We would all like to believe our customers will give us a pass this year due to COVID-19. Unfortunately, the disruption of 2020 has had largely the opposite effect on customer sentiment and their demand for new products, services, and digital experiences. 

In fact, organisations are now being asked to provide entirely different experiences to their customers with less resources. According to Forrester research, 37% of consumers now say they would prefer to satisfy their core needs while staying indoors, including working, socialising, consuming media, and making purchases. 

At the same time, the experiences our employees expect have also changed dramatically. We know that 36% of those working from home this year said they would prefer to continue to work from home after the pandemic is over. In Australia, 52% of people report being more loyal to their employer as a result of remote work, while also being more productive (59%) and efficient (48%). 

Whether it’s our external or internal customers, it’s essential to understand the digital experiences we're expected to provide. Understanding customers and anticipating their needs is the new frontier for businesses seeking to create new offerings, tailored experiences, and optimised supply chains in rapidly changing markets. 

Customer-to-company: experience and engagement  

The digital experiences we offer customers are no longer just an extension of your brand — they are your brand in your customers’ eyes. Building an excellent digital brand in a crowded marketplace requires an increased focus on personalised experiences and streamlined customer journeys. 

To achieve this, organisations need to collect, organise, and analyse meaningful and actionable data across every internal system and customer touchpoint. Your unique data strategy should consider: 

  • Integration platforms that enable real-time connectivity between customer and supply chain platforms to provide a seamless customer experience. 

  • Customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms that empower teams with centralised customer data and workflows to deliver continuous, personalised experiences. 

  • Data analytics for enabling real-time visualisation and insights of customer interactions and behaviour changes across all channels and touchpoints. 

Employee-to-company: productivity and collaboration 

Our employees also expect to be empowered with the best available tools for remaining productive and engaged in their work. As much as our customers increasingly rely on digital interfaces, it’s our employees who bring together customer data and manage our supply chains behind the scenes. 

Empowering our workforce requires a strategy for ensuring they can continue delivering excellent services to customers. This also requires contingencies for ensuring they can cope with remote work arrangements and unexpected surges in customer demand. Achieving this level of agile productivity requires: 

  • Streamlined workflows and tools that enable workers to seamlessly manage customer touchpoints and supply chains. 

  • Collaborative applications that enable project teams to work together on cross-functional projects in real time. 

  • Infrastructure and device environments that allow workers to continue executing tasks and serving customers from any location. 

Achieving all these priorities requires a well-considered plan that matches each digital transformation objective to your technology budgets. 

At Datacom, we’re here to partner with you on these crucial phases of your digital transformation. Through our consulting and advisory services, we can help you develop an immediate roadmap towards delivering seamless customer experiences and engaging employee experiences. 

Related industries
Technology
Related solutions
Advisory & consulting