To make their digital offering more attractive, companies need to look at their customers not as a homogenous body anxiously waiting to be digitally transformed, but as four distinct groups, each requiring their own unique approach.

By Ori Faran, founder and CEO of CallVU

In this blog, I look at the four personalities of digital transformation, starting with the highest level of technology proficiency. For simplicity sake, I’ve named them Obsessed, Active, Aware, and Reluctant.

Tech-Obsessed

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Highly technically oriented people tend to be classic early adopters, quick to embrace the latest and the greatest. They download any app they think is cool and explore its nooks and crannies. Tech-Obsessed people seldom become long-term loyal customers as they are always on the look-out for the next thrill. If you want a constant stream of the Tech-Obsessed to visit you via your digital services, you had better be prepared to keep offering new and interesting content and features.

Tech-Active

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Typically in their mid-30s to early-50s, Tech-Active people try to do everything online – and that includes shopping for groceries, buying airplane tickets, and signing up to see the doctor. These people haven’t walked into a bank branch in years and prefer to engage their service provider via digital channels. Do you want to attract the Tech-Active demographic? It’s all about user experience (UX). They will become customers and stay loyal for as long as they can enjoy the ride.

Tech-Aware

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People above 50 years of age tend to fall in the Tech-Aware category. Having owned PCs for decades (they may even have been Tech-Obsessed themselves 20 years ago), these people are major digital users. They come equipped with smartphones and spend time nurturing their Facebook account – but still value the “human touch” when it comes to their financial portfolios and customer service, but for other things, digital is just as good. To attract and keep the Tech-Aware, you need to establish real value in the digital interaction.

Tech-Reluctant

People of all ages, especially those not overly familiar with technology, are reluctant to change from the “tried and true” ways of the past. They don’t understand technology or simply don’t trust it. “What’s wrong with using a phone call to a real person?,” they might ask. Typically, the Tech-Reluctant don’t fret over a social profile and, if they do, there is just one such network, usually Facebook. With proper guidance and lots of interaction, Tech-Reluctant people can be persuaded to use specific digital channels, at least for simple tasks like checking their bank account balances, topping up their data plan and paying the electric bill.

Advice for Successful Digital Transformations

Many companies cater to a wide variety of people and wish to provide a combination of digital channels that will attract and keep customers of all types. What should these companies do?

1. Invest in digital channels. If you don’t, your competitors will and you will lose your most valued assets – your customers. That said, you must create a website just like Bloggingtipshub to promote your products in front of target audience to increase sales and profit.
2. Improve the customer journey. Pay careful attention to simplicity of the interactions and continue to tweak over time. The user interface is most critical component – make it attractive and efficient and continue to add self-service capabilities that appeal to the Tech-Active and Tech-Aware
3. Balance the digital channels. Enable customers to select from multiple channels, also known as omni-channel, and ensure the same high level of service across all channels. Nobody should feel punished for the channel used so users should also have the ability to stop the process in one channel and to pick it up in another. Watch this video about keeping customers in the digital fold.
4. Adopt tools and strategies that transform non-digital interactions into digital. Offer users simple ways to resolve low-value requests without tying up human resources. Stay in close contact with your customers to find out what they do and don’t like about your digital offering and adopt a digital approach that presents service options according to personal preference. For more ideas read the Ebook.
5. Let your service agents become digital-transformation champions. Invest in agent-side tools and train your contact-center staff to participate in the transformation process. Empower agents with advanced tools that improve the user experience across all channels of the interaction.

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