In the last few months, I noticed a remarkable shift in businesses from cost to growth. In 2020 digital transformation mainly focused on cost efficiencies and labor arbitrage. This year it is all about growth, digital customer experience, and better employee experience. Economic expansion and labor shortage create great opportunities for companies with a digital-first mindset.
Let’s see what’s happening.
In the last few weeks, I was in several discussions on the topic of digital transformation. The conversations were very different from last year. In 2020 most companies’ digital programs addressed cost reduction, process efficiencies, and making sense of the supply chain disruption. Healthcare companies dedicated most of their digital energies to drug discovery, drug and supply distribution, and even using machine learning to optimize hospital resources. Banks were digitizing their customer onboarding sites to deal with the massive surge in business loans, mortgage applications, and unemployment benefits.
This year it has become something entirely different. It is all about digital customer and employee experiences.
As all of us used more digital services and tools during 2020, the business processes became more digital as a result. We have come to expect the speed and insight of digital interactions in all our touchpoints.
I refinanced our home recently and several banks offered a digital-only loan process. No human interaction. No documents to send. AI and Machine learning throughout. Research shows that the consumer digital experience is what most of us now expect in all of our touchpoints with the brands. 30-50% of people would walk away from a business if the initial digital interaction was substandard. 50%. And consumers expect a digital-like experience in all channels.
I would summarize it like this:
Know me but don’t share my data
Personalization and privacy now go hand in hand. We expect the business to know our preferences, purchase history, and anticipate our needs. On the other hand, we do not want them to share these preferences without our permission. Most brands now understand that selling their customer data is far less valuable than knowing their customers for better service, upsell and cross-sell. Personalization wins customers at scale. Digital technologies in marketing, machine learning, analytics, and automation are all building on this trend.
Make it easy for me on all channels
It takes 10 minutes to get a trading account on Robinhood. It took me 10 minutes to complete a mortgage process with Amerisave. Digital-first is digital fast. If you cannot onboard customers in 10 minutes, you may lose 30-50 percent of them. Most businesses still do not appreciate how many digital expectations accelerated last year. They are finding out now.
Make it valuable
Price is table stakes. In today’s business, you cannot hide your price. Customers expect us to deliver price PLUS. The plus needs to be what we discussed earlier. Personalization and ease of doing business. If digital customers abandon your shopping cart or disengage from a negotiation, the reason is simple. You do not understand their needs, or you are making the process too hard.
I believe customers compare all customer experiences against their digital experience. The best speed, personalization, and price you can deliver on the digital channel should be the one you deliver on all channels.
In 2021, we have the added factor of dealing with the same digital consumer expectations in the workplace. Employee experience is now the same as consumer experience. Many companies found that employees no longer want to return to jobs that are unnecessary complex, manual and ineffective. We are seeing the rapid growth of digital employee assistants, chatbots, and various forms of intelligent automation to free people up from mindless robotic tasks. Some companies experiment with matching workflows to the personal strength of their staff. In the same way, people will self-select to in-office and remote work, they will choose the kinds of tasks that maximize their potential. And leave companies that do not provide them with digital enablement.
The most profound change post-pandemic may be the massive shift in digital preferences of consumers and employees alike.
Businesses that create capabilities to personalize their offerings, deliver at digital speed, and make it easy to interact will win. And they will win hands down.
