Customer experience and satisfaction have always been the cornerstone of every business.
That's why most organizations go to the extent of shifting the way they approach customers to meet their every need. It's always the customer who is in the driver's seat.
With the rise of new technologies such as mobile devices, machine learning, apps, and automation, customers' expectations changed drastically. From being conventional buyers, customers now desire to get what they want whenever and wherever they need it.
Now, businesses embrace technology to deliver a one-of-a-kind customer experience to keep up with modern-day buyers. Enter digital transformation, where companies integrate digital technology into all business aspects. It results in how a business operates and the value they deliver to its customers. Research shows that 35% of business executives claim that digital transformation helps them to meet customer expectations and improve operational efficiency.
So, if you want to understand better what digital transformation is and how it drives customer experience, we're here to help.
The ‘Digital-First’ Approach
To achieve the satisfaction of modern-day buyers, companies need to integrate a 'digital-first' approach. But what exactly is 'digital-first'?
'Digital-first' refers to the importance of a diverse strategy that allows digital elements to create a better customer experience. This approach combines customers' experiences with digital trends and how businesses innovate new products and services. Here are some ways you can approach customers through a 'digital-first' strategy:
- Replace cold calling with social selling. Customers are now active on social media, so your presence must be on these social networking sites. You must not wait for them to contact you first, reach out to them and build a relationship with them. This way, you can know them enough to see the solutions to their problem.
- Reduce your spending on offline marketing activities. Customers expect highly-targeted messages. The only way to achieve that is through a data-driven marketing strategy. Incorporate digital channels in your business, such as search engine marketing, account-based marketing, and email marketing.
- Be proactive, not reactive. Help your customers the way they approach this digital era. That means you must be active in social media, review sites, and forums, as these are all now part of the customer service ecosystem.
Digital Transformation Strategies To Improve Customer Experience
Digital transformation is an essential part of ensuring customer satisfaction and success. It's about the new approach businesses create to provide a consistent experience to their customers. The companies that shift digitally are creating highly engaged customers. These customers are most likely to try new products and services from these companies, refer your brand to their family and friends, and purchase something even when a competitor has a better product or price. In return, businesses enjoy tangible benefits like increased revenue and growth opportunities.
Create A Roadmap
The business world is fast-paced because of the rapid digital changes and innovations. Businesses must create a long-term strategy to adapt to the evolving and advancing technologies. So as a first step, it is essential to define your goals. You must plan which technologies to adopt that suit your business's nature and resources while also strategizing protection from digital disruption.
This process should also include customer data and track customer experience. Also, define investment in your roadmap. Businesses must spend on training and giving continuous support to IT. Personalize Your Customers' Experiences
Modern-day buyers are more likely to purchase from businesses that treat them as unique individuals. One that recognizes them by their name, knows their purchase history and recommends products based on past purchases. Customers are satisfied when organizations use and protect their data to improve their services.
But to achieve that, you must invest in Customer Relationship Management
CRM is the core of every business. It is a helpful software to evaluate and analyze the information of your customers, their purchase history, and behavior. It compiles the history of how they previously interacted with your business. Through CRM, you can better understand their preferences, know their pain points, and get a customer profile to create a more personalized experience for them.
Integrate an agile and flexible IT environment
Most businesses claim that having the right technologies is essential in digital transformation. Hence, the cloud technology. The cloud allows companies to be agile, dynamic, and flexible to fulfill customer demands swiftly. This solution also opens companies to test cost-effective and low-risk projects.
By using cloud technology, you can collect information on customers and learn why your customers do business with you so you can improve their lifetime value.
Create a Seamless Multi-Channel Experience
The rise of technology has shifted customers' demands and expectations. They are now empowered to get what they want whenever and wherever they want. Also, most of them expect an immediate engagement when contacting a company. Research shows that 70% of consumers nowadays place more value on convenience than branding.
Everything is happening in real-time. With this, more companies allowed themselves to be accessible 24/7 to meet customers' demands. That's why companies that offer immediacy, personalization, and accessibility are more likely to win in the long run.
Customers also want familiarity even with the luxury of multiple channels. Tying all the interactions on different social platforms allows you to create a single digital profile every time a customer interacts with your business.
Conclusion
In today's always-connected society, companies consider transforming digitally, if they haven't already. After all, this allows them to engage with modern-day consumers and deliver their expectations seamlessly.
Digital transformation prioritizes a customer-centric culture and combines customer experience and operational efficiencies. If correctly implemented, it will reward your business with ROI, higher customer retention, and business sustainability.
Just follow the strategies above and be courageous to do a trial and error and see what works best for your company's resources and budget.
About the Author: Sophia Young
Sophia recently quit a non-writing job to finally be able to tell stories and paint the world through her words. She loves talking about fashion and weddings and travel, but she can also easily kick ass with a thousand-word article about the latest marketing and business trends, finance-related topics, and can probably even whip up a nice heart-warming article about family life. She can totally go from fashion guru to your friendly neighborhood cat lady with mean budgeting skills and home tips real quick.