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Using the Digital Transformation to Wow Your Customers

April 2017
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Towards the end of last year, it was no surprise that mobile web browsing had overtaken desktop for the first time. While many believed, this was merely another step closer to a mobile-first world, this is only half of the story.

The long and winding road to the promised land of the digital transformation should be the top priority of any strategic objective or corporate vision for the next few years. Understanding what your consumers want, feel, think and are talking about across multiple platforms both offline and online is becoming crucial to ensuring any business will thrive in a digital era.

A quick visit to the internet archives allows visitors to compare their website to how it looked 15 years ago and it perfectly illustrates just how much more visual the web has now become. Our expectation levels have also increased dramatically where we can order an Uber, meal or hotel room within just a couple swipes of our smartphone screen.

The Adobe Summit in Vegas heavily focussed on the importance of becoming an “Experience” business. Building a digital ecosystem, and changing your corporate culture to deliver meaningful, personalized experiences will only exacerbate this customer requirement as we continue to progress.

Unfortunately for many, this cannot be achieved by just throwing money and technology at the problem. A complete understanding of consumer needs and meeting them in real-time will be a daunting challenge for many.

You have to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology – Steve Jobs

It’s time to tear down the barriers that have traditionally existed between IT and the other departments within an organization. Internal collaboration is critical to ensuring that everyone works together and embraces technology to have any chance of achieving business goals.

When thinking of game-changing technology, I suspect that many of you reading this would not think of Pizza. However, Dominos are a perfect example of how to lead the way forward in the digital transformation by reinventing the customer experience and ensuring their brand stands out from the crowd.

Dominos are simply ensuring that it is as easy as possible to place an order on multiple platforms with minimal effort. You can place an order by using voice commands in a conversation with Amazon Alexa, choose from the full menu on the Facebook Messenger platform or by just sending a pizza slice emoji in a text message. How many other Pizza delivery companies do you know that offer this kind of seamless experience?

Another great example is the Carnival Cruise Line. The ability to provide a completely personalized cruise experience for every guest proves that it’s possible even to take a high-tech adventure to sea too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMKn85wfJEA&t=180s

The Medallion room key enables guests to control every aspect of their onboard experience. There is an incredible network of 4,000 high-res 55-inch screens located throughout the ship that offers wayfinding and the ability anything that appeals to you as you gently stroll around the ship.

There are also over 7,000 sensors on board the ship that will personalize the temperature and lighting automatically based on your preferences. Most noticeable is that lack of smartphones or apps by opting instead for a wearable that keeps things easy and most importantly seamless during their stay.

Although the concept might feel a little too intrusive or borderline creepy now. But, early adopting businesses are finding that many consumers are happy to sacrifice personal information in exchange for unprecedented levels of personalization to simplify their experience.

These new services are becoming our new benchmark and perfectly illustrates how preserving the status quote should not be a strategy. If we look around, almost every person you see is face down in a mobile device. If your brand is not providing a digital experience, it will soon become invisible, and this is a reality that we need to face and tackle head on.

Consumers now have increasingly sophisticated expectations and are demanding the same experiences on any device or location. As the lines between offline and online begin to disappear, it’s time for businesses to embrace new technology and analytics that could transform what they do across the digital landscape.

However, it’s also important to remember that an entirely new cultural mindset is required to ensure your ambitions do not result in just another IT project. Ultimately, legacy thinking is just as damaging to an organisation as old technology.

A recent report by Data Dimensions revealed that just one in 10 organizations (9.5%) consider their digital business strategy to be optimized and ready for the digital transformation. However, 81% of organizations questioned believe that customer experience is a competitive differentiator. The survey also highlighted how those questioned believed that a new digital strategy could increase customer loyalty (92%), an uplift in revenue (84%) and cost savings (79%).

In a digital world where customer experiences are the new rock n roll, businesses need to lead the way with technology to truly wow their customers. Expectation levels now demand a simplified shopping experience with seamless functionality, reliability, and speed across a plethora of devices.

A stylish but effective online presence is crucial to gain both visibility and trust across multiple competitive channels. But, this is not a path that you need to tread alone. Our team understands the importance of a fully-functional and trustworthy e-commerce website. If you would like to enhance your customers online experience, why not give us a call for a friendly chat on how we can help transform your business.

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