Digital Customer Experience: All you need to know

In 2025, customers don’t separate “digital” from “the rest” of their experience. They simply experience your brand. Whether someone is booking an appointment or making a purchase online, speaking to a staff member, navigating a physical store, or receiving a follow-up email, every touchpoint shapes their perception of trust, value, and consistency.

Increasingly that perception is being shaped by digital interactions first.

Of customer journeys now begin online

Of customers expect digital experiences to be as seamless as in-person ones

Digital experience (DX) has become the front door to your brand—and often the deciding factor in whether customers stay, leave, or advocate.

Why Digital Experience is a critical part of your Customer Experience

Great customer experience requires more than a great website or app. It relies on the alignment between brand promise, physical interactions, staff behaviours, and digital touchpoints. When these elements work together, customers feel confident, supported and understood. When they don’t, the experience breaks.

Brands with strong omnichannel engagement strategies retain an average of 89% of their customers.

Brands with weak omnichannel engagement strategies retain an average of 33% of their customers.

• The brand promise must be delivered across every channel

  
  

  Your website, booking system, mobile app, emails, and onboarding flows all communicate who you are, often before a person ever speaks to a human. If digital touchpoints feel outdated, inaccessible, confusing or inconsistent, customers assume the same about the organisation.

  
  

• Digital touchpoints are where friction shows first

  
  

  Poor website performance, unclear navigation, inaccessible forms and inconsistent information will quickly erode trust. According to Google, 53% of mobile users will leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Digital experience is often where a small, fixable issue will compound into a costly customer experience failure.

  
  

• Digital must support staff

  
  

  Omnichannel experience means customers may begin online, switch to phone support, visit a branch, and then return online later. If systems aren’t integrated, staff lack context and customers soon feel the disconnection.

Of Australian organisations have CX-integrated data ecosystems, meaning most can’t see a joined up customer journey

Digital experience is not just about the outward facing interface, it includes empowering frontline teams to deliver experiences that are consistent.

• Effective digital experience drives commercial outcomes

  
  

  Well designed digital experiences reduce operational load, increase conversions and improve customer loyalty. Digital experience is not a 'nice to have', it is a critical level to business success, with organisations that investing in digital experience seeing up to a 20% increase in revenue growth.

What does great digital experience look like?

Customers judge your organisation by the quality, consistency, and humanity of their experiences, digital and beyond. As digital touchpoints become the first (and often most frequent) interactions customers have with your brand, the stakes have never been higher.

If organisations want to deliver on their brand promise, strengthen loyalty, reduce friction, and compete in an experience driven market, investing in digital experience is essential.

When digital is working well, customers feel supported, understood, and empowered. Examples include:

• Consistent, on-brand interfaces across website, app, and physical places

• Clear, accessible pathways with no dead ends or guesswork

• Personalised recommendations and content, powered by customer data

• Self-service tools that reduce friction and increase confidence

• Omnichannel continuity, where customers never have to repeat themselves

• Staff enabled with the right context, not juggling outdated systems

• Inclusive design and accessible services, ensuring all customers can participate

Of people who come away from an interaction 'feeling good' are more likely to purchase from that company again.

What are the blockers to great digital experience?

As organisations grow they often layer tools, processes and decision gates, adding complexity, reducing efficiency and losing sight of the customer as they go. Some of the common challenges include:

• Digital, CX, and technology teams working in silos

• Inconsistent content or tone across channels

• Outdated information architecture

• Legacy systems limiting what staff can deliver

• Missing or fragmented customer data

• Accessibility issues that put customers at risk

• High customer drop off rates that aren’t well understood

The Digital Experience Review

Great customer and digital experiences do not happen by accident. They come from intentionally reviewing, diagnosing, and improving the digital ecosystem. Many organisations are not sure where to start or simply do not have the capacity to tackle building a picture of their digital experience.

The Alternative by Design Digital Experience Review is the first step to understanding where you stand today, and how to uplift the experience for tomorrow. We combine expertise across experience design, behaviour change and technology, and assess over 50 digital experience and capability dimensions. This structured review process brings objectivity and clarity on where to focus and what to fix.

Digital Experience Review

Contact us or click through to learn more about our Digital Experience Review.