4 ways a digital culture can help you put your customers first

Customer expectations are growing.

In today's world where both time and money are short, it's no surprise that people are increasingly looking for seamless digital experiences, from accessing their GP online to rapid home delivery and flawless internet service.
 

Meeting these expectations, however, isn't necessarily just about delivering services faster online or providing an overwhelming range of choice for your customers.
 

Instead, it's about understanding what the customer really needs.

What obstacles are preventing them from making a purchase?

Where is friction slowing their experience down?

Integrating customer success in your organisation means being flexible enough to adapt to the needs of your customers.

As Nigel highlights, a digital culture - one that empowers your employees to work smartly and is underpinned by the robust connectivity to deliver in any circumstance - will set you apart.

So how can a digital culture help you provide a frictionless experience for your customers?

Streamlining a customer experience is all about information.

Solutions such as Qualtrics can help you understand where points of friction are in a customer journey and make adjustments to your interface to address them.

At Virgin Media O₂ Business, we're implementing listening posts so we can see if customers get frustrated at a certain point along their journey and drop off. The data can show when directing them towards call handlers at key moments of the decision-making process can help.

Too many customer journeys ending up at your FAQ page? An AI chatbot ready to answer questions within the checkout page could solve this. By using this customer data you can build solutions that address specific customer concerns, making things simpler for them and more effective for you.

For example, we helped Homebase achieve more for their customers by upgrading the wide area network across all Homebase stores, allowing team members to access systems and search for stock from virtually anywhere on-site to meet customer requests faster.

So make sure you're collecting and analysing your data to build an experience that works for every customer.

Embedding a customer-first mindset into your digital culture can have a significant knock-on impact on the overall success of your organisation.

On the one hand, it can help you build solutions that best match your customers' needs. This means evolving what you can offer to be more tailored and personal by focussing on outcomes rather than tech KPIs.

For example, we've seen technology play a key role for a care home customer, making it easier for nursing staff care to do more hands-on care for patients whilst administrative work is increasingly digitalised.

Technology's role here isn't about replacing people or making interactions feel less human. Instead it's about freeing up your staff to do the work they are trained and passionate about doing and ensuring everyone has access to the support and experiences they need.

For example, we worked with Falkirk Council to better support the learning of children across the school network by deploying iPad tablets to every pupil aged 10-18 and every member of teaching staff. Their new cloud-managed infrastructure now confidently supports more than 25,000 devices.

The use of robust SD-WAN connectivity has also meant reduced travel costs, as meetings and teaching can be confidently carried out online when necessary, removing the need to ferry pupils to different schools for subjects which their own school doesn't offer.

So instead of just thinking about how technology can help your work faster, consider how a digital culture can help you achieve more. This mindset shift will be crucial as the role of technology expands.