For the last twenty years, the world is rapidly getting computerized. The digital transformation process has become omnipresent, pervading many spheres of human activity. The power of IT is recognized by all businesses aspiring for expansion. If your company is aimed at success, using customer experience digital transformation to enhance the quality of service may be critical, especially in highly competitive environments.The ongoing epidemic only adds fuel to this drive. Local and global quarantine conditions limit many conventional ways of doing business. A lot of companies shut down at least temporarily. Today, no one asks if it’s worth going digital. Rather, the question stands on what areas and how quickly to digitalize. Typically, this headway is carried out along several mainstream directions.Dominant Trends in Digital TransformationA modern take on the digital revolution relies on several innovative technology trends.
1. Big Data
Although in the above digital transformation infographic it comes at the bottom, big data is one of the key factors in the present-day business analysis digital transformation. It is utilized for many purposes including surveying client preferences to create personalized offers, headhunting for the most fitting candidates, tracking customer requirements over social media, and dozens of other applications.
2. Cloud Software Deployment
According to HostingTribunal, some kind of cloud-hosted facilities are employed by 94% of modern enterprises. This allows companies to streamline their business processes, quickly deploying corporate apps/services, and providing high-quality customer support.
3. Digital Trade
Today, selling goods is increasingly an online venture, with more than two-thirds of consumers having experience of buying products digitally and 25% doing it on a regular basis. Consequently, sales teams leverage digital channels (social media being the most important) to attract the attention of prospective clients.
4. Customer Service
Going digital, companies can provide their clients with more satisfying methods of finding necessary merchandise or services and maintaining a close rapport with them.
5. Remote Work
Stats show that working from home reduces employee stress, the number of sick days, increases loyalty, and reduces remuneration expectancies. Additionally, this allows reducing office costs and greenhouse gas emissions.According to Gallup Media, by April 2020, around 30% of the American workforce was already working remotely and this number was building over the years. However, the steady progress of digital technologies was dramatically disturbed by the COVID-19 pandemic that broke loose in late 2019. Many trades can now operate only in conditions of remote cooperation with employees, suppliers, and customers. The same report states that during March 2020, already over 62% of workers operated remotely.
Another Side to the Plague
How digital technologies are transforming markets during COVID-19? The events of the last couple of months forced us to reconsider our perception of the world and our place in it. We have come to realize that our civilization, which we had thought to be secure and even rock-solid, turned out to be precariously fragile when faced with the attack of microscopic organisms. The realization came as a shock to many people, drastically albeit temporarily (as we hope) altering their social mores, relations, consumer practices, and working habits.No less overwhelming were the repercussions the COVID-19 pestilence caused in the realm of business. Entire industries were brought to a standstill, others experienced severe setbacks compelling their owners to drastically cut down on the number of employees or their salaries (or both) while only a few remained largely unaffected. Among the latter are those companies whose management has precipitately learned to leverage the business benefits of digital transformation.Besides described, what are other changes the pandemic inspires? Let us list some:
- Remote education. Previously practiced only sporadically (and mostly by advanced institutions) it has now become a survival prerequisite for many of them. This e-learning shift is likely to endure when the epidemic abates since it gives educational establishments a significant competitive edge.
- Telemedicine. IT devices and telehealth technologies relieve the pressure on hospitals and limit the disease transmission rate by keeping people home while providing them with healthcare advice.
- Mass events going virtual. Transport restrictions and the need for social isolation led to the abolition of many industry exhibitions and conferences, both local and international. Not wanting to cancel events completely, the organizers are transferring them online. And if videoconferencing has already become commonplace, the organization of events in virtual reality is something completely new. So, the recent HTC Virtual Vive Ecosystem was the first fully virtual event that replaced a major industry meeting amid the coronavirus epidemic. The conference was hosted on the Engage platform, a VR collaboration application that is compatible with HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Valve Index, and Windows Mixed Reality VR headsets. Presenters and a small audience were represented by three-dimensional avatars projected into an open-air amphitheater.
- Chatbot automation. The advent of AI-based chatbots allows for providing consistent customer support 24/7, no matter how strict the limitations imposed by the epidemic are. Many of the customer requests and questions can successfully be processed by a high-quality bot.
