How to Leverage Technology to Provide a Memorable Customer Experience
By Jason LaBaw, Founder of Social Bee
A long time ago, way back in the 1990s, America woke up one morning and realized there was more to daily life than the material items surrounding them.
As the world around us evolved throughout the new millennium, and further information became widely available with the substantial growth of the home computer and internet, this contagious realization rapidly swept the nation. We started living by a new philosophy. To be truly happy and fulfilled, we had to opt for living our short lives through our experiences. And thus, the experience economy was born, and it’s been booming ever since.
To show how this adapted approach to our time on this planet stuck, 78% of millennials today reported they would choose to spend money on a desirable, life-changing experience over physical goods. But what if we could blend the two? Providing a memorable experience through the product purchase.
With entrepreneurial startups jumping in growth by a whopping 24% in modern-day 2021 and with 30 years of this mindset becoming further engrained into society, the customer now has more choices than ever before.
By leaning on the advancement of newer technology like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), we can implement a unique experience behind what we are trying to sell. AR and VR can usher the customer throughout the entire brand experience, holding their hand from the first point of contact until they’re self-declared devotees, thus creating higher brand engagement and loyalty, driving more sales and a consistent customer base.
How To Craft Unforgettable Experiences
Utilizing the rise in popularity of at-home VR headsets, you can transport clients to a digitally created experience of your store anywhere and anytime, eradicating time constraints from customers that may wish to visit outside of your usual opening hours.
No borders exist within the realm of technology. Stretching your brand far and wide through the online world of VR allows your business to reach other countries and timezones, providing an intimate and inclusive international experience with the bonus of expanding your brand’s market.
You can harness AR to scan environments and create digital objects that sit in the real world in front of them through a mobile device or AR glasses. This provides customers opportunities to learn how to use the product at their own pace.
Suppose you are looking for a simple way to differentiate the two. In that case, AR allows consumers to see elements through the world in front of them by using a device, and VR transports them to a digitally created environment through a virtual headset.
How To Highlight Your Product’s Features in a New Way
If we look to certain companies that are leading the AR sector by example in the retail world today, we could sharply turn our neck towards SupraBoats. Their AR integrated app allows customers to design a customized boat. It even stretches itself as far to provide the digital tools to truly understand its configuration—all this while sitting on the couch with a beer in hand, a new boat in transit.
Other applications, such as DecorMatters, allow users to customize their living space by uploading photos of their home, trying out new furniture in their living room, or seeing how a feature wall may sit behind the bed before painting it. This saves the client ample amounts of time, and money, by allowing the opportunity to try before you buy while providing a unique experience in the process.
While it is vital to use this technology to highlight the features and benefits of your product, remember that you are focusing on providing your prospects an experience they won’t soon forget, leaving a solid footprint in their memory.
Rather than focusing on trying to ‘wow’ them with newly implemented technology or simply the product itself, maintain the mindset of delivering an experience as the main priority through this new technology. Naturally, you will provide the ‘wow’ factor in the process.
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How To Start Implementing Tech Into Your Customer Outreach Model
Collaborate Internally to Create a Project With Goals and Objectives
So you maybe wondering how to start implementing this technology? We suggest to start with creating a simple framework for your VR or AR project. Understand what goals you want to see come from this new endeavor.
Then, make sure to collaborate with your marketing or sales team to ensure it aligns with previous strategies or approaches that you may have used, or discuss how you can slowly adapt to suit your new customer experience.
Implementing new technologies to your client can be a challenging learning curve. Still, with careful communicative collaboration and structured planning, your unique approach can significantly benefit your client’s experience.
Work With 3D Designers to Create Virtual Worlds
The backbone of your project is the quality of the content you are delivering to your customer’s digital experience. After creating a plan, outsource to work alongside 3D designers to make the world you want to immerse your prospects within.
Refer to the goals you set when beginning your new venture and ensure they’re being met throughout the creation process.
Once you have a solid 3D setup, you can add final touches to a more personalized and human-like experience, such as implementing voice-over prompts and customer interactions.
Test, Discuss and Implement Feedback
Testing is a huge part of a successful and in-depth digital creative project. Ask your employees, friends, and family members to test what you are now providing. Gather thoughts and opinions, collect data, and keep improving your new experience based on the feedback you receive. You can do this by sending our a survey or email for example.
Remember that nothing is perfect on the first try, but you can create something pretty close to it by listening to the experience of others and building off of that.
By adjusting your approach to working with the inevitable digital advancements in society today, you can start to deliver your clients a unique experience that genuinely co-aligns with the current needs and pace of the fast-growing technological world around us. You can begin to tap into the mindset of the present-day experience economy, boosting sales while maintaining brand engagement and loyalty, truly transforming your brand to becoming a household name to remember.
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