It’s time we talk about our exes. No, not your high school sweetheart or that one your mom never liked. We’re talking about familiar terms like UX, CX, and the more recent one to hit the scene: DX.
What Is DX?
DX, or digital experience, is “using technology to augment something that cannot be done through traditional means,” says Giuseppe Carabelli, associate creative director at Yes&. That doesn’t mean simply digitizing tools and information—it’s about going further. “A basic example,” Carabelli continues, “is a checklist for a building permit. Instead of filling out a piece of paper and shipping it out, you put it online into a fillable PDF. But that in itself is not a digital experience. The experience is instead when you can highlight elements of that PDF and tag them into a question for an interactive chat bot or app to get an instant response. DX builds connection.”
As it turns out, DX is all around us. From the cycling enthusiast who’s shelling out high fives on their Peloton to the person testing out interior paint colors from their Behr app, DX has infiltrated much of our daily lives—and consumers are beginning to accept nothing less.
“In the past, websites were business cards, a regurgitation of information,” says Carabelli. “Now that we’re living in a post-COVID world and people are online more and more, they expect to get some kind of experience through your site. They’re no longer passive; they want to interact with it. If you don’t give that, you’re seen as older or more conservative.”
Old? Conservative? That vocabulary usually doesn’t make its way onto a brand’s mood board. And yet, DX is still met with some hesitation, and brands are the ones paying the price.
Yes, You Need DX
The digital age is not new. The internet has been in people’s homes since the ‘90s, and now anyone with access to a computer can create a website. By using DX, companies can differentiate themselves and offer more than a transaction—and those who opt to skip DX in favor of other marketing tactics may end up aging themselves out. “The truth is the market has changed. It’s not B2C anymore, it’s C2B,” Carabelli explains. “Customers are guiding the businesses. Automatically and organically, companies will want to have a digital experience whether they know it or not. Their customers will request it, or they’ll find it somewhere else. Unfortunately, some companies aren’t prioritizing DX until it’s too late.”
But DX is more than the technology used to create it. DX is about brand love, about connecting people with each other and with that brand. Carabelli adds that “DX is shareable and targets emotions. Isn’t it fun to show your room to a friend with new virtual furniture and ask what they think?” That means there’s no excuse when your spouse asks why the new loveseat doesn’t match the rug. You can thank DX for that.
Through a deep understanding of DX, Yes& is working with our clients to help them go from a transactional CX to an interactive and emotional DX. After all, if you want to build engagement, you must be engaging—and DX can get you there.
3 DOS AND DON’TS OF DX
Do:
- Make DX a priority by looking for opportunities to augment existing offerings.
- See how your customers are behaving and use that data to guide you.
- Use DX to create an emotional connection with your audience.
- Pass on DX to put more effort into outreach campaigns.
- Create a DX that is too complex for the user.
- Create a DX that is inconsistent with your branding.
