more loyal

7
Digital experience design
Self service
Assessment of how the research group has designed
self-service models, which are in high demand thanks
to the pandemic, uncovers that the vast majority built
these channels to solve a specific customer pain point.
This is encouraging, as a clear understanding of the
common points of friction in the customer journey will
reveal the locations where self-service options would
assist and not frustrate customers. This may be a
form of proactive or preventative self-service support
opportunity. For instance, after revealing that Friday
is the day Uber customers are statistically the most
forgetful, according to its witty Lost and found index,
Uber empowers users with knowledge on how to recover
their forgotten items in Uber vehicles.
One could assume that the remaining 30 per cent of
the base designed their self-service models from a
business first perspective, which is usually rooted in cost
elimination. This approach often includes the tactic of
hiding staffed contact channels.
Self-service models of this design have a high chance
of creating new pain points for customers. Incomplete
solutions that do not provide an option to connect with
an agent if necessary can be a real headache
for customers.
“To avoid frustrating a client, it is necessary to avoid
showing unmanageable options without the possibility
of solving them in their own way,” explains Antonio
Barranco, global manager of customer care at PagoFX,
part of Banco Santander. “So if any of the problems
must be assisted by one of the agents, a clear and
simple call to action – to quickly reach an agent – must
be established.”
It would be naïve to say financial considerations are not
strong supporting arguments for self-service channels,
but brands should root self-service project drivers in
meeting customer needs first with corporate savings
being a close second. Fail to set the right priorities
and your new service strategy may backfire, generate
unnecessary contact to your ‘human’ channels (thus
hurting your support KPIs) and lead to costly reworks,
turning the ROI on its head.
A customer-first approach to designing and maintaining
self-service channels is key to ensuring these avenues
contribute to CX rather than adding friction.
70%
It was built to solve specific
customer pain points
24%
It is aligned with
customer behaviors
How have you designed your self-service offering?*
21%
We have smoothened the
connection to other channels
(e.g., voice, email, social)
25%
It’s optimized continuously
according to customer
feedback and VoC data

8
What do you use to personalize experiences?*
What are your toughest digital CX
challenges?*
Agreement of baseline metrics that support overall
corporate strategy and goals
Customer emotions and sentiment
Customer webpage behavior/habits
Automation
Tailored upselling and cross selling
United data from websites and mobile sites
United data from websites and mobile apps
Identifying customers across multiple lines of the business
Understanding customer behavior across digital channels
Turning in-page data into actionable insights
Uniting data from websites and mobile sites
Uniting data from websites and mobile apps
Missed cross-selling and up-selling opportunities
Turning navigational and search data into insights
The value of experience design
Considering the design requirements of today’s digital
experiences, 52 per cent of users say they are less likely to
engage with a brand following a bad mobile experience.
Rex Freiberger, CEO of online tech publication
GadgetReview, says: “For starters, brands should always
have a mobile-focused site. You can’t afford not to have
one these days. It needs to be a version built from the
ground up for mobile support.”
Melanie Kleemann, chief customer officer at IKEA Germany,
agrees that the foundations for loyalty winning digital
customer experiences lie in getting the basics right.
“Customer experiences must meet certain minimum
requirements,” Kleemann remarks. “This includes that
customers can navigate your website or app intuitively
to quickly find the desired product.”
As noted by Kleemann, all relevant product, payment
and delivery information should be visible at a
glance. Missing facts will disrupt the efficiency of the
digital experience.
“A brand can make its customers more loyal by improving
website loading times and boosting user convenience,”
Kleemann adds. “If a new customer is able to
subscribe or order a service securely with a single
40%
0%
Respondents(%)
38%
28% 28%
25%
16%
12%
9%
25%
0%
Respondents(%)
24%
18%
14%
12% 11% 11%
10%

9
click from your website, there is a high chance they will
become loyal sooner rather than later and will be more
likely to convince the people around them to subscribe.”
Digital behaviors
Last year, 50 per cent of our research base signaled
intentions to collect data on customer emotions and
behaviors. Around 30 of our respondents this year state
they are now using customer webpage habits and
behaviors to personalize and improve digital experiences.
This is a useful practice, as tracking these habits will
highlight any points of friction that are stifling digital
experiences. For instance, research has found that almost
half of site visitors habitually go to the site’s search box
almost immediately, so this field should be easy to locate.
A small section of the respondents (10 per cent) are
struggling to turn in-page, navigational and search data
into actionable insights, which is down from around a
third of respondents last year. This rich behavioral data
can help target paid-SEO campaigns, merchandize
categorization, customized nurture pathways and
product innovation ideas.
To those struggling to understand digital behaviors,
Moneythor’s Berthier notes: “Digital behaviors are similar
to real-life behaviors, so look at traditional behavioral
science principles like framing and priming, and apply
them to your digital channel.”
Freiberger says that a true picture of customer behaviors
is only accessible if brands have “data collected from a
variety of sources”.
He comments: “It’s not just traffic, but the intent someone
has on your page, how they reached it, how long before
they’re exiting and where they’re going.”
Emotions
Around a third of our respondents are using customer
emotions and sentiment to enhance the relevance of
digital experiences. This is a wise move as evidence
suggests that emotional connections are one of the
most persuasive factors for consumer buying decisions
with customers.
Just over 65 per cent of UK consumers in a CXM study
said: “they would be willing to spend more on a product
if it was from a brand they love.”
Many companies achieve visibility on customer emotions
through text and speech analytics. Deep learning
categorizes positive and negative sentiments so brands
can identify which service factors delight or frustrate
users. Whether the source is social media, customer
calls, emails, surveys, online reviews or chatbot scripts,
sentiment analytics tools highlight patterns and
keywords that will pinpoint any service changes that
need implementing, detractors that need rescuing or
opportunities to delight customers at scale.
Proactive digital experience
Understanding previous digital behaviors and customer
emotions will eventually allow businesses to provide
predictive digital experiences that pre-empt pain points
and opportunities to delight prospects. Berthier maintains
this can be achieved through data categorization.
“Grouping customers’ behaviors, purchases and
transaction information will provide real-time insights
to businesses on the type of person there are serving,
with this information businesses can then provide
personalized and contextual content before a customer
goes looking for it,” comments Berthier.
As mentioned earlier, foundational improvements in data
governance and infrastructure will unlock slicker digital
experience design opportunities for brands like real-time
sentiment analysis and predictive customer care.

10
Channel integration
How close is your brand to providing an omnichannel model?
Top 10 customer identifiers
One in five CX experts state they struggle to
understand customer behaviors across channels.
Research shows that organizations with poor channel
integration strategies retain just 33 per cent of
customers, while brands with effective omnichannel
engagement keep 89 per cent. Despite the evident
customer retention benefits, cases of successful
omnichannel adoption are rare. Only five per cent of our
CX experts surveyed are confident enough to claim they
have an omnichannel model.
However, our research has shown there are pockets
of progression with channel integration. The amount
of experts admitting they only have one or two key
channels has halved and 10 per cent growth is seen
in those with multichannel models. This improvement
in accessibility is pivotal as research has shown there
are clear trends in channel preference for particular
customer segments and different channels appear to
attract distinct types of feedback. A varied suite of
channels ensures the voice of the customer heard by a
brand is holistic and fully representative.
Just over a third of respondents have some form of
synergy between channels. Covid-19 drove Deliveroo
to provide more synergy between physical and digital
channels to help restaurants reopen safely. Through
Deliveroo’s table service offering, customers dining at
restaurants can order and pay for meals digitally.
We have a multichannel model but the connections between
them are quite fragmented
We have synergy between some of our channels
We only have one or two key customer contact channels
Not sure
There is a strong synergy between all of our channels, but
connections aren’t completely seamless
We have an omnichannel model
Other
Email
address
Phone
number
Authentication
credentials
Internal identifier
(e.g., loyalty program, account number, etc.)
Login data
from your site
1 2 3 4 5
Postal
address
Cookies Online
transactional data
Offline
transactional data
Social media
ID or handle
6 7 8 9 10
40%
19%
13%
12%
10%
5%
1%
Only 10% of respondents are uniting data from websites, mobile sites and mobile apps.

11
Channel integration
Will Shu, CEO of Deliveroo, explains: “Deliveroo wants
to play a significant role in helping restaurants adopt
tech-led solutions to reopen safely, especially smaller
partners who otherwise would be unable to develop the
technology and face huge financial burdens due
to Covid-19.”
Data integration
Channel integration can be enhanced by tracking
customer identity data. These identifiers help brands
spot customers, provide consistency across channels
and give smoother digital experiences. Upon analysis,
our results indicate a concentration toward the likes of
email, phone numbers and login details. With around a
quarter of respondents flagging that they struggle to
identify customers across multiple lines of the business,
participants should consider using a broader range of
identifiers. Better ID practices and integration will improve
the relevance and convenience of digital experiences.
Only 10 per cent of respondents are integrating data
from websites, mobile sites and mobile apps.
Paypal’s Ahmad warns: “In an increasingly omnichannel
world, such integrations are table stakes for delivering
a superior CX. The brand expectations of the modern
consumers have moved on from just being omnichannel
– they now expect omni-sensory experiences. Beyond
unified device data, consumers now expect brands to
identify and interpret their touch, look, gesture and voice
across devices and entry points.”
He adds that brands looking to differentiate
themselves should enable and unite multichannel and
multisensory data to establish emotionally resonant
experiences for consumers.
“In the post-Covid-19 world of digital dominance, a
coherent product experience is a significant differentiator,
now more than ever,” he says. “Unifying web, app and
sensory data is a basic building block to achieving it.”
Channel integration success stories
Customer journey analysis inspired global
fashion retailer ASOS to launch an Apple
Watch app fit with actionable notifications for
product price drops and stock updates.
Coca-Cola’s omnichannel initiative ‘Hydr8’
is being developed to encourage healthy
hydration habits by directing users to the
nearest Coca-Cola IOT enabled vending
machine after they complete a fitness activity.
Using the augmented reality scanner on
Coca-Cola’s app, the individual can log their
drink towards their daily goal to consume two
liters of water. Coca-Cola promises that once
this goal is reached, two liters of water will be
donated to communities in need.

Final remarks
It is unmistakable that digital experiences are more
mission-critical to brand success than ever before.
The research undertaken for this report indicates
that CX practitioners are responding in the right
way, with a solid year-on-year growth in the amount
of dedicated digital CX teams. Additionally, more
confidence was signaled in understanding customer
behavior across channels.
A unified view of the customer has been achieved by half
of respondents, which will be instrumental in providing
valuable digital experiences for users, especially in times
of crisis where priorities can switch. This integrated and
connected data architecture will unlock automation as a
viable opportunity to empower experiences to be more
laser targeted at scale.
However, there is a need to become more consistent in
supercharging digital journeys with these insights. Only
25 per cent of the base state they constantly use VOC
data to optimize self-service. As mentioned by Sean
Cramer when he was the head of VOC at Amazon:
“Insights without actions are absolutely useless. If there
is no action to resolve customer concerns, then we are
spinning our wheels.”
For the time being, until a stable pandemic exit
strategy is established, businesses need to learn how to
operate and thrive in this new landscape, which favors
remote and distanced service in the name of minimizing
the distribution and spread of the Covid-19 virus. The
rewards of improving digital experiences will not be
short lived as they will serve to boost customer lifetime
value and retention long after the pandemic subsides.
“Insights without actions are
absolutely useless. If there is
no action to resolve customer
concerns, then we are spinning
our wheels.”
Sean Cramer,
former head of VOC at Amazon
12

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2020 CALENDAR
JAN• EXPERT INSIGHTS EBOOK
- The Voice of the Customer
• CX EXPERT PODCAST
- Customer Data and Analytics
• GUIDE
- Winning Tactics for B2B CX
• RESEARCH REPORT
- ROI in CX
• GUIDE
- CX Metrics Checklist
• SURVEY LAUNCH
- The Global State of CX
• ONLINE CONFERENCE
- Customer Feedback Signals
and Satisfaction
- CX APAC Online
• EXPERT INSIGHTS EBOOK
- Chatbots in CX
- Self-Service in CX
• GUIDE
- Rules for Self-Service in CX
- Building a Customer-first Culture
- Telecoms in CX
• GUIDE
- CX Market Leaders in Financial
Services
- Global State of CX Day
- CCW Digital ANZ 2020
• RESEARCH REPORT
- Global State of CX
- AI in CX
• GUIDE
- CX in Travel and Hospitality
- CX Design Thinking
- CX Market Leaders in Telecoms
• SURVEY LAUNCH
- Big Book of Customer Insight, Data
and Analytics
• GUIDE
- Omnichannel Case study book
- CX Market Leaders in Retail
- Telecoms in CX
• GUIDE
- UX and UI in CX
- Design Thinking and Service Design
- CX in Financial Services
• GUIDE
- Key CX Trends in APAC
- Customer Data, Insights
and Analytics
- CCW Asia Online
• RESEARCH REPORT
- Digital Customer Experience
- Mastering Omnichannel Models
• GUIDE
- Top CX Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
- Contact Centers Middle East
- AI in CX ebook
- Digital CX
• GUIDE
- Key CX Trends in NorAm
- Digital CX
- Cloud-based Contact Centers APAC
• RESEARCH REPORT
- Big Book of Customer Insight, Data
and Analytics
- CX Metrics
• GUIDE
- A Guide to Customer Acquisition
- CX Predictions 2021
- Telecoms in CX
• GUIDE
- Key CX Trends in EMEA
JAN MARFEB
APR JUNMAY
JUL SEPAUG
OCT DECNOV

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