In the UK, companies that recognised the speed with which the change to digital was occurring and took steps to invest in digital consumer engagement saw their revenues jump by an average of 58 percent.

Businesses are continuing to reach new heights as a result of accelerated digital transformation. The chance for firms to transform consumer engagement are expanding as more organisations around the world go digital.

The message is clear, companies that place digital consumer engagement at the heart of their operations receive significant benefits. Consumer expectations are generally higher than the customer experience that firms provide, therefore digital adoption has its drawbacks. Companies who can close that gap quickly have a potential to become customer engagement leaders. They will outperform competitors in terms of market share and revenue by providing industry-leading customer experiences that entice and retain customers.

These are the five pillars of customer interaction:

• Go digital – Companies that invested in digital client engagement over the past two years had an average top-line revenue increase of 70 percent globally.
• Personalise — While 75 percent of businesses believe they provide excellent personalised experiences, more than half of consumers disagree. There is a lot of space for growth.
• Stop using cookies – 81 percent of businesses rely entirely or heavily on third-party cookies, despite the fact that this vital data source will be unavailable after 2023.
• Bridge the trust gap – While 95 percent of B2C organisations feel consumers trust their abilities to protect data, just 65 percent of consumers genuinely believe this.
• Engage intelligently – Digital fatigue is more than twice as common among Gen Zs and Millennials as it is among Baby Boomers in the last 30 days. Connect better and smarter, not more.

Digital client involvement exploded in 2020, ushering in a new way of working and doing business. Companies who have embraced the fast pace of change are reaping tremendous rewards, such as increased consumer engagement and revenue growth. In 2021, the rate of acceleration showed no signs of stopping, and the indicators for the next three years predict it will continue. Businesses will continue to reap the benefits as long as they can increase their ability to communicate with customers in a personalised and trustworthy manner.

By 2025, these same corporations expect their spending in this area to nearly double. These shifts, however, offer obstacles that B2C businesses must overcome if they are to keep customer loyalty and trust. Despite the fact that the importance of personalisation is expanding, many customers believe organisations can perform better in this area. While 75% of consumer-facing firms claim to provide exceptional or great personalised experiences, just 48% of consumers agree, indicating a disconnect between what customers perceive as “personalization” and what businesses actually provide.

Companies that embrace these lessons about personalization, data ownership, and trust will continue to reap the benefits of this new digital era, and customers will have better, more trustworthy online experiences. Consumers are becoming more conscious of how corporations use their data and are demanding that it be protected. Our analysis reveals a distinct trust gap: 71 percent of consumers demand improved data privacy from brands, yet just 55 percent of businesses feel this is what customers want.

This is a problem that goes beyond data security. Consumers are apprehensive that businesses will not be completely clear about how they use their data or that their wishes will be ignored. Consumer trust is directly influenced by transparency, and organisations can gain it by more clearly communicating how they acquire, preserve, and use data to improve customer experiences.

In the UK, companies that recognised the speed with which the change to digital was occurring and took steps to invest in digital consumer engagement saw their top-line sales jump by an average of 58 percent. Not surprisingly, they expect their investment in this critical area to nearly double by 2025, rising by 93.5 percent. It’s a sound investment. Over half of B2C companies’ consumer engagement is digital, and executives predict that this will increase by another 21 percent globally over the next three years. This is in line with what customers want: in three years, they expect more than half of their interactions with brands to be digital. Companies expect 64 percent of their engagement to be digital by 2025, implying that the improvements of the previous two years are irreversible.

The digital transformation is not slowing down. B2C enterprises around the world think the epidemic has accelerated digital transformation by 6.5 years on average, and 17 percent say they’ve leapt 10 to 14 years into the future.

However, in the last 30 days, on average, 36 percent of customers throughout the world have experienced digital fatigue. When the data is broken down by generation, it gets more interesting. Digital fatigue is increasingly common among the younger generations, with 47 percent of Generation Z experiencing it. When nearly half of the growing demographic says they’re tired of the digital onslaught, it’s evident that something needs to be done about it. Frustrating customer service interactions could be adding to the issue. Those who have been frustrated by inconsistent digital brand experiences in the last 30 days are more likely to have experienced digital weariness (50 percent vs 30 percent of those not frustrated with their experiences).

This causes problems for businesses: 56 percent of customers say they would discontinue doing business with a company after a bad experience. Eighteen percent said they’d rather go without the internet for a day than deal with a company’s customer service department, which is bad news for the brand.

Companies can leverage data and personalization to build more meaningful methods to communicate with customers, resulting in increased loyalty. This entails reducing unnecessary interactions and instead focusing on what customers care about.

There’s no denying that providing such services can raise revenue and loyalty, so businesses who invest more in this area have a better chance of expanding and retaining their consumer base.

Creating personal connections based on data you control will build trust and growth as a result. For B2C organisations, thinking about digital customer engagement in the different business contexts of marketing, support, and product is no longer enough.

Instead, businesses that wish to capitalise on the momentum of the previous two years should acquire a holistic perspective of their operations for all points of contact. This necessitates a strong focus on meaningful customisation. Creating such direct connections is beneficial.

Customers are becoming increasingly sceptical of companies that misuse data, squander their time, or both. Customers who believe their personal information is being exploited are beginning to abandon companies that have disappointed them. The foundation of any relationship is trust.

To conclude, it’s clear that B2C organisations who want to develop and lead their markets must invest in digital transformation.

Are you making the necessary efforts to become more digital?

Sources: State of Customer Engagement Report 2022, Twilio

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