What are Digital Experience Platforms? And Why Should You Care?

The latest trend in providing great customer experience is Digital Experience Platforms. Software solutions that aim at providing a low-code way for companies to manage their customer’s experiences, using both human assets and automation.

DXPs are omnichannel solutions working 24/7, a way to give companies control over every single touchpoint they have with the customers. When working correctly, a DXP will give companies a 360º view of their customers across its operational network, no matter how big or complex said network is.

“Working correctly” is the key here, as DXPs can be hard to implement, especially if they have to work seamlessly with a company’s existing digital infrastructure, as well as communicate well with their current CMS — presuming they aren’t willing to switch it.

That’s where service providers in the DXP market come into play. Today, we’re going to take a look at the biggest players in this market, as well as what kind of services and support they provide, as well as noting the main traits of their platforms. Going with the DXP provider that suits your client’s needs and expectations will greatly reduce headaches during the implementation stage, as well as reduce the DXP’s total cost of ownership.

All these tools can make DXPs useful for professionals in all sorts of businesses, from a small medical practice to a large SEO agency. And while your student venture is unlikely to need such a powerful tool, you may well end up working with a DXP if you start working for a larger company.

The basic DXP package

A recent Forbes article gave a good example of what happens when digital customer experience goes wrong. It can be easy to mess up integration between many customer touchpoints and loose — or misuse — customer data in the company’s platform, which was what happened in the Forbes example.

DXPs aims at avoiding such issues. They are meant to help manage marketing, sales, and content delivery across platforms, countries, and languages. To manage these complexities, a DXP has to be more robust than your average CMS.

Here are the features a DXP is generally expected to provide:

• Allow for the rapid creation of websites, applications, portals, and other touchpoints in order to engage users across platforms. Often providing templates for such tasks.
• Contain tools to manage content, media, and other forms of customer engagement.
• Allow businesses to sync data across many systems.
• Allow for the increase of functionality over time with the use of APIs.
• Built-in omnichannel reach, allowing businesses to collect data and establish touchpoints across many platforms, with room to include new platforms as they emerge and become relevant.
• Commerce functions, such as storefronts, payment, and billing tools, etc.
• Cognitive tools, such as machine learning, AI automation, chatbots, and predictive analysis.

Next, we are going to list the big players in the DXP world. Keep in mind that the features listed above were considered as criteria for inclusion in this list. They are the reason why WordPress, as powerful and widely used as it is, didn’t make it into this list.

WordPress is a great CMS, but DXPs are a step above. In fact, the exclusion of WordPress illustrates the fundamental difference between a CMS and a DXP — a DXP has a much wider scope. DXPs often include a CMS, either directly or through integration.

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