Since the first Covid-19 Lockdown, the explosive nature of digitisation has become apparent. The companies that are among the winners of 2020 are almost exclusively companies that offer a digitised customer journey.
These companies are not only booming because they have a web shop. Digitisation offers much more. It enables greater transparency and insights of customer wants and needs, which has a positive impact on customer satisfaction and ultimately maximises sales and profits.
What does a digitised customer journey mean?
One important point is that valuable customer data is made visible. As author Daniel Keys Moran says: “You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data.”
Many companies have expensive data storage and at the same time unstructured data. This unused data, also called dark data, often amounts to more than 50% of the data volume. Additionally, this data contains valuable information for planning.
This dark data contains customer information from e-mails, server data, telephone lists, etc. It is easy to implement data cross-functionally and make them visible in all relevant places.
Server data are needed, for example, in marketing for the analysis of marketing measures and for planning and strategy. Structured and digitised, server data reveals the extent to which newsletters, posts, landing pages etc. are successful, i.e. whether customers are interested in the information. Server data shows the preferences of the customers. There are many software tools that help to create posts, newsletters etc. and generate the tracking (evaluation of server data) after sending.
Emails from sales, customer service and accounting also contain information about customer preferences and their shopping behaviour, i.e. order rhythm, payment modalities, returns or product feedback. All this information is important for planning and should be transparent cross-functionally. This can be easily implemented via various CRM systems. The same applies to telephone lists, sales talks or data collected at trade fairs and congresses.
All this information is important for planning the optimal customer journey, no matter in which form, and finally increase turnover and profit.
In addition to the utilisation of valuable customer data, the digitisation of customer data guarantees enormous potential savings of data storage. A lot of data is needed by several functions. With digitisation, data storage can be centralised in one place and accessed by multiple departments and users. For example, customer data from the web shop is needed in the marketing, sales, shipping, accounting, IT department and management.
At the same time, digitisation ensures that customer data is only visible to the relevant parties. With central data storage, customer data can be managed in accordance with data protection regulations (DSGVO).
Many of today’s customer expect a wide selection, product explanations, easy ordering, smooth delivery and friendly and competent customer service.
Amazon has a deep understanding of these customer expectations and is exploiting the possibilities of digitisation to serve the customer in the best possible way. Without professional shop assistance I feel well advised as an Amazon customer, as
- I have clear product descriptions and comparisons,
- the ordering process is easy to handle,
- the payment arrangements are secure and extensive
- returns and complaints are solved in a friendly, professional manner and always in the customer’s favour.
Amazon’s strong growth, also in the area of external retailers, clearly shows that customer satisfaction can be feasible and still profitable.
Amazon’s success is not witchcraft, but an excellently implemented digitisation of the customer journey, constant optimisation, and the focus always on customer satisfaction.
There are digital tools for every area and size of company to implement an optimal customer journey. The investment is usually less than expected. The profit, however, is mostly higher than expected.
I would be happy to support you with your digitized Customer Journey. I am an expert for marketing analytics and digitisation of the customer journey. Contact me and I will be happy to discuss the possibilities with you.
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