Digital Transformation to Weave Engaging Customer Experience Futuristic technology combined with tasteful customer experience is what has made digital transformation as a luring strategy for businesses
By Sriram Manoharan •
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Since 2014, board rooms and cafe discussions have been revolving around some terms that were literally non-existent a decade ago. "Digital Transformation", "Tech Disruption", "Customer experience", etc. are some such terms what we are hinting at.
Think of these digital companies - Alibaba, Airbnb, Uber, Amazon and Facebook. Did these companies exist a decade ago? They have sprouted up within few years and have merged to become one with our daily lives. They have climbed to the pinnacle of success with the power of digital transformation.
It is not just technology and innovation anymore. Futuristic technology combined with tasteful customer experience is what has made the digital transformation as a luring strategy for businesses.
Constantly evolving digital landscape and business technology adaptation has accelerated the need for business transformation. Unlike before, the word Digital Transformation itself is making CIOs and CTOs sit up and pay close attention. They want to know how it can amplify their business volumes and efficiency by putting customer experience as the centerpiece.
Getting On-board The Digital Transformation Journey:
Transiting from an existing process to a Digital process requires a business-wide participation. The lead should come from the top levels. There are several challenges to digital transformation. It cannot be implemented right away without having the cooperation of all the stakeholders.
Most importantly, the transformation must have a vision. A study conducted by Organic pointed out that the C-suit lacking a long-term vision for digital transformation is the prime reason why desired results could not be achieved.
The Building Blocks of Digital Transformation:
Cloud, Data, Mobile, and Things are the core building blocks that facilitate digital transformation. The good news is that they are easily available today and with affordability. Even startups can venture into digital transformation with an alacrity that was once reserved only for the big players.
Rampant growth in mobile networks and mobile usage are big facilitators for digital transformation. With mobile apps and web solutions, businesses with a vision can easily penetrate their target markets and gain new insights about their customers and their preferences.
Even better, these technologies will also help businesses explore new revenue contributing models through the digital transformation that were inaccessible before.
Leveraging Multiple Customer Touch Points:
Today's customers can be reached through multiple mediums. From social media to instant messaging and the good old voice telephony, digital communication has created several customer touch points. For businesses, these touch points are excellent avenues to magnify customer experience.
Take, for instance, travel and tourism. Mobile apps enabled with augmented reality and GPS navigation are helping travelers find news way of exploring unknown destinations with ease. Hyundai has used the same AR technology to digitize its vehicle manuals. Vehicle owners just have to point their smartphone camera at the vehicle part to get detailed instruction for repair or maintenance.
Reengineering Business Processes Through Connected "Things'
Digital transformation is not limited to any customer-centric processes. Behind the scenes tasks like manufacturing can also gain significantly from digital transformation. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is enabling manufacturers to automate critical processes thereby save costs and improve equipment efficiency.
IoT can help alert plausible equipment problems and instruct actuators to take proactive measures to contain downtimes. IoT-enabled Digital Transformation can also help manufacturers cut down their fuel/energy consumption through smart monitoring of idle equipment. All it takes is to convert everyday "Things' by attaching a sensor that will stream data to receptors.
We are in that phase of technology evolution where market disruptions are largely muscled by digital transformation. This term won't be alien to many anymore. It will become commonplace and well-acquainted as how Internet and smartphones have come to be in daily life. Those organizations who catch up with the digital transformation tide only will survive and thrive.
