Customer experience (CX) exponentially improves with digital transformation (DT). Customers today want up-to-date personalised information instantly and you cannot deliver on this demand without the appropriate technology delivered in a customer-focused way.
There is a clear trend of businesses going digital to enhance the customer journey. The age of internet and smartphones has drastically reduced our patience and we want services to run as smoothly as possible with the least amount of effort.
Digital transformation plays an essential role in this transition but it is not as intimidating as it may sound. Small implementations can already go a long way.
Digital transformation and great customer experience are inseparable today. Let’s dive deeper into the key areas to focus on and examples of implementations for improving customer experience with digital transformation.
What Is Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is applying technology to change a business, internal operations and/or external services. The goal is making the business more resilient and efficient in today’s highly digitized world.
Customers increasingly demand a high quality and frictionless service and the right digital transformation approach will enable that.
Why Is Digital Transformation Important for Improving Customer Experience?
Today’s customer expects a lot from the services that they consume. They have greater access to information which makes them more critical and they experience best of breed customer experience outside of work. As a result, businesses have to continuously demonstrate value meet the customer expectation.
Digital transformation is a key element in solidifying customer loyalty. A single bad customer service or customer journey experience is enough to lose a customer forever.
Implementing the right DT measures lets a business:
- Better interpret what their customer wants and needs
- React quicker to customer demand
- Adjust products and services to meet changes in demand
- Personalise the customer journey
- Become more accessible
Key Focus Areas in Customer Experience
There are tools and strategies on offer with DT that make the customer journey more accessible, enjoyable, safe and personalised. These are the key areas to focus on when considering a digital transformation strategy for improving customer experience.
Secure Data Management
As people consume digital services en masse, they are increasingly concerned about secure data management. Customers want to be able to control their personal data and this expectation maps directly into the workplace.
Being transparent with the data that you hold on your customers, users and/or staff is a key enabler to build trust in your service.
On top of transparency, customers and users also want to be able to control what, if anything, is being used for their customer experience. Where possible, give your customers and users the choice to opt-in or not to communications and clearly state what each piece of information collected will be used for.
Interpreting Customer Demand
Technology can be key in helping you understand customer demand; gaining insight into their behaviour and adjusting their customer journey accordingly. In other words, it lets you track what your customer is interested in or needs and deliver on that.
If you know what % of all of your customer requests are for each parts of your service. You will be able to identify exactly what you need to prioritise and where you should focus effort to improve their experience.
Should you offer self-service options for those services? Should you invest in automation to speed up delivery of those services? Without understanding your customer demand, it is not possible to answer those questions.
Make sure you enter this analysis with an objective mindset because the results can be surprising. Data-driven business decisions are one aspect most businesses can still improve on.
Personalising the Customer Journey
The beauty of digital transformation is that you can personalise every step of the customer journey. Tools can help you define groups of customers with individualised preferences and needs.
From the moment a customer logs in, their experience can be customised according to their past actions and preferred settings. It makes a customer feel like they are getting personal attention, even when the entire journey is set out automatically according to a clearly defined process.
Examples include suggested services, a personalised online environment or service portal, reminders and up-to-date information on the status of their orders and requests.
A personalised customer journey is also shown to improve the customer satisfaction and Net Promoter scores for your service.
Automating Customer Service
Customer service departments such as IT Service Desks are often a considerable operational cost for businesses. However, they is also essential for customer success and supporting your organisation.
Thankfully, digital transformation can make these departments run more efficiently in terms of both cost and operations. Many organisations have already set up virtual customer service systems that use artificial intelligence (AI) to quickly solve the most common issues customers face.
You can provide instant access to knowledge articles which walk customers through the steps to resolve their most common issues. You can also automate the fulfilment of a wide variety of requests such as password resets and deployment of approved software, with no human intervention at all.
This practice is highly successful in improving customer experience. In fact, studies show that 85% of consumers prefer virtual contact methods.
Setting up automated customer service saves staff working hours and provides your customers with 24/7 access without needing to have a team on stand-by 24/7. In other words, both you and your customers will be happier.
24/7 Accessibility
Our smartphones give us access to information from anywhere and at any time of day. It has become an integral part of our daily lives and consumer behaviour.
More and more businesses are investing in making their services mobile-friendly because it boosts engagement and is a great way to enhance customer experience with digital transformation. Going digital gives your customers 24/7 access to your products and services which (when paired with automation) also means that you can offer support 24/7 instead of just during office hours.
Whether it is customer service help, up-to-date status information or online service portals, providing round the clock accessibility is becoming standard.
The power of digital transformation is that by becoming more efficient, you are actually also improving the customer experience. Digital transformation enables you put your customer’s need at the forefront of your business decisions, improve their experience and reduce costs whilst doing so.
Where to start
You can check out our article How to approach your Digital Transformation which explains what your first steps should be in any Digital Transformation journey.
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Daniel Wright founded Monochrome Consultancy, specialising in Digital Transformation, IT Transformation and Project & Programme Delivery.
With his background in IT and InfoSec Dan is a techie at heart.
For more on Dan and/or Monochrome visit: www.monochromeconsultancy.co.uk
