How to Deliver Great Customer Experience Into the Future

Last year, we learned how to manage uncertainty. Physical distancing, health and safety requirements, and disrupted supply chains have all determined how we’ve lived, worked, and interacted with each other. And it’s only reasonable to expect an increased reliance on digital interactions even after the world returns to “normal.”

The past year has proven that the ability to effectively digitise operations and customer engagement is crucial—and moving forward, businesses should build on these digital capabilities to provide intuitive customer experiences (CX) that endure through the future.

Throughout our “Modernising the Customer Experience” series, we’ve discussed deploying customer identity and access management (CIAM) to meet the more immediate CX needs of the pandemic, like digitising products and services faster and scaling to meet increasing demands. In this post, we face forward as we explore how you can optimise your customer experience efforts over time.

To that end, here are the identity-driven components of a modern digital customer experience to consider as you take on 2021 and beyond.

Tailored access experiences

Customers’ exact needs and preferences are bound to evolve over time, but a surefire way to improve overall experience is to reduce friction while increasing personalization. By avoiding lengthy forms when gathering data during the sign up process, progressive profiling gradually collects relevant customer data at relevant points in the customer journey. This process not only reduces sign up friction, but it also allows organizations to adapt messaging, services, offers, and access processes based on what they know about the customer. 

When paired with support for a variety of passwordless authentication methods—like email magic links, WebAuthn, and push notifications—you can make access experiences more convenient, improving sign-up and engagement with your offerings.

Omni-channel consistency

Even when physical locations reopen, we can expect customers to continue relying on digital channels. Therefore, it will be important for businesses to not only offer seamless experiences across mobile and web channels, but also bridge the gap between digital and in-person touchpoints. CarMax, for example, has created a personalised online shopping experience that seamlessly integrates with their in-store experience, giving their customers the flexibility to do as much or as little of the car buying process online. In a world where people constantly interact with brands, creating frictionless omni-channel experiences has become essential. 

Achieving this requires a complete 360-degree view of the customer, including how they’re interacting with your various brands, territories, and touchpoints. With this insight, you can enhance each touchpoint with consistent branding and create satisfying omni-channel journeys where each interaction builds on the one before it, encouraging customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Trusted digital interactions 

As online threats continue to grow, building trust has become a critical piece of user experience. This requires a delicate balance between security and usability, as businesses need to keep their apps as frictionless as possible. The key is deploying adaptive security measures, like Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication, that use context to limit any increased friction to high-risk scenarios. 

With contextual access, not only can you apply increased security only when you identify high risks, but you can also set different policies between your apps and portals depending on the sensitivity of the information each holds. You can otherwise let customers choose how they secure accounts and recover access credentials, letting them direct their digital experiences to their taste.

Case study: Takeda’s forward-thinking CX

As a global biopharmaceutical leader, Takeda knows how the industry is changing. Customers want easier access to their data, more control over their treatment, and assurance that their information is in safe hands. 

Realising the importance of digital transformation to modern CX, Takeda partnered with Okta to achieve the following:

• Centralised IT and consolidated customer identities: Takeda reduced friction by letting customers access multiple apps per session, and made it easier to analyse customer interaction data and offer more personalised experiences.
• Self-service and decreased overhead: Customers can set up Takeda IDs themselves, reducing complexity and saving time and money for IT.
• Brand cohesion across channels: Takeda operates multiple brands and properties. By using Okta, the company kept these sites connected enough for seamless navigation while enabling each digital property to keep its branding.
• Flexible security: Using Adaptive MFA to screen each access request, Takeda has visibility into the context of each login before applying appropriate protection measures. What’s more, the company now gives its users a choice of authentication factors to verify their identities with.

Okta’s here with you through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, helping you meet tomorrow’s standards of great CX. 

Customisable identity building blocks from The Okta Identity Engine allow your developers to create tailored customer identity experiences—where registration, authentication, and authorisation all contribute to satisfying journeys. Not only that, but our developer tools let you use our APIs and SDKs to quickly add new features to your apps, embed brand assets into every step of the journey, and create passwordless experiences. And with support for progressive profiling, you can collect and act on customer data, exactly when you need it.

As CX continues to evolve, our customer identity and access management platform can help you stay ahead of the game. Check out our CIAM solutions or read our whitepaper to learn more about what organisations can do to meet customers where they are.