The number of publications in the media and events dedicated to digital transformation and the digital economy has increased this year compared to the previous year.
The situation with digital transformation is similar to the situation with blockchain and cryptocurrencies: there is a hippe, but most people do not understand what it is. Why is it so relevant to business? And what to do with it? Let’s deal with it.
Digital transformation is the change of external and internal communications of a company by means of digital technologies.
At the same time, digital transformation is not about the use of digital technologies for traditional business processes, but about fundamental changes in the processes and business models of the organization.
Fine, but this is all space, and where does an ordinary person face digital transformation?
When choosing products and services, Sasha asks additional questions to an online consultant or customer support team and gets angry when this is not possible.
If Sasha talks to the brand for the first or second time and cannot get an answer quickly, he will leave the site and go to study the competitors.
So, our average hero expects from online purchases:
- Convenience and simplicity over the entire length of the client’s journey. In addition to external factors such as UX and design, it is important for Sasha to know that he can contact the support team at any time and get answers to his questions.
- Personalization. Sasha wants to be recognized by the support staff, even as he changes devices and channels of communication with the brand.
- Continuity. Alexandra is annoyed when operators ask questions that he has already answered. He wants to continue the dialogue from where he left off last time.
It turns out that communication with the brand from the first touch to the purchase turns into a multistage journey of the client.
The customer needs to ask a few questions before making a purchase decision and the customer support team needs to answer them. The company responds with a word or an action – issuing a card, studying the client’s problem.
Digital transformation from a business perspective
The pool of issues that need to be addressed in a company’s digital transformation is transformed into a massive collection of issues: from workflow automation and analytics to data synchronization and cloud solutions. But no one said it would be easy.
Digital business transformation consists of two large blocks:
- Changing the processes of external and internal communications;
- Introduction of digital technologies into the company’s operations.
To meet all of Sashin’s requirements, you need seamless customer experience in all channels of communication. To provide this experience, a company needs to reengineer its processes and implement the appropriate tools.
This is why companies that serve a large number of consumers have become the first to digitize: banks, telecom operators, media, logistics companies and e-commerce.
For them, quality customer service is an additional value that directly affects the profit.
Uniqueness is the basis of digital transformation
Digital transformation affects three levels of business processes:
- user experience;
- Operational processes;
- business model.
Omnichannel communication is required to manage customer experience. It turns out that omnikalnosti is the core of digital transformation, without it the company will not be able to communicate with the client equally effectively at any point of contact.
Omnichannelnost – technology and communication in one bottle. Omnikahnalnosti satellites: new digital channels, chat bots, artificial intelligence. At this level, omnionicity is becoming an ecosystem of technologies and techniques built around customer-centric service.
Common moments of omnionicity and digital transformation
Seamless client path
The user uses multiple digital channels, switches from Facebook to email and then calls the support team. He jumps between the different communication channels and explains the problem in each of them all over again.
A business that is able to track and glue these fragments of customer communication into a single story gets a strong competitive advantage. This saves time and money.
Services and offers in digital channels
Digital transformation is a change of approach to doing business. To be commercially successful in the new global digitalization environment, it is necessary to sell products or services through the company’s digital channels.
All the technologies of the so-called third technological platform will help in this: from clouds and mobile services to Big Data and social media analytics.
Unique platforms unite all channels and make the work of managers as comfortable as possible. With their help, the company can maintain communication with customers in all existing digital channels according to a single standard.
Change of business processes and communication methods within the company
The main result of the digital transformation of internal communications processes in the company is their automation and synchronization. After the transformation, all divisions of the company work on the overall result.
The second wave of popularity of account-based marketing (ABM) is related to this. Its essence comes down to the fact that all departments of the company – especially marketing and sales – focus on strategic business goals and work together to achieve them.
Omnipresent customer service solutions help to set a common standard for digital channels and ultimately increase the efficiency of customer service. With the help of such IT-platforms it is possible to create a single environment for internal communications and synchronize the work of different departments of the company.
Digital transformation and customer service
The uniqueness is sewn into the most important part of digital transformation – the client experience, which can be digitized at two different levels.
Big data and analytics allow you to identify and better understand the needs of your customers, timely feedback in social networks – keep an eye on the pulse, work with negativity. Creating a community around the brand increases customer loyalty and engagement.
Usually user data and history are stored in CRM. Unique platforms can provide additional information about the client – they allow you to analyze communication with the client, understand his requests and on the basis of this enrich his user profile.
This is almost unique information that is difficult to obtain in other ways. Here opens up a huge field for future solutions to automate communications and personalize customer experience in real time: advertising software and Big Data with predictive analytics. So far, this trend is only gaining momentum in global marketing. If you are interested in cases can find them here.
Cross-channel consistency and self-service
Unique communication with the client on different platforms and in several digital channels allows the company to be constantly in touch and not to interrupt the user’s purchases. Automation of customer support during the customer journey and the possibility of full self-service are the latest trends in internet marketing.
In the near future digital channels will be integrated with self-service systems. So far, the development of this line of business has been constrained by the difficulty of developing solutions that require the use of high-tech technologies and expensive research programs.
B2b companies actively adopt the experience of b2c and completely rebuild their customer service for users. There is a paradigm shift in sales experience: today the business needs to create value for the goods or services for the client. First of all, it is expressed in quality and affordable customer service and comfortable customer travel.
Summary
If you realize you need digital tools and don’t even have a CRM, don’t panic. Follow the Japanese Kaizen method: gradually, in small steps, improve your business. Implementing all IT solutions is not an end in itself. Identify priorities and start automating the most important processes for your business.
The ability to communicate with the company with the help of any convenient channel, integration of various IT-solutions into a single system and support of the client all along his way is must have a client-oriented approach in the digital. Without this, the modern consumer will not be able to get to your smiling sales manager.
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