Technology has been disrupting the business world for a long time now, yet some brands are still trying to ‘be digital’. The truth is that no one should even be thinking about digital anymore – everything is digital! And, while it does have many upsides, it also means that, for the first time ever, many people do business without physically interacting with each other.    

Most of our day-to-day interactions with people are based on non-verbal signals. Our brains automatically analyze non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and make decisions based on this data – but in today’s increasingly digital landscape this face-to-face interaction is being replaced by face-to-screen interactions.  

So what does this mean for enterprises? And how can they navigate a digital world where for the first time in history human beings are readily not directly interacting with each other?

Advances in technology and its adoption by the majority of consumers has opened up a lot of new opportunities, but it has also added a layer of complexity. Since the development of digital channels customers have been ‘talking’ to brands without brands having much knowledge of it. And the lack of human interaction between customers and brands means we’ve all but lost the crucial non-verbal communication.

The infographic below was orginally published by Adobe, and perfectly summarizes how customer loyalty has changed, and will continue to change, as we progress through the experience era:

This presents a huge challenge: how can brands build loyalty and rapport when its best advocates, people, aren’t interacting with its customers? Organizations need to overcome “screen” barrier and start listening to what customers are saying and inferring by their actions as they navigate digital channels and use that provide better experiences.

We call this digital body language, and we make it our business to understand and interpret this language, and use it to drive real business outcomes that positively affect the customer and their experiences.

It all starts with data and knowing how to interpret it

Website visitors leave behind a trail of every interaction, from their clicks to the mouse movements around the page. The richer the visitor activity data you collect, the better the picture of your customers’ digital body language you’ll be able to get. Advanced data science, powered with Cognitive intelligence and machine learning, can then analyze this behavioral data to give insights into how your customers are interacting with your brand’s digital properties.

Digital body language can also give you an understanding of the mindset of your website visitors. Interactions and mouse movements online can reveal people’s psychological inner state. By using data science and cognitive intelligence together, brands can understand the meaning behind users’ actions and get meaningful insights into behaviors and user intent on digital channels.   

Finally, by using intuitive visualization tools to represent patterns, paths and other findings, experience teams can not only understand the results, but also immediately identify areas for improvement and optimization. Brands can overcome the challenge presented by the lack of direct interaction with customers by monitoring in real-time visitor behavior and making informed decisions that solve critical digital questions so they can improve business outcomes on every digital channel.

Loyalty through better experiences

Customer experience is the new currency. Today, the most effective way for online businesses to differentiate themselves is through customer experience, but there hasn’t been a purpose-built platform that enables the people tasked with delivering those experiences to get insights and take actions. Tools such as the Clicktale Experience Cloud gives insight into why people behave in a certain way on your website/app, so that you can make the most of every digital interaction.