How to Move your Digital Transformation Strategy Forward (Hint: It’s not a Crisis Response)

Without question, the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare consumers’ dependence on real-time digital services and experiences. When customers order groceries online, use telemedicine, stream movies, or message a customer support specialist, they’re confirming their demand for digital channels.

But meeting customer demands in crisis mode is one thing and delivering an exceptional CX in a world transformed by the pandemic is another. Ian Jacobs, principal analyst at Forrester, and Darryl Kelly, VP of marketing at TTEC Digital, discussed what customers want now in a customer experience and digital transformation trends on a recent webinar, “How AI delivers touchless and personalized experiences to the digital customer post COVID-19.” Here’s a summary of their discussion.

Two trends that emerged from the outbreak, Jacobs noted, were that many brands—especially those that were scrambling for ways to deal with a surge in call volume—were looking for “quick wins in building a digital front door” and that more attention was being paid to the employee experience aspect of digital transformation. “The second area that’s been really big is around employee experience—as in how do we actually enable these people to succeed at jobs…that are radically different from the ones that we designed and had processes to support those jobs?” asked Jacobs.

Those trends were in line with what TTEC was hearing from clients, Kelly said. In a recent TTEC poll, 45% of respondents indicated that they had accelerated their digital transformation strategy; 31% said their transformation was stuck, and 24% were planning to accelerate.

Underscoring both of these trends, Jacobs noted, was a shift in how companies think about customer service strategies and the overall CX. “One of the things that’s come up over and over again at the CEO level or C-suite…is during challenging times, we need to actually rethink what our contact center and customer service strategy is at its core,” Jacobs said.

It’s not a secret that happy employees equal happy customers, however, historically the employee experience was often neglected, especially in the customer service sector. Contact center agents have long had to wrestle with disjointed workflows that lead to delays and outdated systems and processes that make it difficult to work efficiently and effectively.

Reimagining the contact center and customer service strategy means reimagining the employee experience. That includes applying customer experience improvements, such as reducing customer effort, to the employee, Jacobs said.