Why Total Experience Will Dominate the Design Landscape

Recently, Gartner published its Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022 . One of the trends the research firm encourages business leaders to keep on their radar in the coming year is total experience (TX) design.

When you understand that total experience lies at the intersection of user experience (UX), employee experience (EX), customer experience (CX), and multi-experience (MX), it's easy to understand why. This immersive strategy and approach takes into account a wide variety of points of view to engage all stakeholders, employees and consumers.

When companies employ a total experience strategy, they can achieve satisfaction from almost everyone involved in their operations.

What is total experience?

The total experience prioritizes the perspectives of consumers, users and employees. It seeks to make significant changes and transform the entire company, taking into account the experiences of all these groups of people, recognizing the connections that form an immersive environment.

Interactions, features and other qualities of the products and services you provide depend on each other. By bringing these experiences together and recognizing that they depend on each other, companies facilitate stronger engagement.

In its report, Gartner states that “the two main reasons to pursue digital initiatives are to improve customer experiences and improve employee productivity. IT leaders can achieve these two business outcomes simultaneously by applying a total experience strategy.”

Advantages of adopting a total experience approach

1. You will better meet consumers’ needs

During the pandemic, 36% of consumers have tried a new brand, according to a McKinsey report, while 73% of those consumers plan to continue using it. Meanwhile, PwC found that almost a third of consumers will stop using a brand they love after just one bad experience with it.

When you're working on a product, you're not just developing that product – you're shaping an entire image. The total experience combines countless perspectives and points of view to get to the heart of what users really want. It focuses not just on specific products, initiatives, and services, but synthesizes all of these factors to fit them into the bigger picture. With consumer engagement as the ultimate objective, the total experience seeks to improve the relationship between brand and customer.

2. You will achieve greater employee satisfaction

A Morning Consult report found that 90% of consumers consider the treatment of employees important. This shows that brands are about more than consumer engagement. The way companies engage and treat their employees is also important and plays a key role in consumers’ commitment to companies.

Total experience design is responsible for this, encouraging companies to recognize and value their workers, rewarding them for exemplary work. With this mindset at the forefront, employers will develop a stronger culture, respecting employees and intensifying their retention efforts.

Ultimately, happier employees mean a stronger brand, which will not only lead to better engagement but also create more meaningful relationships between employees and their employer.

3. You will break down silos

Walls have no place in a company trying to achieve engagement and success. A total experience approach means breaking down silos between units and departments in your organization, thereby increasing collaboration.

This is a holistic approach that involves all members of the company and makes their role important. Each team member understands the bigger picture and how they are contributing. Your business will function more cohesively, leading to stronger engagement and engagement. Operations will also run more efficiently.

This involvement reaches the consumer level. When employees collaborate with each other and break down the metaphorical walls that exist, in addition to producing more consistently in terms of quality and punctuality. This leads to a better product or service, and users will definitely notice.

4. You will improve communication

Communication is fundamental to your organization's operations. Total experience design involves using the best tools to communicate effectively and efficiently.

This is true both across the organization and with customers and users. In terms of communication between employees, companies will centralize their efforts and use a range of solutions to strengthen collaboration. Employees will know who to talk to about specific concerns, where to look for information, and so on. They will also know the correct mode to use depending on the context. There will be a multi-channel approach, but it will be simplified and clutter-free.

There is also stronger communication with consumers. Remember that an ideal experience that engages users will satisfy their needs — and communication is key to keeping them informed. A total experience model incorporates multiple forms of communication with consumers, such as chatbots, leading to greater efficiency and quick solutions thanks to the multi-experience element of the design.

This, in turn, leads to loyalty from both consumers and employees – the heart of the total experience approach.

Adopting a Total Experience Mindset

Ultimately, total experience design seeks to merge the needs of everyone involved in the organization – stakeholders, employees and users – to create a cohesive, multifaceted and engaging business model that meets all of these collective needs.

The goal of the total experience is to stop seeing these needs as disparate and connect them, thus breaking down the silos that exist between employees and consumers and recognizing that these needs are often the same thing.

When organizations adopt this approach, successfully transforming their organization, they will be able to deliver the best experience to everyone involved, encouraging loyalty and engagement with their brand. That's why it's clear that this is indeed a mindset to adopt now and in the future.