How Total Experience (TX) is Changing Businesses
Total Experience (TX) is an all-new approach which enables businesses to better enhance the experiences they provide. In the past, businesses were hyper focused on the customer experience, aiming to provide the best customer experience possible. However, recent studies have found that adding other types of experiences into the mix, such as user experience and employee experience, can provide incredibly positive effects on both productivity and the business in general.
TX combines the disciplines of user experience (UX), customer experience (CX), multi-experience (MX), and employee experience (EX) to create more extraordinary experiences. The goal is to improve the experiences of many stakeholders within the company instead of just one. In this article we discuss TX in depth, and how businesses can gain a competitive advantage using this new metric.
What is TX
The term total experience evolved from multi-experience, and was coined by Gartner in late 2019. Multi-experience is the idea that businesses should offer flexible customer service by interacting with customers on many different platforms and in as many different modalities as possible.
With this philosophy in mind, businesses can offer experiences from more than just a computer, but also via a wearable device like the Apple Watch, on a smartphone app, and even through a Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) experience. This was noteworthy at the time since Gartner anticipated that 25% of mobile applications, progressive web apps, and conversational platforms would be created with a multi-experience platform by 2023.
However, a lot has happened to date since multi-experience was first termed. The world underwent a pandemic that shifted the job market, brought about the work-from-home boom, and made social distancing an essential part of day-to-day activities. All of this turned businesses upside down and pushed them into the era of total experience.
Post-COVID-19, businesses are now removing the walls between UX (user experience), CX (customer experience), EX (employee experience), and MX (multi-experience). Instead, the total experience is now being considered – that is, the experiences of users, customers, and employees as a whole. By doing so, businesses can increase the adaptability and resilience of the organization.
How to Gain a Competitive Edge with TX
A recent increase in brand switching emphasizes the importance of complete customer experience. McKinsey reported that 36% of customers tested a new brand during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 73% said they intend to continue purchasing the new brand. An organization with a total experience mindset can guarantee that its brand provides a cohesive experience to all stakeholders.
Organizations can use this as a marketing tool to show that all stakeholders will have an incredible encounter at every touchpoint. Both of these factors give the organization an advantage over those not invested in the total experience mindset. There are several ways that businesses can start employing TX strategies, but some of the most notable include:
1. Using Employee Experience as a Branding Tool
According to a March poll in the Morning Consult, 90% of consumers stated that how a business treats employees during tough times is important. In the same poll, 49% of consumers said that how employees are treated at a company determines whether they will purchase from that company. Journalist David Rowe investigated this further and made the connection that demonstrating an employee-first attitude and commitment to the team can significantly improve internal and external operations.
So how does this give the company a competitive edge? First of all, consumers greatly reward businesses that treat their employees well. Secondly, in return for being treated well, employees have greater job satisfaction and are therefore more productive, according to Harvard Business Review.
2. Eliminating Barriers
A total experience that engages high-level customers is created by merging front and back offices and employing technology to ensure that all team members are aware of and engaged in the broader team effort. Breaking down departmental boundaries is an essential aspect of delivering an integrated total experience. The COVID-19 pandemic has played a significant role in bringing about this change.
3. Making Use of Multi-channel Communication
One of the most significant barriers to unifying total experience is communication. With more employees than ever before now working from home and more consumers working hard to maintain social distancing guidelines, human interaction looks significantly different in the business realm. PWC reports that at least 74% of people still want to experience human interaction and would like to experience more of it than before COVID-19. Businesses can help consumers and staff connect to meet each other’s needs by combining the capacity to communicate and collaborate using a unified communications platform and approach.
Seamless multi-channel communication has the potential to create satisfied and loyal customers. According to Verizon, by taking advantage of multiple platforms, such as chat, email, and voice communications, employees and consumers can connect more efficiently to develop solutions. This more accessible approach is especially beneficial to employees during the work-at-home movement.
With business closures and significant changes to how people communicate, businesses must ensure that customer services are still easily accessible for consumers. On the other hand, multi-channel communications also create a seamless experience for internal operations when employees need to connect easily with one another despite their physical locations.
Focus on the Whole
Total experience aims to change the way everyone interacts with a business. From customers to the back-end developers, focusing on the organization’s whole enables businesses to take advantage of the many ways that a company builds a reputation. When a business no longer views each individual experience as a separate entity with different levels of importance, the organization builds strong bonds between those entities. This allows them to benefit from each other just as employee satisfaction increases productivity and improves customer satisfaction.
Outsource IT is here to assist organizations who wish to take full advantage of the total experience mindset and implement new technologies to create a seamless experience within a whole organization. Contact an Outsource IT account manager to learn more about our Managed IT Services, which include unlimited remote and onsite support for a fixed monthly cost.
