4 Real-World Examples of Digital Transformation You Should Emulate ASAP
Technology has changed every aspect of daily life from how you order food to how you communicate with healthcare professionals. When this change occurs in a business, it’s referred to as a digital transformation.
The integration of technology fundamentally alters the way your business interacts with customers. It augments how those customers receive your services and products, too, and necessitates a change down to the bedrock of your operation. But that’s a good thing. Because change is progress. And there’s only one wrong way to do progress: By not doing it at all.
Mark Twain put it especially well when he said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” To help your business start its digital journey, check out these four examples of other brands who took the plunge and are reaping more benefits than ever for it.
1. Fingrid Cuts Costs and Improves Asset Management
Managing a power grid is a heavy burden. Between being responsible for outfitting hospitals with critical energy, keeping safety signals operational on the streets, and maintaining the heat in Finland’s chilly winters, Fingrid has a lot of relationships to manage. And, a lot of expensive assets. Which is why they needed a smart, automated system to protect those assets and find problems before they ever happen.
Their digital transformation took them to big data. By using real-time analysis, they’re able to keep their assets operational longer and provide preventive customer care by predicting when problems will happen and heading them off at the pass.
They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and for this Finnish power company, that couldn’t be truer. But their digital transformation isn’t just benefiting their customers. Their custom analytics platform allows them to keep an eye on their 14,000 km network and find its faults 99% faster than before, cutting back on time spent resolving the issue. And it’s also providing them with crucial insight into the costs of maintaining their assets that enables Fingrid to make smarter, savvier investment decisions.
Now, ask yourself – what could that kind of insight bring your business?
Key takeaway: Incorporating automation enhances the customers’ experience by highlighting problems before they occur and empowers smarter spending with asset management and protection.
2. Accent Group Expedites Customer Choice
If managing one retail business is a Herculean effort, managing multiple retailers within and across national borders is Olympian. But for Accent Group, an international group of brands which includes Skechers and Vans, that’s just their day-to-day.
Maintaining their customers’ experiences across brand and continental lines is a top priority, and their digital transformation has been key to exposing new business opportunities and delivering amazing service.
But how they achieve that may surprise you. To Accent Group, the digital transformation journey is all about the customer: it starts and ends with them. When their customers told them they wanted a new feature – the ability to purchase items online and pick them up in the store – they implemented it, molding their digital transformation steps directly from the feedback their consumers provided.
Then, when those same customers said they wanted more products available online, they turned those same click-and-collect stores into distribution points for their products, shipping them directly from the store.
The results have been phenomenal: digital sales uplifted by 10-20% when they rolled out click and collect, then an additional 30-50% when they added the ship from store feature.
Customers are getting better experiences, and the business is selling more products than ever. That makes this digital transformation a win-win for everyone.
Key takeaway: A customer-first approach to a digital transformation increases profits and reveals opportunities for expansion. It’s not just transforming the experience for your customers — it transforms it for your sales, too.
3. Scandinavian Design Center Reduces Response Time by over Half
Taking part in a customer’s home is an inherently personal affair: the furniture that consumers welcome into their midst must be stylish yet strong, reliable yet affordable, and above all else, it needs to inspire faith in the customer that it’s safe for their family.
The Scandinavian Design Center, a speciality home furnishings online retailer, understands this better than most.
But with only seven agents and a rapidly expanding customer base, their customer experience began to decline in 2013. Using Citrix and the Microsoft family of products, their agents struggled to address customer concerns promptly.
That, coupled with the burgeoning volume of support tickets, necessitated a digital transformation.
Freshdesk stepped in.
As a cloud-based solution, Freshdesk made it easy to set up a new support system. Agents just had to open a browser window, and the integration features made transitioning from their clunky Citrix system a breeze.
In this case, the transformation was almost overnight. Their response time dropped down to seven hours – a 54% decrease – and their ticket resolution skyrocketed by 48%.
Now customers are happier, agents are more efficient, and the customer experience with the Scandinavian Designer Center is getting stronger by the day.
Key takeaway: Automation can make your existing help staff more productive, cut down on customer frustrations with delay, and improve overall performance. You can try Freshdesk for free at your company today.
4. Disney Creates Omnichannel Experience Magic for Customers
Amusement parks promise magic and adventure for their youngest attendants, but any parent can tell you – the experience isn’t always so enchanting from their side.
Between long wait times, crowds, and confusing maps, taking on a theme park can feel like embarking for a battle. Or, that’s how things used to be, at least.
Disney, already famed for providing a customer experience that transcends the oceans, has changed that with a digital transformation. Now, delights at the park aren’t the only thing this behemoth brand does well.
They also deliver an omnichannel experience unlike any other.
If you’re not familiar, omnichannel customer support provides the same level of care and experience no matter where customers are making contact with your brand.
But unlike multichannel support, that’s not all it does. Omnichannel customer engagement keeps everyone on the same page – your customers and your support agents – by keeping all of the relevant information in a unified database.
So whether your agents are touching down with customers on social, the phone, or email, they’re always providing service with everything they need to know about the customer’s products, history, and needs.
This cuts down on wasted time, enables your agents to provide more targeted assistance, and keeps the experience as fluid as possible.
It’s like branding taken to the next level. Disney capitalises on this especially well with their mobile app, keeping their dedicated consumers happy with real-time support.
In addition to providing estimated wait times for attractions at the park, it also regularly updates the schedule with upcoming events, has an interactive map, and provides a seamless ticket experience — all from the cradle of the customer’s hand.
Which means that even when Disney’s customers are away from the computer and using the product, they’re able to enrich their experience with omnichannel technology.
For instance, if they buy a ticket from the app, they can take up any concerns with an agent at the park or on the different digital channels. There’s no hiccup in their experience – just compounding delights. And that’s the goal, isn’t it?
Key takeaway: Putting the power of great customer service in the hands of their customers directly enhances the experience Disney’s fans receive, regardless of where they’re receiving it. Your company should be doing the same.
Conclusion
Everyone always talks about why you should change your business with technology. Not enough people show you how.
If you’re going to institute a change that permanently alters the structure of how you do business and interact with customers — known as a digital transformation when it’s through technology — then you need to see the proof.
Fingrid, a Finnish energy company, transformed their customers’ experiences by using big data to analyse problems as they occur and prevent them. Preventative customer care is like preventative medicine: cheaper and more effective.
Accent Group leveraged customer feedback to guide the brand’s digital transformation journey, and it paid off. By implementing features and responding as customers asked, they improved digital sales by as much as 50%.
Scandinavian Design Center gave their customer experience a makeover by changing from the inside out. Switching from an outdated system to Freshdesk helped them close more tickets, respond faster, and uplifted customer satisfaction.
Finally, Disney changed the way people use their parks forever by creating an omnichannel experience with their mobile apps. Now, the magic they provide can take centre stage by enabling customers to enjoy the day seamlessly.
A digital transformation can seem daunting, but if these titans can successfully elevate their customer engagement and experience without compromising on customer care, so can you.
