Countless mentions of “digital transformation” gets us no closer to a clear understanding of what it is and its impact across an organization. Even more frightening, it seems that “digital transformation” is in itself transforming.
Thankfully, customer experience futurist Blake Morgan brings more clarity in her latest webinar, Accelerating Digital Transformation to Enable Effortless Experiences. In this webinar hosted by TTEC, she identifies what approaches companies need to consider to deliver a more manageable, faster, and human digital experience.
Here are five key takeaways on how to create an effortless customer and employee experience:
#1: Make it customer-centric
Customer experience cannot be confined to one department or leader. It should permeate the entire organization’s culture. The idea that every action should benefit the customer is one that leaders should champion daily.
Companies like Amazon are successful because customer-centricity is ingrained in their culture and influence all of their products and services. Jeff Bezos famously reserves an empty seat for the customer in every meeting to make sure they are represented in every decision that Amazon makes. Simplicity and ease for the customer during every step of their journey is critical to success.
How to apply digital transformation: Invest in the back-end systems that connect people, process, and technology and enable your products and services to get to your customers efficiently. For example, with curbside pickup and home delivery on the rise, consider modernizing delivery systems to make it easier for your customers to get the same brand experience without ever stepping foot in a location.
But don’t forget, the digital journey needs to be as much about the employee experience as the customer. Make it clear to your employees how digital transformation will help them to achieve more instead of instilling the fear of being replaced by technology.
It’s important to recognize that this can be a new and complicated journey for many. Take the small steps to make employees more comfortable.
#2: Become seamless inside and out
Breaking down siloes may be a tired call to action, but it’s key that your customers don’t feel like they are dealing with a different organization with each interaction. Connecting silos is easier said than done, but the biggest obstacle to an effortless digital experience is siloed departments that do not communicate and coordinate with one another. And it’s especially challenging to a future where remote work may physically divide us more than ever.
How to apply digital transformation: What department owns the customer experience? Realistically, it’s everyone. To ensure that customer experience doesn’t get stuck in an organizational silo, consider how different devices and channels can all work together to connect all points of the buyer’s journey into one seamless experience.
#3: Rethink leadership
Digital transformation is more than a technology issue; it’s a cultural issue. Management that is resistant to change can be one of your most significant threats to modernization, so it is critical to choose transformational leaders experienced with managing change.
“Transformational leadership” is composed of several traits:
- Energetic: They have the charisma to get a room excited for change with positivity.
- Neighborly: They are highly approachable. A neighborly leader is easy to share operational concerns or ideas with.
- Good judgment: Things will not always go according to plan. Leaders need to be able to call the shots when hardships arise for customers and employees.
- Problem-solving: Rather than resting on their laurels, leaders focus on solving current problems, while anticipating the challenges of the future.
- Go-getter: They build trust simply because they do what they say. Consistency in achieving goals is crucial when committing down the road to digitalization.
The leaders you choose need to be fully involved in the digital transformation journey. Pioneering brands need leaders who work on the ground floor with technology and understand what’s best for all departments, not just theirs.
How to apply digital transformation: Technology cannot be deployed for technology’s sake. Leaders need to consider how all choices down the road will impact everyone’s experience. It doesn’t need to be perfect at first, but no one should be left behind.
#4: Champion security accountability
Digital-driven business is far from a perfect world. Data leaks, scams, fraud, and misinformation are the all-too-real risks of a digital world.
How to apply digital transformation: Progressive companies create a code of ethics around what data privacy and security entail for their customer experience. A mishap can happen anytime, so there needs to be thoughtful preparation for what-if scenarios that emphasize accountability and empathy.
#5: Personalize now
Customers are willing to give away information if it means a more tailored experience. Data in exchange for personalization saves time and creates enjoyable moments of surprise.
Customers are becoming accustomed to brands that use machine learning and AI to create new content based on their past interactions and taste. These extremely personalized experiences serve up both familiar and unique experiences that create moments of delight and loyalty.
How to apply digital transformation: Utilizing technology to understand better your customers can create a very connected relationship between brands and people. Show them that you know them by turning data into actionable insight.
No time for hesitation
These times of uncertainty are incredibly stressful for customers and employees. Modern organizations must know how to deploy strategies and technologies that can make everyone’s lives easier.
For companies to survive, they must evolve. COVID-19 accelerated the move to digital, and every industry needs to keep pace.
If you wish to learn more about what it takes to deploy an effortless experience, listen to the full webinar, Accelerating Digital Transformation to Enable Effortless Experiences.
