DigitalTransformationTalk: How your transformation strategy will deliver a competitive advantage

On 18 June 2024, Digital Transformation host Kevin Crane was joined by Peggy Salz, Content Strategist and founder, Mobile groove; Deyana Petrova, Head of Digital, August Collection; and Jamie Grabert, President/Co-Founder, The Consultancy Group.

Views on news 

Although turning customer experience into a competitive advantage should be a top priority, companies have a long journey to get to that point. Before they can start revamping the customer experience, companies must first build the technology infrastructure that supports the next-gen systems needed to do the job.

But companies can implement next-gen at scale once they have upgraded their data management platform, migrated to the cloud and transitioned their technology stack to an open-architecture configuration with plug-and-play capabilities. Companies and their technology partners are increasingly leveraging AI to create flexible, omni-channel communications platforms.

Some of the world’s most sophisticated companies have indeed done such a good job at personalizing the customer experience that consumers are coming to expect a curated, customized experience. The increasing importance of customer experience is also reflected by the customer experience architect becoming a strategic role. 

Turning CRM into the nervous system of an improved customer experience

The departure point for DT is understanding your organisation including all its bottlenecks and pain points and then deciding where would DT make the most sense. With content creation, the main tension is between creating content at scale while also maintaining an authentic voice.

To resolve this dilemma, it’s essential to integrate AI solutions in the right and most efficient way. If you use highly efficient tools that don’t integrate well, you will create a bigger mess. See if the tool you are considering can scale with; help better personalise your messages; or make the organisation more agile. You must have a vision of what outcomes you are after.

If an AI tool designed to improve a call centre agent’s performance doesn’t integrate with the CRM, the feedback data will just sit there untapped. Accordingly, the centre of the brain should be the CRM, which will work out how data collected at different touchpoints should be leveraged.  

A new collaborative link must be established between marketing and product to promote a new, digital mindset. It’s not just departments that are in silos - the customer journey is fragmented too. Organisational culture can also play a central role in getting buy-in from all departments, as well as the provision of democratised access to data. 

The panel’s advice

• A brief case study: a company with staffing problems and an ambition to have closer conversations with customers has implemented AI tools to create email, content and social content programmes in a holistic manner, which also performed a personalised experience for every customer – while also shortening the buying cycle.  
• DT shouldn’t sit with a single department – it’s key to have a cross-organisational buy in.
• There are some quick fixes to integrate the customer journey better, such as QR codes that will lead a customer from an empty shelf in a physical shop to an online store where they can order the item.
• The more transparency about the DT you provide members of your organisation with, the more buy-in you’ll have.
• Address the anxiety of employees by creating a foundation of trust.
• Breaking your routines may lead you to new cohorts of customers.