Business leaders are told they need to do a lot of things when it comes to technology. They need to build an app. They need an AI chatbot. They need more data. They need a social-media strategy.
In short: To better serve their customers, they need to go digital—and fast. But beyond buzzwords, what’s actually at stake in this transformation?
Today, across sectors—from finance to health care and public services—customers are increasingly connecting with companies and governments online, but they often encounter outdated or confusing systems that weren’t built with them in mind. This matters: When consumers can’t easily access what they need online, they’ll look elsewhere, leaving companies racing to digitize their experiences so they won’t get left behind.
This, perhaps, is truer now than ever before. In light of COVID-19, social distancing, and a widespread shift to remote work for much of the public, accessing goods and services digitally is simply the new reality. The pandemic has served as a shock across industries and accelerated the need to meet customers where they are: online.
To better understand the challenges that organizations face and help them plan their digital transitions, ServiceNow surveyed 600 global executives in an array of industries—including telecoms, health care, manufacturing, the public sector, and financial services—between February and March of 2020. They discovered that businesses have a lot of catching up to do. No matter what “the new normal” looks like following the coronavirus, how businesses digitally connect with the public will remain key to their success.
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And you’ll need to work fast to keep pace.
The percentage change that’s expected over the next three years as organizations digitize is staggering.
– Areas of best practice implemented today
– Their projected increase by 2023
Developing digital skills
PERCENTAGE CHANGE
+240%
Installing a customer-experience management system
PERCENTAGE CHANGE
+223%
Aligning experience with business goals
PERCENTAGE CHANGE
+247%
Identifying key customer touchpoints
PERCENTAGE CHANGE
+243%
Building an immersive and personalized experience
PERCENTAGE CHANGE
+239%
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What are the makings of a leader?
One essential component of a digital customer experience is maturity. Does a business know its key consumer touchpoints? Does it have a road map for implementing a customer-experience plan? Can it measure its impact on customers or create a single customer view? Based on the framework of the 11 best practices, only 27 percent of organizations surveyed could be categorized as “leaders” in this field.
Percentage of those surveyed who qualify as:
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To learn from leaders’ progress, companies should first prioritize identifying key customer touchpoints, which will then enable them to create the customer experience that fulfills their goals.
Percentage of leaders that have largely or fully implemented these areas of best practice to date:
Developing skills to create a digital customer experience
Installing a customer-experience management system
Aligning customer experience approaches with business goals
Identifying the touchpoints that matter most to customers
Building an immersive and personalized customer experience
As businesses seek to bridge the digital maturity gap, they need to keep their customers at front of mind. This isn’t just to gain a competitive edge—it’s to keep up. ServiceNow believes that developing a mature digital customer experience is key to the ongoing success of organizations across industries, and these survey insights reveal just how pressing the matter is. While many companies have made progress in this area, the divide between beginners and leaders is set to grow rapidly. Beginners also lack many of the skills needed to excel in customer experience, as well as a deeper understanding of their customer touchpoints to inform a digital road map moving forward.
Prioritizing this digitization has noteworthy benefits, too: Organizations report a positive return on investment as they mature their digital customer experience, plus greater customer loyalty and understanding of their audiences’ needs. The outlook is clear: Those who implement digital solutions today to better serve their customers will be ready for what’s next—not only enabling them to succeed in the future but also to advance in the present.
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