digital transformation in business and CX

Digital Transformation in Business and CX

By now, everyone has heard about the Digital Revolution. Within the ICT industry, terms like ‘Digital Revolution’ and ‘digital transformation’ have even become somewhat of a catch phrase.

However, the true Digital Revolution is exciting and dynamic – with self-driving cars, 5G data networks and VR all forming part of our ever-changing landscape. Digital transformation in business and CX management is all about understanding how this developing technology affects the way companies operate.

Digital Revolution vs Digital Transformation

Digital Revolution and digital transformation are related, but these aren’t entirely interchangeable terms.

It’s undeniable that technology has, in fact, revolutionised modern living. The Digital Revolution is a historical event based on the development of technology as a whole. It marks the shift from mechanical and analog technologies, to digital devices and computers.

The Digital Revolution is an ongoing, multi-faceted period in human history. It started in the mid-20th century and is still taking place today. Specific periods of the Digital Revolution have been of particular note, such as the inception of the internet.

The internet brought about the Information Age – where enhanced global connectivity allowed ordinary people the world over to share knowledge and ideas with ease.

what is digital transformation?

Digital transformation is just one part of the ongoing Digital Revolution. Specifically, digital transformation refers to businesses adopting new technologies to optimise non-digital processes, or replacing old technologies with newer options.

Although digital transformation in business is part of the ongoing Digital Revolution, the Digital Revolution is about more than the way we do business. Many new technologies that affect everyday life, also affect the way business operates.

Communication in the Information Age

As stated, the Information Age came about as a result of the internet. Communication is a key aspect driving the Information Age.

At its core, the internet connects us. It allows for easier sharing of ideas and knowledge which, in turn, allows information to be readily available to anyone at any time.

“What should be clear, is that communication is one of the core driving factors of both the Digital Revolution and digital transformation.”

Social media, email, online forums, instant messengers and web articles are all mediums people use to communicate and share ideas. What should be clear, is that communication is one of the core driving factors of both the Digital Revolution and digital transformation.

Considering the considerable role of communication in digital transformation, it’s clear that adapting technologically requires businesses to rethink the way they interact with customers. Enhanced customer communication is one of the cornerstones of current digital transformation trends.

CX and Digital Transformation in Business

There are many obvious examples of how connectivity has shaped business via the internet such as:

  • The rise of eCommerce and online purchasing
  • Search engines replacing business indexes such as phonebooks
  • Social media providing new channels for customer service, networking and marketing

An online business presence was always a benefit in the past, but nowadays it’s a must. Customers expect to find and communicate with your business across multiple channels such as phone calls, social media, email, IM and web chat.

“Customers expect to find and communicate with your business across multiple channels such as phone calls, social media, email, IM and web chat.”

With high customer expectations, managing customer experience resources optimally is one of the largest challenges modern businesses face. Ensuring adequate service delivery across each communication channel is essential to providing consistent customer experience.

There are various ways businesses can digitally transform CX management for improved results.

Technology to Improve and Modernise CX

Digital revolution in business has shaped CX to allow for efficiency and convenience. Through different solutions, managing an effective customer experience strategy is now easier than ever before.

Here are just a few examples of solutions your business can take advantage of for improved CX management.

 Omnichannel Solutions

Omnichannel solutions allow customer service agents to access tickets and customer feedback from various communication channels (social media, email, web chat, IM etc.) on one interface.

By allowing agents to respond to customers from a central dashboard, your business won’t need to have dedicated agents for different platforms. The use of an omnichannel CRM tool also allows your business more control over the CX process through enhanced analytics and agent monitoring.

Web Chatbots

Web chatbots are a great way to provide customers with an easy way to communicate with your business via your website. Chatbots are able to ease workload on customer service staff by providing feedback on certain customer queries.

For instance, chatbots can assist in customer service through linking customers to relevant resources when asked questions via the chat interface. Doing this allows customers to self-service and access important information more easily.

When it comes to chatbots, there’s a distinction between AI bots and regular chatbots. AI bots process information through machine learning and build off previous interactions to improve the feedback they deliver.

Regular chatbots, on the other hand, are pre-programmed to provide specific feedback. While AI chatbots show great promise in enhancing customer service, even regular web chatbots can improve customer self-service significantly.

That said, customers must always be given the option to connect with a real customer service agent through your web chat interface. Limiting customers to chatbots will make your business appear unwilling to connect with its customers in-person.

Cloud Telephony

As the name implies, could telephony is a branch of telephony solutions hosted in the cloud. Through the use of cloud telephony, many companies are able to use online soft phones rather than traditional on-premise PBX systems.

digital transformation cloud telephony

Online phone systems are called Internet Protocol (IP for short) PBX solutions. There are several benefits to using an IP-PBX solution for customer service contact centres:

  • Initial setup costs are lower, seeing as there’s no need to purchase hardware to implement an effective PBX.
  • Cloud solutions are highly scalable. Extensions can be added and removed as necessary.
  • Great voice quality.
  • Contact centre staff can work remotely.

Whereas on-premise PBX systems require proprietary phones and network wiring, customer service agents will only need a desktop (or laptop) and internet connectivity to access an IP-PBX solution.

While IP-PBX is a great alternative to on-premise solutions for many businesses, it’s still essential to ensure contact centre staff have sufficient internet access to allow for good call quality.

AI Speech Analytics

AI speech analytics is emerging as an outstanding tool to monitor contact centre performance.

AI analytics tools analyse speech during customer service phone calls in order to establish common customer complaints and monitor call service efficiency to for effective reporting.

The benefit of using AI analytics is that information collected for analysis is processed automatically through machine learning – reducing turnaround times on effective reporting and enhancing the efficiency in CX management.

AI speech analytics tools can also transcribe customer service calls through speech to text technology. This allows your business to easily keep a written record of all contact centre interactions.

Conclusion

Technology is constantly changing the way we view the world and do business. Since the Information Age, communication channels have diversified and become more sophisticated. This improved accessibility to communication has resulted in an increased customer demand for advanced CX solutions. By implementing new technologies, businesses can offer multiple customer support channels and manage them with ease.

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