Nowadays, the customer experience (CX) is a lot like an orchestra. Just as a conductor orchestrates the timing and rhythm of various instruments to create a harmonious symphony, organizations need to synchronize all channels and touchpoints to deliver a seamless customer journey.

From social media and email to voice calls, chat, and text, people are interacting with brands in different ways. That means businesses need to manage many omnichannel journeys simultaneously.

Easy, right?

No.

CX quality fell for 19% of brands in 2022—the biggest proportion of brands to drop in one year since the survey began, according to Forrester research.

Forrester attributes decrease to the waning focus on customer-centricity. In fact, just 3% of US companies are "customer-obsessed." That's like being a conductor who doesn't care about the show's audience.

The truth is that CX is more important today than ever before, but it's also increasingly difficult to manage.

Why? Because of the challenges of creating a connected customer experience.

What Is a Connected Customer Experience?

A connected customer experience delivers smart, contextual interactions across all touchpoints in the customer's journey.

The idea is to provide a consistent experience across the board, no matter how or why a customer reaches out to the brand—whether through your company's website or its contact center. Modern consumers want a cohesive experience from start to finish.

By contrast, a disconnected CX inherently generates friction as people transition from one interaction to another and one department to another.

Such roadblocks are no longer acceptable in the minds of your customers. Consider the following statistics:

• In its State of the Connected Customer report, Salesforce found that 85% of consumers expect consistency when interacting with teams across departments. Yet, 60% say they don't receive the cohesion they're looking for.
• Connected customer experiences increase loyalty. The same report found that 83% of customers are more loyal to organizations that deliver consistent experiences across departments. Moreover, 94% say they're more likely to purchase again from a business that provides a positive service experience.
• Disconnectedness frustrates today's purchasers, leading to costly churn. That is a significant concern: The cost of acquiring a new customer is typically 4-5 times that of retaining a current one.

Five Ways to Deliver a Connected Experience

Here are five ways you can offer a more connected customer experience.

1. Improve customer data accessibility

Truly optimizing customers' experience requires a holistic view of their wants, needs, and evolving expectations.

In other words, it all boils down to understanding customer data. Without data, it's impossible to connect the dots and carry information over from one interaction to the next.

The challenge is that many enterprise data sources are siloed, preventing teams from accessing the information they need, when they need it. Organizations need connected data sources to give departments a single source of truth about individual customers and their specific needs.

One option is to deploy a solution with a single dashboard to view customer interactions. That way, data is easy to access for everyone on the team.

2. Obtain complete company alignment