Opening Up: Sharing 9 Examples of Great Digital Experiences

Digital transformation and innovation have helped shape a society that can come together despite any physical or geographical barrier. From video calls to e-learning systems to online food delivery, people are now turning to digital technology and online experiences more than ever to keep that sense of connection, comfort, and normalcy in their everyday lives. Businesses are realizing that their relationships with their customers depend on providing exceptional digital interactions that leave a meaningful impact. 

Yet, 90% of consumers say that brands today are still failing to meet their expectations. So who are those brands that are getting it right, and what lessons can marketers learn from them to level up their own digital experience strategy? As the people responsible for creating some of the world’s most ambitious open digital experiences, we asked Acquia employees to share an example of a time they had a truly great digital experience. Here’s what they said.

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“I've been using Spotify since it became available, and I remember being so excited the first time they did end-of-year analytics on my listening trends. Being able to see all my history summarized and compared to other folks’ habits was super interesting.”

-Cyrus Nations, Associate Solutions Engineer

“I’m always impressed by Ally Bank. They have no physical bank branches, so everything is driven online. That's how costs stay low for the business, and interest rates for customers’ savings accounts stay high. Plus, the app is easy to use. If I need to reach a rep, I'm given a time table for how long I'll be waiting, which is usually 1-3 minutes.”

-Caren Bailey, Field Marketing Manager

“Lululemon provides an awesome digital experience that actually blends with the in-store experience. Their emails are always spot on and when I go in-store they are able to look up all my past purchases to help inform sizing/styles that are the best fit for me. It's what keeps me going back!”

-Maggie Schroeder, Product Marketing Manager

“A small example of a digital experience that I take for granted is when you book a reservation, flight, appointment or hotel stay, and Google automatically adds the booking to your calendar without any human intervention. It improves my quality of life, and it's so seamless that I don't even think about it happening.”

-Jonathon Cartwright, Senior Product Manager

“Any time I'm utilizing an interface that either predicts what I'm about to do or helps me streamline the process in some way always makes me feel more efficient. Things like Gmail that offer features like predictive text or systems that let you filter by most used, etc. are very helpful and useful.”

-Sam Holt, Staff Accountant 

“Disney always comes to mind for me. They never bombard me with emails. I typically will search something regarding family vacation, and then shortly after I'm served with a relevant ad or a few relevant emails. These are always timely and never excessive.” 

-Mayra Rivera, Field Marketing Manager

“Secret Cinema provided an incredible digital experience. From signing up to their Stranger Things event, I was assigned a character and contacted across multiple devices with more and more pieces of content that made the experience immersive. From cracking codes to unlocking storylines to promoting an online ‘mall’ where I could buy an 80s-themed outfit before the event — it was incredibly impressive.”

-Mark Silvester, Marketing Operations Senior Manager

“Amazon.com is still the gold standard of e-commerce because the ordering and return process is seamless. Having the ability to see current and past orders and easily return or exchange an item with just a few clicks is great.”

-Diane LoBiondo, Field Marketing Operations

“The Canada.ca website is an excellent digital resource. I used this website a lot while doing my visa applications for Canada. It’s really well-made and minimizes the need to do a lot of paperwork. You also get notifications about which stage your application is in. It was wonderful to have an easy site to use to handle something I thought would be cumbersome and really complicated.”

-Prasanna Kulkarni, Senior Web Analytics Manager