Customer service has become a cornerstone for measuring a company’s legitimacy and its chances of survival in a challenging, competitive landscape. Top business experts and leaders worldwide are looking for ways to implement large-scale customer experience transformation across several spheres.
Fortunately, transforming consumer experience is achievable, however, the process requires a lot of planning and relevant implementations to streamline sales, services, and interactions with customers.
We recently conducted a poll on LinkedIn, asking our followers, “What does ‘Transforming Experiences’ mean to you?”
45% of respondents said they interpreted “transforming experiences” as enabling anytime, anywhere operations, and 28% responded with end-to-end customer journey enablement. It’s no surprise, especially during a disruptive global pandemic, that most organizations are focused on improving customer experience, uninterrupted business operations, and secure remote accessibility.
But the question is, how can enterprises transform the end-to-end experience for internal and external users?
Let’s see if the answer lies in digital transformation.
What is Digital Transformation Anyway?
In a separate poll, we asked our LinkedIn network what “Digital transformation should mean.” 38% of people responded with simplified work, while the rest of the respondents were split evenly between paperless operations (24%), new innovations (22%), and happy customers (16%).
All of them are right! Based on our experience over the past nearly three decades, we believe that effective digital transformation should involve:
- Enhancing your customer experience through omnichannel interactions and prompt communications
- Empowering your employees with tools to rapidly develop and update business applications
- Providing visibility, connectivity, and accessibility to your employees, across your end-to-end operations
- Implementing an agile IT infrastructure with new-age technologies that can grow with your company
Transforming Experiences through Digital Transformation
As “transformed experiences” is becoming a competitive differentiation, enterprises must accelerate their digital initiatives. In fact, analysts at Forrester said, “In 2021, we predict that companies will accelerate digital transformation with a focus on customers and the products, practices, platforms, partners, and places to sell to and serve them.” [1]
To us, “transforming experiences” means enabling anytime-anywhere operations, seamless customer journeys, omnichannel engagement, modernization of your existing IT systems, smooth collaboration, and more.
Why does Customer Experience Transformation Matter?
The post-pandemic era is all about the consumer experience. The downfall of traditional marketplaces and the simultaneous growth of online and service-based players revolutionized the market. The shift occurred at such a rapid pace that companies witnessed a behavioral change in consumer trends all around the world. Nowadays, more than the quality of the products received, customers, focus on the efficiency and convenience of the services performed.
So, the focus is now on transforming the experience of consumers, either through digital or physical means. The realignment of a company’s operative framework to better suit the demands of the global consumer base is, therefore, necessary. Failing to achieve that will hurt the company’s interests in the short run. The long-term impact will be even more severe, with the company perhaps even losing its footing in the industry and ultimately fading away.
Final Thoughts
There’s a reason why the customer service industry is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Companies are recognizing that the consumer mindset is now focused more on receiving streamlined sales and service experiences. All platforms, therefore, require a digital and physical customer experience transformation to rake in new clients and retain their loyal customers.
The key to surviving any competition is to have a dynamic framework. Transforming the company’s objectives to align with the transformation of consumer demands is the foundation of achieving a financially successful business.
