The way we do business is constantly evolving. Today’s collaborative sales presentations have grown out of yesterday’s more one-sided pitches. And most of your prospects are spending a good amount of time doing their own research. In fact, Gartner estimates that B2B buyers spend around 27% of their time researching independently online and another 18% researching independently offline. All of this means that when you do interact with your customers and prospects, it’s important to make every moment count.
To do so, more and more businesses are developing a customer experience center (CEC) model to give their prospects and customers a meaningful experience. But what exactly are CECs, and how should you think about customer experience center design to create an awe-worthy space? Keep reading to find out more.
What Is a Digital Experience Center?
A customer experience center, sometimes referred to as a digital experience center or a brand experience center, is a space dedicated to helping businesses connect with their current and prospective customers. Having grown from the older concept of executive briefing centers (EBCs), customer experience centers empower organizations to host meaningful, dynamic experiences that can boost brand awareness, engagement, and conversions.
As businesses continue to define their new normal, we can expect that our meetings—including those in CECs—will include a mix of in-person and virtual attendees. As such, it’s essential that our spaces embrace innovation, especially as it relates to hybrid audiences and their ability to collaborate equitably. Every voice matters, and your ability to foster this idea can make all the difference. A forward-thinking platform like Alleo can help, but more on us later!
How Do I Create an Experience Center?
When creating a customer experience center, you should aim to create a space that’s welcoming and engaging—and one that will intentionally contribute to your overall goals. This is true whether you are redesigning an existing space or starting from scratch.
But how do you get started? What is included in experience design for these spaces? Here are three key elements to consider.
1. Consider Your Purpose and Audience
Before you do anything else, you need to define a few key points about your space: what is your purpose, and who is your audience?
- Purpose: Consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your space. The majority of CECs are focused on key objectives like establishing or refining a step in the customer journey, developing memorable experiences, or increasing brand awareness. Do you wish to accomplish one or more of these? Or, are your goals related to something else? Determine your purpose and goals and let those be some of the building blocks for your CEC.
- Audience: Keep in mind who your audience is. What are their roles and responsibilities? Why might they be visiting your CEC? What concerns, questions, or pain points do they have? And, how many people will you realistically host at once?
With all of this information in mind, you can set out to use customer experience design principles to create a space with the technology, hardware, and furniture you need.
2. Choose Your Technology
The best customer experience design strategy you can take is to consider the technology you need to power your CEC. As we alluded to above, the meetings of today and tomorrow are largely hybrid. And while hybrid meetings certainly offer more flexibility for attendees, they present some challenges—namely, how will you ensure equitable collaboration for both in-person and virtual attendees? To offer an engaging and immersive presentation to every attendee means you need technology that is:
- Customizable
- Dynamic
- Easy to design
- Easy to moderate
- Equitable
- Interactive
That’s where Alleo comes in. Our interactive browser based platform offers ready-to-go templates, customizable boards, drag and drop functionality, a control center for all your displays, and so much more. Building your CEC around your technology—and not the other way around—means you can truly put the purpose of your space and the needs of your attendees first.
3. Decide on Hardware and Furniture
Once you’ve identified the technology and features you’ll use in your CEC, you can begin to decide upon hardware and furniture needs. For example, will you have interactive displays throughout your CEC? You’ll likely need touchscreen monitors or tablets. What activities will you engage in? Small group discussions or large-group activities may necessitate different kinds of tables. Or, if you’re planning to utilize your space for multiple purposes, investing in flexible, smart furniture can ensure that your team has the ability to lay out the space in the way that best fits their goals.
As you decide on fixtures, hardware, and furniture, think about your brand, too. What colors best represent your company? Where should you strategically place your logo or other graphics associated with your company? Your space should tell your story.
Alleo: Driving Better Customer Experience Centers
At Alleo, our goal is to help organizations promote engagement and collaboration equity in virtual, in-person, and hybrid meetings. We know the stakes are high when it comes to sales pitches and meetings that take place in your customer experience center. Our technology was built to give you the platform you need to create meaningful experiences that truly drive results.
If you’re ready to learn more about Alleo’s features and capabilities, visit our website. Or, schedule a demo to find out more about partnering with Alleo.
