Customer Experience In The Digital Age
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4 Ways Businesses Can Stay Ahead Of Constant Digital Transformation
In today’s hyper-digitized world, it is safe to say that access to new and emerging technologies has never been easier, more accessible, and more engaging. Every day, tech innovators, designers, and manufacturers are constructing new and exciting prototypes that challenge existing technology and improve existing technology. Consumers on the other hand, jump at the opportunity to implement new these technologies and gadgets into their daily lifestyles as soon as possible.
The digital transformation has never been more obvious than it is now. It has impacted and altered nearly every aspect of global society throughout the last several years. Businesses, corporations, and organizations have found themselves scrounging to keep up with the pace of technological innovation and those who miss the boat, often find themselves on the outside looking in. It is absolutely imperative that businesses, corporations, and organizations take the digital transformation in stride and whole-heartedly accept it as the way of the future.
In 2018 alone, through events like CES and the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, viewers all around the world had the opportunity to see some of the most cutting edge technological innovations that the world has ever seen. In fact, many of the technologies and gadgets showcased at CES were implemented in a real-world application during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Among these, visitors were guided by AI-driven robots throughout airports and other mass transit stations and viewers at home had the ability to witness the Winter games with VR technology. Needless to say, digital technology is among us and businesses must ensure that they stay up to date with the current trends to ensure that their customers feel excited, energized, and engaged throughout their experiences.
Why Is The Digital Transformation Inevitable For Businesses?
It has become nearly impossible for businesses to avoid the digital transformation. This is purely due to the fact that consumers are the ones effectively driving the transformation. Consumers want to see new and exciting technologies as often as possible, and even more so, they want easy access to these technologies at any given moment. When taking into account the psychological attraction that the digital transformation has on consumers, it would be ignorant to assume that businesses are immune to its effects.
In 2018 alone, we have witnessed massive business mergers, bankruptcies, and employee layoffs mostly due to a business’ inability to either adapt or implement new technologies throughout their business practices, effectively driving consumers away for the lack of an up to date customer experience.
What Exactly Does “Digital Transformation” Mean?
Digital Transformation is essentially a technology empowered business strategy impacts nearly every aspect of a business to effectively transform it into a fully up to date digital entity. The purpose of implementing a digital transformation strategy is to reduce the gap between the expectations of customers and what business can actually deliver.
The current digital trends fuel the streams from marketing initiatives to warehouse management, to supply chains, to product management, to operations and even sales. All of these streams are connected to and could potentially influence customer experience greatly. Although, every business maintains its unique needs and agendas, every business must fully acknowledge and understand this relationship. In order to effectively implement a digital transformation, businesses must ensure that the customer experience is maintained at all costs, if not enhanced completely.
Now is the time for businesses, corporations, and organizations to invest in new and innovative digital technologies to facilitate a digital transformation. According to IDC, the spending on digital transformations will reach $1.7 trillion by 2019 around the world – a staggering 42% increase from 2017. This statistic alone shows just how crucial businesses are viewing this investment; if they want to survive, they must keep up with digital technology trends.
Customer Experience Statistics For Every Business To Make Note Of:
- 89% of customers switch brands due to poor customer experience.
- 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.
- 97% of executives believe delivering a great customer experience is critical to success.
- 57% of a purchase decision is already complete by the time your customers actually engage with you.
- 42% of service agents aren’t able to efficiently resolve issues because of disconnected systems.
- Businesses managing best-in-class customer experience report customer profit margin improvements by 527% every year and increases in company revenue by 359%
- 85% of customer experience will occur without human interaction by 2020.
- 95% of buyers choose the brand that offers relevant and ample information to guide through the buying journey.
- By 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality.
(Stat sources: Oracle report, HBR, IDC, Gartner, The Huffington Post)
Here Are 4 Ways That Businesses Can Stay Up To Date During The Digital Transformation:
Is is imperative that business interpret and analyze modern consumer behavior and adjust their models accordingly to ensure their customer experience remains successful.
- ***Integrate Technology In Every Business Process
Enterprises need to fuel their businesses with modern technology. Modern technology applications can be applied to everything from IT, to security, to the supply chain, and to the workforce. Digital tech like Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and data analytics can be easily applied to effectively streamline nearly every aspect of a business.
While not all of these technologies need to be implemented immediately, it is important to at least be cognizant of the potential impacts they can have on a business.
- ***Build A Customer Centric Business Culture
Customer Centric Culture should be in DNA of any modern business. Organizational culture should be built around customer experience. According to HBR, 90% of executives see ‘customer centric culture’ as a necessity for delivering and developing the best customer experiences.
When implementing a digital transformation, it is crucial for businesses to ensure their customer experience remains intact, if not enhanced completely.
- ***Leaders Should Engage With Customers
Business leaders and executives must be sure to remain fully involved in the organization’s culture. Leaders must also place a heavy emphasis on a customer centric culture to ensure that customer experiences remain positive and successful.
This could be achieved simply by reaching out to customers personally, devising new strategies to target customer experiences, staying in close contact with lower management to ensure that culture is followed, etc.
- ***Implement Technology To Understand Consumers
Big data and data analytics have become the new norm in terms of modern businesses. Not only does this information allow businesses to effectively market and advertise to a target customer base, it also allows businesses to follow closely and understand trends in the market.
This information is priceless when it comes to maintaining a successful customer experience. Businesses should use data analytics to ensure customer experience remains positive and successful and to make any adjustments necessary to do so.
Thank you for reading this article, please reach out to me directly if you have any questions.
All the best,
Patrick J Peters III
Chief Marketing Officer
JUMP450.com
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