Nearly everyone now carries a smartphone with them, and every day they use these devices to determine which products and brands are the best fit for their needs.
Contrary to popular belief, the smartphone phenomenon poses a number of potential dilemmas for companies. And, without a path towards digital transformation, some companies may cease to exist. Companies are often slow to play catch up, and several developments in our digital world do not happen easily or affordably.
Customer experience is in a state of flux. Our current economy is one based on experience. Consumers rate how brands are experienced foremost, and more than ever. This phenomenon encompasses online and offline stores, as well as social media and other possible points of contact. Most organizations agree that customer satisfaction seems to be the primary way to distinguish them from their counterparts.
The drawback is that the time frame to change is shrinking rapidly. A negative experience is often a silent killer. Customers may not always tell you why they have stopped shopping with your company. Many customers who leave because of a disappointing experience will completely disappear without making a fuss, rendering you uninformed.
The important thing is to design a customer experience from the ground up. Your aim must be to concentrate on the buyer’s journey. Instead of just trying to win business, you can keep customers happy, if you customize the touchpoints throughout this ride. As a result, revenue and productivity can be expanded, leading to sustained growth.
Look at your current buyer’s journey, and turn it into an art form by enhancing the customer’s level of enjoyment at each interaction.
Many companies are simply resistant to change. How many people do you know who enjoy change? Chances are, not many. Change can induce a wide variety of emotions, many of them may even be quite scary. Transition can cause anxiety in most people, even if the transition is something quite positive.
Employees may wonder if their role or identity within the company will change and how any such change might impact their personal or family’s financial security.
But, even with digital transformation, not everyone’s careers will change—they will only be enhanced for optimization. On the other hand, digital transformation is a disruptor. Truth be told, when times are changing, you must change along with it. Staying the same is much riskier.
There are many consequences that stem from the resistance to change. If there is a strong resistance to change, then this can impact the potential for funding of digital projects in the future—the kind that are critical for a company to remain relevant in the digital age.
Another challenge is the fact that many organizations aren’t prepared for the fatigue that occurs after the project is fully implemented. It can be exhausting. Digital transformation requires consistent effort and interactions between people, machines, and processes.
These days, shopping isn’t as simple as walking into a store and making a purchase. Customers jump between channels. They can browse your website, view your products on handheld devices, or even walk through your store just to feel the product then make the purchase digitally. Why wait in line at a cash register and worry about hauling products home when they can tap a button for front-door delivery? The omnichannel shopper is what we all are these days. It’s a phenomenon that isn’t going anywhere.
If you have historically focused on in-person purchases, you may assume that you are protected from this sort of buyer. But, without a digital presence, you risk losing a mass of potential customers.
The resolution has two parts. You must compete on multiple service channels while developing your support concurrently as a one-stop-shop that facilitates a free-flowing customer experience from every point of contact.
This means expanding your business from solely brick-and-mortar to include digital sales. It also necessitates creating a broad range of support channels, then introducing a customer interaction network to support omnichannel.
Rethink how to achieve profits from the value you sell. With this in mind, a digital strategy offers both more flexibility and scalability. Still, it requires extensive testing and experimentation to find the model that works best for your type of business.