How is Digital Transformation Shaping Customer Experience

The integration of digital technologies into the business processes and company culture has fundamentally transformed the customer experience. Digital transformation is inspiring and influencing companies worldwide to evolve their business models and adapt to the digital transformation journey.

Statista says that the digitally transformed enterprises are predicted to account for 53.3 trillion USD by 2023, which is more than half of the overall nominal GDP. This exhibits the global supremacy of digital transformation in helping businesses create better digital customer experiences. Moreover, organizations are now focusing on digital strategies and models to provide personalized and keep intuitive customer services transformation. 

Let’s explore more on how a digital transformation approach can create a difference in making products and services customer centric.

A ‘Digital First’ Approach for Customer Experience

Digital technologies like machine learning, automation, blockchain,  IoT, and more allow customers to get what they almost want exactly at the moment they need it. These new digital technologies have caused a shift in customer expectations, resulting in a new kind of modern buyer. Let’s throw light on how the digital first approach works? 

What does “digital first customer experience” mean? 

“Digital first” refers to the ever-changing need to be, think and create better consumer experience keeping a digital mindset. This approach combines the customer’s expectations with the trending digital landscape and allows businesses to innovate new products and services. 

How can a business possibly enhance the user experience by following a digital approach? The answer lies in the current digital trends that are bringing businesses a step closer to their users.

Before we move on, you are also likely to read- “How to recession proof your business using digital transformation solutions”. 

Current Digital Transformation Trends that are Enhancing Customer Experience

Modern customers prefer an ongoing relationship over a series of isolated transactions. Customers with personalized and emotional connection to a business have 3x more lifetime commitment value and are more likely to recommend their products to others.

With digital transformation approaches such as instant service, seamless omnichannel experience and constant online availability, enterprises are now bringing their customers closer.

Below are a few of the current digital trends that are helping businesses to enhance and personalize their customer experience.

1. Personalizing the digital customer experience

A study states that more than 75% of consumers are more likely to enjoy the digital customer service if companies provide any of these three services:

Being recognized – consumers are more likely to shop online if they are recognized by their names.

Being offered relevant recommendations –  customers are more likely to spend money online when provided suggestions based on their previous purchases or preferences.

Being remembered – buyers are more likely to purchase if the company knows their purchase history.

For instance, Netflix is an online streaming application that focuses on personalizing the digital customer experience  and enhancing the customer journey.  

[Also Read: How is digital transformation advancing the future of the ecommerce industry?]

2.  Consistent customer journey via seamless multi-channel

Technology has provided customers with the luxury of multiple channels. Sometimes customers feel that a new interaction on a different platform is a new journey. However, customers usually want to feel familiarity so that new interactions on different platforms are an extension of the same journey. One can overcome these challenges by providing a seamless multi-channel as it leads to:

Consistent customer experience: When you provide a consistent customer journey through seamless multi-channel it results in customer satisfaction and loyalty, says McKinsey.

Lower cost to resolve issues: A good seamless multi-channel experience leads to customer satisfaction, which results in happier customers! Happy customers mean less volume for customer care/service channels, which aids the cost to resolve issues. 

Companies are connecting business silos, harnessing the potential of their customer data, and driving ongoing improvements to serve the customers with relevant and consistent experience, irrespective of channel or device. 

3.  Embracing automation

A survey shows that 84% of the consumers preferred interacting with computer automated systems. These automated systems are available any time, these systems are less biased, and fast. Thus, these systems increase the customer’s overall digital experience. In case, you have not used automation as a part of your digital client experience strategy, then we suggest you start now!

Let’s discuss the advantages of embracing automation in your business:

Saves time: Waiting for a response can be time consuming for a customer. Automated responses engage and provide services faster than human advisors or customer care services. Since, in today’s age and time, customers expect service response within one hour irrespective of the time or date.

Mitigates prejudice: Sometimes, customers feel that human advisors are being rude or biased. By embracing automation, you are mitigating this risk, since the communication cannot be biased and will be polite at all times!

Increases team efficiency: In order to increase efficiency, the time spent by team members on basic processes like follow-up emails and ticket prioritization should be automated as well for a better digital customer experience transformation process.

4.  Improving the user experience by efficient app onboarding practices

Customers always expect to navigate easily through your applications. If the customer is not able to do so, it is likely that they will neither use nor recommend your application further. When we develop apps to aid an enterprise digital transformation effort, we give focus to app onboarding. App onboarding is a systematic process that allows users to comprehend the app and its functions. You can include on-screen guidelines with an interactive virtual assistant providing step-by-step demonstration, further enhancing the customer digital experience. The benefits of enhancing the user experience are:

• When an app is guiding its users it means the application is customer centric
• It focuses on providing value to the customers and making their life easier
• An easily usable app results in a great customer experience
• A satisfied customer is your best brand ambassador and marketing agency, all in one
• It helps in establishing credibility with the customer

5.  Keeping the customer updated

Keeping your customers in the loop is an integral part of providing great digital customer service. Keeping the customer updated about what is going on with the product is no rocket science! It comes down to automated processes and real time tracking. 

For example, Amazon is a digital platform that keeps customers updated at all times. The application keeps giving updates to customers when an order is reviewed and placed; the payment is complete, when the order is expected to reach your doorstep, etc.

6.  Keeping it human

You should always keep in mind that your customers are human, and you need to keep the human element alive in this age of digital customer experience. Human experience will help you in creating long-term relationships and genuine partnerships with your customers. I am sure that a question is popping up in your head, how can we add a human touch to our application?

• Every brand has a story! Start by telling that story to your customers via videos or blogs. Share the history, mission, values and vision your brand stands for.
• Incorporate AI for the feedback! It is always better to get feedback from your customers and work on them. This improves the digital customer engagement and your application will keep evolving.
• Personalized content is the key to keeping customers engaged. It enhances the customer experiences because it is tailored just for their use.
• Invest your time and resources into customer experience technologies that will help you learn how, when and why your customers do business with you.

So, what we are saying is: 

The potential of digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, big data analytics, cloud computing, machine learning and virtual reality (VR) keep the transformation experience as human as possible. 

Getting Started with Digital Transformation

Everyone is talking about the digital transformation trend but it is more about business transformation, which is not as easy as it sounds! Without any question, the use of digital technology increases, but at the end of the day, it is more about a new way of working and thinking!

Let’s talk about the elements that will help you kick start your transformed business landscape, exceed customer expectations and enhance customer experience.

a) Uninterrupted Experience

Users prefer an uninterrupted approach regardless of the channel they are using. Providing a seamless digital channel to the customer by integrating all channels together leads to a better customer experience.

b) Personalized Experience

Customer relationship management software is very helpful to evaluate a consumer’s purchase history and behavior. It assists a company to give a more personalized experience to the consumer since they expect just that.

c) Cloud Technology

Cloud solutions provide an agile and flexible environment to fulfill customer demands swiftly. This technology enables companies to be fast and dynamic, giving them the ability to test new projects that are cost-effective and low-risk. 

For instance, connecting SaaS applications such as Salesforce enables businesses to collect all information on customers, prospects, and leads within a single online platform. Not only this, but cloud solutions also offer automated notifications to the customers regarding the latest features so that they are never behind their game!

d) Bring Everyone on Board

The foremost reason for the failure of digital sales transformation is employee resistance. According to a report by Gartner, when everyone works collaboratively and understands the goals, businesses progress twice as fast with digital transformation ideas.

Benefits of Digital Transformation

If you have continuous innovation and enhancement on your mind, you can achieve all the benefits that are offered by digital customer experience transformation. You have to make sure that you have digital transformation solutions handy in case you have to tackle the challenges. It’s best to be well-prepared! 

Digital transformation solutions help you achieve high-level benefits:

• Digitalization of business operations
• Immense customer insights
• Establishment of digital services
• Efficient resource management
• Enhanced customer experience
• Promote digital culture
• Opens the door to globalization
• Reduces cost
• Better employee engagement and culture

You may like reading: IT/OT convergence – Benefits, Use Cases, Examples and Challenges

How can Appinventiv Help You in Digital Transformation

Digital transformation experience is crucial for businesses that want to grow, evolve and be more successful than their competitors. Digital transformation and customer experience transformation go hand in hand. Let’s be honest, these days customer expectations are sky-scraping, and without fulfilling them your business will not thrive or dare we say, even survive! 

So, if you want to exponentially flourish, Appinventiv can help you with digital transformation service  such as digitalization consulting. As long as you are finding ways to integrate new customer experience technologies and introducing creative ways to keep your customers engaged in spending money on your application, you are good to go!

THE AUTHOR

Saurabh Singh

CEO & Director