PHYGITAL EXPERIENCES — the perfect fusion of online and offline services
The most effective way to boost your customer’s satisfaction.
In our previous article we talked about creating a seamless customer experience. Nowadays, one of the most important aspects for this is to meld together online and offline services and create a phygital experience for your customers. And disruptive occasions like the COVID-19 pandemic increase the need for phygital experiences even more.
So, what is a phygital experience?
Let’s explain this by giving you a few examples.
A perfect example for a phygital experience is Amazon Go. While you visit a (physical) store, the products you have selected and placed in the shopping cart are automatically tracked, and when you leave the store, payment is automatically handled by your smartphone. For the customer it’s as easy as that. The technical setup, of course, is enormous.
“Phygital” describes the perfect fusion – the best of the digital and physical worlds, combined.
Another good example is the Nike Live phygital concept. It first launched 2018 with the Nike by Melrose neighborhood-centric store in Los Angeles. It’s a kind of data-driven individualized store concept of the future. Inspired and based on data (like behavior, app usage, engagement) by Nike Plus members in those specific areas, the store offers products and services those people truly desire. Every two weeks an intelligent algorithm exchanges the product lines available in the store.
By now this successful concept has already expanded to Long Beach and Tokyo as well, offering locally relevant products, independent from the overall Nike strategy.
Besides that, you probably know Pokémon Go, or maybe also the phygital store concept of Rebecca Minkoff? Both combine the physical with the digital world perfectly.
Altogether, one can say that “phygital” means a perfect fusion of the best of the digital and the best of the physical worlds. Again, as we stated already more than once, helping customers reach their goals faster, more efficiently and with greater satisfaction, has to be the goal of all phygital measures.
What are the key elements of a phygital experience?
Be customer-centered.
Focus on the needs and goals of your customers.
Be hyper-connected.
Create a connected ecosystem of products and services.
Be data-driven.
Base all your decisions and action on real data.
Use real-time evaluation.
Be able to analyze data and react to it in real-time.
Optimize usability.
Help customers reach their goals in a seamless and easy way.
Maintain situative relevance.
Offer the right products and services in the right place, at the right time and in the right way.
Talking about data can spark all kinds of doubts. Do customers want to give their private data to companies? Are a given company’s actions consistent with the law at all? Thinking about the iPhone, users willingly accept all kinds of contracts without even questioning them, just because they really don’t want to miss out on the great services on offer. And that’s, again, why usability and situative relevance are such important factors — if you use customers’ data for offering greater value to them, they will be very satisfied about it.
Increase Customer Satisfaction
Why is it so important? As the KANO Model pictures pretty well, you need to surprise your customers with new and unexpected services — by surpassing their basic expectations and requirements you can not only differentiate your services from your competitors, but also win your customer’s trust and loyalty.
An important aspect with that is, that you need to take in account the factor time. Today’s innovations might, by next year, already have become a basic need. So, your customer-centric experience strategy has to be re-examined and revised all the time.
Summary
People are lazy. And whenever technology offers something that makes processes easier and more convenient, it increases their satisfaction and loyalty. Adding relevance to your service by combining the best of the physical and digital worlds automatically boosts your business. So, whatever you do, use smart technology to improve people’s lives. ;)
Want to learn more about the next aspect of a customer-centric experience strategy and customer data?
Just stay tuned to our following articles on Situative Relevance Index (SRI), Behavioral Analytics and Automated Learning.
Or you may want to have a look at our previous articles on
Customer Centricity Transformation and Understanding Customer Insights etc… ;)
Get in contact:
Eve Cecon | Business Innovation Strategist @ Sensory-Minds
e.cecon@sensory-minds.com
