According to a November 2021 Statista report, digital transformation spending in the U.S. is expected to reach $1.8 trillion in 2022 and $2.8 trillion by 2025. These statistics underscore why digital transformation has become a priority for every organization.
While digital transformation plays a significant role in improving internal operations, the pandemic has dramatically shifted the focus of the customer experience. Spurred by today’s “work from anywhere” business culture, today’s customers demand greater digitization of business functions and deliverables. A Salesforce article on customer engagement found that 83 percent of customers now expect immediate engagement upon contacting a company, with 70 percent placing more value on convenience than branding.
Driving customer success through digitization
Digital transformation can be daunting. It requires a sizable investment of time, planning, and money. But the return on investment is customer satisfaction and loyalty if your initiative is implemented effectively. Here are five ways digital transformation can drive customer success:
1. Breaking down information silos to mine valuable customer data
Technology has opened the door to a wealth of untapped knowledge. It is a main driver and tool that enables you to better understand your customers’ wants, needs, and behaviors at every touchpoint of the user experience.
[Also read: Automation and digital transformation: 3 ways they go together.]
A Pricewaterhouse Cooper customer experience report found that one in three customers will leave a brand after a single bad experience, even if they previously loved that brand.
The better you know your customer, the more you can enhance their experience. Use this data to further fine-tune their experience, meet their preferences, understand their pain points, and get a complete customer profile to ensure a higher, more successful level of engagement.
2. Creating better diagnostics and monitoring for faster remediation of issues
Today’s technology has conditioned us to expect an immediate response or resolution to performance or user experience issues. Any lapse can jeopardize customer retention as well as your reputation.
Digital transformation answers customers’ demand for fast, effective response and remediation of their issues. Ensure that your digital transformation mandate includes technology that can pull data from organizational silos into one central dashboard in real-time as well as spot trends in activity, downtimes, and more. This will give your IT department a big-picture view and enable them to pinpoint specific issues and geographic areas most affected for immediate response and resolution.
More refined diagnostics also provide a historical log to aid in long-term planning, subsequent product and service developments, and potential issues that could affect business and/or customer service – all of which contribute to the sustainability and strength of your organization.
3. Fostering more personalized customer engagement
The more you engage with your customers, the more likely they are to continue doing business with your organization. They’re also inclined to spend more and provide more value to your business.
Much of the power of digital transformation lies in its ability to heighten customer engagement. For example, immediacy in answering and fulfilling customer requests boosts high engagement. Moreover, digitalization allows customers to access functions, complete transactions, and initiate communication anytime and anywhere, enhancing the convenience and speed of requests.
Enabling customers to define their personal communication preferences, billing choices, and other options further enhances customer service. The aforementioned Salesforce article also noted that 66 percent of customers expect organizations to understand their needs and wants, with 52 percent expecting personalization of products and services.
4. Providing higher levels of service to customers
Not only must your products and services consistently perform at a high level, but the customer experience itself should be exceptional. In addition to enabling faster remediation of issues, 24/7 service, and greater personalization of products and services, digital transformation will help your organization build a relationship with each customer. This will help you more efficiently bridge customers’ needs and wants to create a seamless experience. More frequent communications, such as shipping and maintenance updates and new product releases and promotions, increase customer touchpoints.
Gamification also provides a powerful way to deliver customer service and engagement. Algorithms for customer behavior analysis that lie within gamification technology can help your business determine and respond to preferences, biases, and other motivators and conduct. This enables you to better engage and manage your customers, making them feel like a human, not a number.
5. Delivering a seamless, instant experience to increase the sales transaction
To create a seamless customer experience, every facet of your organization must operate together to prioritize customer satisfaction quickly and effectively. Even if your organization has the most exemplary customer service team in place, if the IT department can’t keep your e-commerce website or cloud computing operating efficiently, no amount of attentive customer service will keep your customers engaged.
An effective digital transformation program ensures that all touchpoints in the organization streamline their operations and create a continuous, unified experience for the customer. It also will serve as a conduit for information-sharing and knowledge management between departments, eliminating information silos that can create bottlenecks in the customer experience.
Digital transformation is an integral part of ensuring customer satisfaction and success. It has highlighted the importance of all parts of an organization operating efficiently and collaboratively to create a clear and convincing path from initial customer contact to full customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Digital transformation fosters a culture of customer-centricity that goes beyond increasing market share, ultimately ensuring the longevity, financial success, and brand recognition of your organization. Implemented thoughtfully, it will reward your organization with a strong return on investment and even higher customer retention and business sustainability.
Digital transformation is where customer experience meets operational efficiencies. Investing in digital transformation puts your customer in the driver’s seat on the journey to a stronger, more viable organization.
[Where is your team's digital transformation work stalling? Get the eBook: What's slowing down your Digital Transformation? 8 questions to ask.]
