The Recipe for Higher-Quality Engagement in an Era of Digital Diets

Calling it a “digital diet,” mobile users are making a point to reduce and limit screen time; even Apple and Google are jumping on the bandwagon by integrating features into iOS and Android, that alert users to the amount of time they devote to their apps. While this might seem like bad news in the attention economy, don’t run for the hills just yet.  “With growing user awareness of smartphone addiction and new tools to monitor and limit use,” MediaMonks Co-founder & COO Wesley ter Haar assures developers, “brands will need to switch focus from extending to enriching user engagement.”

In simple terms, don’t try to capture your users’ attention for as long as possible in a single setting. Instead, leverage good design to create a first-class customer experience that will encourage them to keep coming back. “Great UX and design can turn otherwise unremarkable interactions into brand experiences that directly affect customer satisfaction and loyalty,” says ter Haar. One such “unremarkable interaction” is calling for a cab, which Uber has turned into a luxe and frictionless experience that users, it seems, can’t see themselves living without.

Brands hoping to reach that level of customer loyalty and enthusiasm will want to pay special care to how they design digital experiences—which can have a significant impact on the bottom line, too. At a MediaMonks event in Mexico City in February, ter Haar shared industry findings on the business value of good customer experience design: “Companies that use design more effectively enjoy higher revenue growth than those in the same industry that don’t.”

Mobile is the New Wallet

What better place to look for ways to heighten user loyalty through design is there than loyalty apps? Loyalty programs have long prompted customers to make repeat visits or purchases at a store, and today their presence on mobile has made them more akin to marketing platforms. “Mobile is the new wallet,” says ter Haar, “and having the ‘brand at hand’ enables more meaningful data collection for brands and more relevant content to their users.”

Your mobile app should go beyond simply targeting users with sales and promotions (though those certainly help in providing value to them). A truly engaging customer experience is built around small moments that take advantage of the brand’s presence in users’ pockets, enhancing their day-to-day needs and activities.

One great example of this is the Club Premier app, which lets users handle everyday tasks like checking their balance or use the points they’ve saved. But it goes beyond that: through a dynamic design and engaging UX, the app surfaces up personalized content through its Experience Companion feature, which informs users on how they can make the most out of their Club Premier membership. Built around customers’ unique needs and providing convenience when and where it matters most, the app enhances the way customers engage.

See how Club Premier’s app fit within a larger digital transformation strategy.

Catering to Mobile Moments

Delivering a better customer experience through your mobile app begins in identifying its place within a larger ecosystem of interactions with your brand. One area to focus on is optimizing these experiences: a fashion brand might make it easier for users to reserve and purchase items that are high in demand as soon as they release, for example, like the Adidas Confirmed app that we redesigned for a more stable and smooth user experience.

But designing around mobile moments should do more than optimize. Here, it’s the little details that matter, which can be as simple as acknowledging a user on their birthday. One app that shows how a touch of whimsy can build a better experience is ING’s Kudos app. Designed to provide a way for ING employees to compliment and recognize one another’s contributions, the app uses bright colors and badges to gamify workflows and make complimenting more fun. And if you don’t believe us, look at the numbers: over 50% of internal employees shared kudos on the app in the first three months, which is quite good for an internal business tool.

Because gamification features like badges in Kudos encourage a sense of progress, they make as a nice example for how developers can encourage repeat check-ins and actions from users in their mobile design. In addition, they show how apps designed expressly for customer loyalty can extend beyond the obvious offerings of discounts. Insights gained from such apps—like location, time in-store, browsing or purchasing history and more—may then power more personalized content, allowing for a more engaging customer experience. This way, brands can focus less on delivering more quality in the time users spend within an app than focus on the amount of time. This way, the focus isn’t on the amount of time users spend in an app, but the quality of time spent with the brand—the perfect recipe for satiating the digital diet trend.