When businesses consider implementing a Digital Transformation (Dx) strategy, many will struggle with the idea of improved customer satisfaction. How can streamlining and automating processes and enabling the use of technology translate into improved customer interaction and build brand and relationship stability?

It might surprise you to know that, of the businesses focusing on Digital Transformation, 77% have incorporated social media customer interaction into the strategy. If you are looking at social media as static face to the customer, with branded product and service messaging, holiday coupons, and discounts, you are missing the potential of Dx and the possibilities of automation, of expanded communication channels and of building a real relationship with your customers.

The Benefits of Digital Transformation and Social Media

The advent of social media (SM) has changed the way people receive and process information for personal use and for work and shopping. By building a storehouse of information, using customer interests, contact information, keywords that reflect interests and commonly visited sites and pages, a business can build a digital footprint of a particular customer and personalize its approach. Beyond that, the enterprise can build community by creating and managing groups and offering automated responses and FAQs to communicate with customers and potential customers and encourage purchases and engagement. New technologies provide the opportunity to engage and communicate, often without the need for one-on-one human interaction. By building a foundation and then choosing when and how to intervene with human interaction, the enterprise can build a process that is more productive and allows the business to make the best use of its human resources.

The organization can offer information via video for instructions or engagement, with photos, Short Messaging Service (SMS) texts and even augmented reality (AR). Expanding the outreach into the private message or texting environment allows you to schedule automated delivery for supplies or prescriptions used by customers on a daily or monthly basis, reminders for special occasions, answers to questions about products or services, etc. Some businesses choose to provide messaging to help customers make purchasing decisions, e.g., reviews on products they are considering, recommendations, and comments from other customers and consumers. Integrating and incorporating messaging and channels to provide instructional videos on YouTube, Live Facebook events, and personalized offers like discounts for birthday rewards etc.

As your business builds a database of consumer data it can extend the use of this information to identify buying trends, what customers often ask for in new product features, how customers respond to messaging, etc. Social media platforms like WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can provide sales and purchasing opportunities and build a treasure trove of data to use for marketing, product design, pricing and more.

If and when a customer chooses to engage through a call center or via online chat personnel, the team can anticipate and address concerns with a full picture of what the customer has purchased, and their interests and profile, so offering a free gift, an upgrade or anticipating what parts a customer might need will make the interaction more successful and productive.

As businesses navigate the various marketing, advertising, and sales channels available to them, it is important to move beyond the old concept of social media and direct customer contact to the integrated approach of leveraged technology. Make this crucial aspect of your business a component of your digital transformation (Dx) strategy and look for ways to incorporate direct customer contact using AI, automated messaging and other tools to optimize your human resources and build a stronger customer relationship.

If your organization is considering the implementation of a Digital Transformation (Dx) strategy, these White Papers will help you explore the issues and prepare for the challenges. ‘Accelerating Advanced Analytics in an Immature Analytics Culture’, ‘A Roadmap to ROI and User Adoption of Augmented Analytics and BI Tools’, and ‘Integrate Augmented Analytics and Digital Transformation to Achieve Continuous Business Improvement.’

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