Almost every product or service imaginable can now be sold, purchased or exchanged online.
You can order fresh groceries, watch your children via a webcam, even have a doctor diagnose your ailment over video chat. This phenomenon – doing things digitally that you never could have done just a few years ago – is the essence of a digitally transformed society.
Now that we’ve reached the third stage of assessing digital transformation for your organization, you should be thinking about how to make it possible for your customers to interact digitally with your organization, from wherever they are, on whatever device they’d like, as any time, day or night. Because chances are, they no longer want manually delivered full-service that used to be synonymous with excellent customer experience. Now, they want to be able to do what they need to do – quickly, from home or the office or while on vacation, and they are willing to do some of the work –aka self-service— themselves.
Consider banking as an example: An analysis of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data found a 6.3% reduction in bank branches between 2009 and 2015, just because fewer people needed them. Sure, branches still have an important place in the banking world – especially for things like dealing with serious account problems, opening new accounts and completing large or complex transactions – but for smaller, routine transactions like transferring money between accounts, bill pay, and new account opening, customers prefer online banking. And now more than ever, they’re doing their online activities via smart mobile devices.
Welcome to the third stage of digital transformation: the mobile web stage.
The majority of customers’ mobile banking interactions involve routine transactions, according to Deloitte Center for Financial Services Report: United States Federal Reserve, “Consumers and mobile financial services 2013,” March 2013. That includes:
- Checking account balances
- Finding a nearby branch or ATM
- Transferring money
- Paying bills
Mobile improves the customer experience by allowing customers to engage at their convenience, via their preferred channel – it’s simple and fast. And more importantly, a good mobile experience is expected by your customer. No matter what service you’re providing, the process must be easy, frictionless and accessible. According to Google, 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing … in fact, 40% would visit a competitor’s site instead.
Want to keep your customers... and even keep attracting new ones? Answer these questions to assess your organization’s stage three progress toward digital transformation:
- Have you deployed responsive design so customers have the same great experience on any device? After all, 83% of mobile users say a seamless experience across devices is very important.
- On your site, is the option to open an account “above the fold” and in other easily accessible places?
- Do you actively promote your banking app and update it based on user needs?
If you answered yes to all three questions, you’ve achieved personalized status and are ready to move on to the stage four assessment questions (which will help you create an even more enjoyable mobile experience). If you answered no, you’re in a prime spot to add some dynamic functionality to your web presence and capture the attention of current and new customers, wherever and whenever they want to connect with you.