To succeed in today’s digital environment, companies must embrace the Customer Experience (CX) as an omni-channel composition of many interactions. In addition to a deep understanding of all the possible ways customers may engage with your organization, a similar level of understanding of customers, products and usage patterns, in conjunction with those engagement channels, provides a holistic perspective needed to design the ideal Customer Experience. From that point, it’s essential to align the right technologies to power your Customer Experience.

At the most basic level, successful commerce can be characterized by the alignment of a company’s products and services with its customers. This alignment must occur across four foundational dimensions, each of which plays a critical role that helps determine whether your customer views your company positively or negatively. They are:

1. Personas – Characteristics of a company’s customers which are frequently grouped into categories that describe common types of customers (demographics, ethnographics, psychographics, behaviors, etc.)

2. Engagement Channels – The way customers engage directly with your company. These engagements begin with the Marketing function as customers first become aware of your products. Other examples include interactions at retail locations, phone/email/text transactions with the contact center, as well as exchanges online and via social media.

3. Product Portfolio – The catalog of all products and/or services offered to the market.

4. Usage Patterns – How a customer uses your products and services. This usage can vary based on several factors including frequency, consistency and purpose. Another significant consideration is the maturity or sophistication of your product. Usage patterns evolve significantly with companies that have invested in Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning.

These dimensions are also deeply integrated and mutually interdependent. They should be distinctly understood and examined, and collectively evaluated in terms of the overall Customer Experience. To develop a deeper understanding of the four dimensions and how your company can leverage data and analytics to improve your customer experience, read our white paper, “The Four Dimensions of the Customer Experience.”