The Customer Experience and Digital Transformation Power Play
No matter your industry or go to market model, your customers embrace an increasingly digital-first mindset. No news, right? But combine this with ever-greater expectations of relevance, seamlessness, and simplicity across every interaction they have with the businesses that serve them, and something quickly becomes clear.
To give customers the digital experiences they demand, a commitment to experience-led, human-first transformation is needed.?
This is one reason (among many) why enabling both digital and CX capabilities is at the top of leadership priorities. Another? ?Customer-centric digital transformation can generate an eye-popping 20 to 30 percent increase in customer satisfaction and economic gains of 20 to 50 percent, according to McKinsey.
As Steve Jobs famously said, and as true today as ever it was, “You have to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology.” What this means is that digital transformation and customer experience success are mutually dependent and require first prioritizing customers and their needs… and then technology.
CX and IT: Better Together
In today’s enterprise, technology and data power almost everything. And given that most experiences today are multichannel, nearly every interaction requires utilizing and aligning multiple technologies and data sources. At the same time, almost any customer-facing or supporting technology needs the experience designed to best meet the needs of customers and the employees who support them.
This is why CX leaders need to take a more active role with the technologies that affect customer experience. And why digital leaders need to routinely engage with CX to ensure the investments they make solve real customer and business needs.?
This is a key reason the CIO of a leading athletic clothing brand asked us to help him and his team identify, prioritize, and help design new in-store retail experiences for their customers. Because while the directive from the CEO to implement better digital tools was clear, unsurprisingly they didn’t indicate what tools should be deployed to do what.
Together, we brought a cross-functional team together and leveraged deep customer and operational research to generate insights, identify issues, find opportunities, and co-create (and prioritize!) solutions to solve some of the biggest issues of their retail customers and customer-facing employees.
When it comes to technology, we’ve found that the superpower of experience leaders is the ability to define the needs-based experiences customers demand, and work across the organization in partnership with IT to bring those experiences to life.
Putting the ‘Human” at the Center
We believe that the role of digital technology and data in CX transformation is to elevate the human experience. Combined with what I wrote earlier, you’ll be unsurprised to learn that one of our core principles is that humans must be at the center of CX technology. In other words, technology should serve people, not the other way around.
This is crucial, because we’ve all experienced the pitfalls of tech taking over without a human-first lens. We’ve experienced it as customers, and as employees. And it isn’t pretty. ?From disconnected journeys and disempowered employees to generic over-automation and data without context, the lack of empathy and understanding in “tech first” interactions erodes trust, annoys people, and wastes time.
But when you put human needs first and align with technology to meet them, it becomes a virtuous cycle that’s better for the business, and for your customers. They enjoy greater:
Plus, you empower your employees, who enjoy better tools and more efficient processes and systems that make it easier for them to serve and engage with customers—and make it more enjoyable and efficient for them to do their jobs.
What CX and IT Collaboration Looks Like
Today, CX and IT collaboration is no longer optional—it’s a business imperative and a competitive necessity. Organizations that successfully integrate these functions create seamless, data-driven customer experiences that drive loyalty and business impact.
At its core, effective CX-IT collaboration requires smashing silos, integrating data, and aligning technology investments with customer-centric strategies. IT teams bring technical expertise—building data infrastructure, enabling automation, and ensuring scalability—while CX teams translate this into personalized engagement, optimized journeys, and differentiated experiences.
Put another way, technology is the experience enabler, and experience is the technology sherpa. As powerful as technology can be, without customer experience leadership its potential often remains untapped.
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By working together, CX and IT can break down operational barriers, leverage technologies like AI/ML for predictive analytics and personalization, and support a unified, human-centered approach to experience design and delivery. Organizations that master this collaboration unlock faster innovation, greater agility, and superior customer experiences—setting themselves apart in an increasingly competitive market.
Winning by Delivering Connected, Human-First Experiences
Customers expect relevance, personalization, and ease—and not just at isolated touchpoints, but across every interaction and journey they embark on with a business. Meeting these expectations requires more than just new tools; it demands a fundamental shift in how CX and IT collaborate to align data, technology, and strategy.
Which means it’s time to stop talking about “digital experience” as a stand-alone, and start talking about how we deliver connected experiences, across all channels, in a digital-first-but-not-digital-only world.
CX and IT leaders must work together to ensure technology investments serve business objectives and human experiences. Those organizations that win will be those that break down silos, embrace experience-led transformation, leveraging technology as an enabler of connected, intelligent, human-first customer experiences.
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