Getting people to use your digital experience

Introduction

Launching a digital product or experience isn't just about designing and building it. If you don't have a solid approach to get people to use it (and keep using it), it won’t succeed. In this edition, let’s explore ways to ensure your experience resonates and thrives.

1. Create a pull, not a push.

Successful adoption starts with creating a natural pull with users rather than pushing the experience onto them. Focus on understanding the real needs and desires of your target audience through qualitative and quantitative insights (see my last newsletter “From chaos to clarity” for more on this). Ensure the new experience addresses pain points and provides clear, compelling value. Highlight benefits, showcase success stories, and include social proof like reviews and testimonials to generate organic interest and excitement.

Encouragement and incentives work better than mandates. Consider gamification techniques, rewards, and loyalty programs to motivate users to regularly engage with the experience. In my prior newsletters, I called out how important it is to create real value for customers. Use this principle to continually design, build, and release features that align with their goals and desires. Make the experience enjoyable and rewarding, so users naturally gravitate towards it.

Example – Let’s say a fitness company launches a new mobile app. They could use gamification by introducing challenges and rewards. Users who achieve their fitness goals or participate in community challenges could earn points, badges, or discounts on related products. This positive reinforcement encourages continuous engagement without feeling forced.

2. Get organizational buy-in and drive internal change.

To get customers or users to adopt your new digital experience, you also need to make sure there’s internal buy-in and a shift in behaviors. Have a change plan. Communicate early and often. Sustainable change is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires buy-in at all levels. By communicating transparently and frequently, you create a sense of ownership and excitement about the journey. Encourage participation and listen actively to foster a culture that embraces change as a continuous evolution.

Leaders should actively promote the new experience and lead by example. Employees at all levels should feel encouraged to use and talk about it. Middle management plays a crucial role in connecting the vision with day-to-day operations. Make sure to provide all necessary training, resources, and support to keep everyone motivated and on the same page. I have seen many companies totally fail at this. They launch a new digital thing and focus only on marketing it to customers, but they forget that internal behaviors must change too.

Example – A large B2B company launched a new eCommerce platform. They failed to ensure all employees adjusted their day-to-day behaviors to create a unified experience for customers. Sales, marketing, and customer service teams had conflicting messaging about the new online shopping option. Operations and logistics didn’t streamline processes to support online orders and deliveries. Executives did not change incentives to encourage employees to drive customers to the new eCommerce experience. They also failed to organize training sessions to help everyone understand the new platform and gather feedback to make necessary adjustments. All these things ultimately created a bad experience for customers despite having a great digital platform.

3. Design is never done. Keep shipping and iterating.

No digital product or experience is perfect from the start. Set up ways to get continuous feedback from users through surveys, in-app prompts, or interviews. Quickly make improvements based on this feedback to show users their input is valued, building trust and loyalty. Digital products are like gardens and need constant updates and care. After launching, continuously monitor and improve your product based on user feedback and market changes. This keeps it relevant and useful.

Example – Consider how popular apps like Instagram, AirBnb, TikTok, etc. ship updates regularly. These new releases are based on user behavior and feedback. They add new features and adjust the UI to enhance the experience, keeping users engaged and staying ahead of competitors.

Wrapping up

Driving adoption, engagement, and retention requires a human-centered approach, with features that create value and align with user needs/goals, and active involvement from all levels of the organization. By creating a natural pull and maintaining a tight feedback loop, you can ensure your new digital experience resonates and thrives long term.

In the next edition, we'll explore some strategies for measuring the impact of your experiences and using data to drive continuous improvement. As always, if you have any feedback or want to discuss these ideas further, feel free to reach out.

Weekly links

Here are a few things I've found interesting recently:

• InMoment – Provides AI-powered solutions to enhance customer interactions and streamline processes.

• Contentsquare – A digital experience analytics platform that helps businesses understand how users interact with their websites and apps to improve customer experience and drive growth.

• Hampton AI Report – Hampton's 2024 AI & Business Report, detailing how CEOs and founders are integrating AI into their businesses.

• Pythagora AI – AI tool to build apps from scratch through conversational interaction, producing production-ready code and assisting with coding tasks, debugging, and deployment.

Onward & upward!

Drew

P.s. If we haven’t met yet, hello! I’m Drew Burdick, a leader in Customer Experience (CX). For over 15 years I’ve worked with organizations of all sizes to enhance their CX and design solutions that drive business results. Have a question? Send me an email or reach out on LinkedIn.