To overcome the crisis that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought, companies have no other choice but to review their existing strategies now that the business world has been disrupted. In the midst of an unusual health crisis, businesses are forced to accelerate their digital transformation just to stay functional. A change that typically would take years happened practically overnight as the global workforce switched to a remote work model.
“Once a luxury and only for the forward-thinker, digital transformation is now a must in these uncertain times. With sales in physical stores drying up and entire industries evaporating, we are highly unlikely to see a return to the way of life once was. In that light, companies must move fast to digitize in the face of a tsunami of economic and socioeconomic changes. The question is will they attempt to fight the tide or ride the wave.” – Daniel Cooper, Founder – Lolly Co.
A new mindset that focuses on the future with the openness to give new technology a try has been sparked by the digital processes’ rapid evolution. Bureaucracy and a reluctance to disrupt the already-existing ways of working are the obstacles that prevented companies from adopting new innovations in the past. They rarely related to the technology itself. However, teams have become more versatile since businesses have had to embrace remote working. As a result, the ‘let’s see how it works by trying it out’ approach has replaced the “way things have always been” mentality.
Has COVID-19 expedited digital transformation? Yes, and here’s how:
1. The Rise of New Communication Channels
Creating a personal connection between the business and the client has become more challenging than ever now that companies have lost the option for face-to-face contact. Even the model of the customer service call center needs some serious rethinking, with field sales teams being restricted to working from home. To adjust to the situation, businesses now have to consider how their personal touch principles can be expanded or incorporated into their online operations.
Businesses have the opportunity to up-sell a more appropriate and more advanced solution or cross-sell new solutions through well-managed customer support interactions. It comes down to good communication. To support the sales operation of a company with a new, efficient acquisition channel, and to deliver a better experience to customers, businesses need functionality, such as intelligent search, chatbots, or live chat.
New operational processes are now forcibly in place for live chat to follow. A brand’s central team can manage the live chat and ensure that they’re followed up on. That’s the case, for example, of businesses that have historically passed new leads on to dealers or resellers who are no longer available.
The setup provides the optimum environment for the testing of the new feature, while phasing it into the company’s operations. It works seamlessly now that all queries are being managed centrally and all dealers are shut down, despite previously causing frictions with answering location-specific inquiries or resellers.
2. Automation of Customer Journeys
Long before the coronavirus pandemic hit the world, customer self-service was already a developing trend. However, it’s now at the top of many companies’ priority lists because of the pandemic.
When the process isn’t entirely digitized or still requires the printing and posting of forms from users, online applications for higher education, rental properties, or permits can still be cumbersome. Nowadays, the need for intuitive and informative customer portals has risen with less freedom for available manual interactions. Note that these features were considered just a way for organizations to stay ahead of the competition a few weeks before the pandemic.
More budget and time are being allocated to the automation of customer journeys, resulting in digital roadmaps now being rerouted away from the websites’ core development streams. Rather than relying on someone for assistance, personalized FAQ areas, information hubs, and virtual showrooms ensure that all the necessary information is available. Of course, the human factor still exists for verification, but digital tools run most of the process.
There’s a high demand for digital solutions that demonstrate the ability of businesses to answer inquiries and take orders. Even the brands that are most digitally mature weren’t viewing these as integral even if these technologies actually weren’t new on the market. It all changed now that consumers became more reliant on digital methods during and after the government’s imposing of lockdown measures.
3. The Remote Work Setup
At the moment, it’s a huge advantage for businesses to be able to continue their operations, irrespective of the physical presence of employees in their offices.
The crisis is affecting many industries in different ways. The ones that continue to deliver services and products by organizing digitally with the help of tools for online communication and management are the ones best equipped to not only survive, but also excel in the current climate.
4. The Use of Digital Channels for Improving Scalability
A national health crisis that’s seemingly isolated can spread almost overnight and affect countries worldwide. It’s a reality that has confronted companies with severe restrictions in cargo transport and the near-total international travel restriction.
The pandemic has created severe problems for companies that sell goods overseas. Today, it’s difficult for them to actually get their products to the people who want them. On top of this, there is a diminishing demand for their goods.
When a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic hits, businesses need to scale down to the local level. Having an adaptable and lean infrastructure that leverages digital capabilities allows companies to do so. It can mean the difference between going under and staying afloat during these challenging times.
From medical professionals to food producers, retail stores, and more, businesses that are able to supply the demand from customers and communicate with clients in their local areas can endure the crisis by being able to continue establishing their brands and growing their markets.
5. Big Data and Analytics
What separates the winners from the losers is access to data and the ability to act on important information effectively. It’s the case now as countless businesses face the drastic choice of floundering or adapting to the new situation. To provide the cues for the kind of adaptations that are beneficial and necessary for a company in these trying times, big data analytics will be more important than ever.
Put simply, the ones that will be able to respond to challenges better, now and in the future, are those businesses that have an operation or a team dedicated to understanding their industry and market ecosystem.
How Are Businesses Coping?
The effects of the challenges that the pandemic has brought to businesses are detrimental. There’s an endless list of problems—the lack of market demand that results in a lack of sales, the inability to engage with clients, disrupted supply chains, etc. With the balance sheets being more in the red, many companies have had to shut down overnight.
How have the businesses that have managed to stay afloat built resilience in their workforces and organizations? How have they future-proofed their business models? They simply have or already had transformed digitally.
1. Investing More in eCommerce
As activities from online consumers increase, businesses have seen online demand triple. In the hopes of creating a digitally decentralized marketplace that’s better through remote working, businesses adjust to new practices and models. This results in new digital developments and trends.
A very good example is Papa John’s Pizza. Their sales actually have soared during the time when other restaurants have closed overnight. They’ve recorded some of their highest profits during the pandemic. A combination of investing in technology and people has been their recipe for success. This US company has invested in its eCommerce platforms significantly, resulting in them acquiring thousands of additional employees to help them keep up with the demand.
2. Improving Communication and Collaboration Across the Organization
The right message has to reach the right people at the right time. The internal communication of a company should be easy to understand, clear, and transparent in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses can’t afford to have team members missing out on essential information, such as the latest changes made to a project they’re working on or urgent company updates. That’s why for most organizations nowadays, improving internal communications is at the top of their digital transformation to-do list.
With the implementation of the right communication technology, leaders are able to ensure that there’s a right flow of workplace information. They’re able to ensure that all the important information is findable and available in just a matter of seconds, send push notifications to the mobile phones of their employees, personalize messages, and filter their audiences better.
3. Adopting Remote Working
During COVID-19, organizations have found remote working as a catalyst to drive digital transformation. Over the past few years, it has been discussed at length in several industries, so it’s not really a new concept or idea. Many businesses have been saved during the lockdowns because of the remote working setup’s ability to implement agility into a company. It separated those organizations that are still left behind in terms of implementation from the ones that have implemented adequate digital systems.
The time is now for businesses to face the new reality that adopting digital practices, such as remote working, is the way to go. Adopting and embracing digital transformation helps future-proof the operations of an organization, even making them prepared as they navigate new ways of working post-pandemic.
4. Equipping Staff with Digital Tools to Ensure Uninterrupted Work
The lack of necessary digital and IT infrastructure to support work-from-home staff has led to many organizations stopping some parts of their operations or closing completely. The ones who have been able to continue or prolong operations are those businesses with adequate digital and IT platforms to help them adjust to the changes brought by remote working. As already mentioned, remote working brings an agile advantage to a company.
When the world can return to the normality is, still, a big question mark up to this day. Implementing digital solutions into an organization becomes even more important because of this uncertainty. Equipping the employees of a company with some digital tools for them to keep calm and carry on can help mitigate the fear of the unknown.
5. Maintaining Employee Productivity by Implementing New Software
At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, some companies already made arrangements to allow remote working. The priority was to help reduce or control the spread of the virus and to protect their employees. With their staff working from home during the pandemic, the businesses who were able to cope with the challenges looked for solutions that could help them maintain the productivity of their employees.
Employers who haven’t embraced digitization in their internal processes earlier now struggle and actively rethink their strategies. However, the ones who have enabled employees to do their jobs successfully and stay productive by implementing new software solutions from the start are reaping the rewards.
To ensure continuous business performance amidst these unexpected circumstances, they’ve utilized human resources, internal communications, development, sales, and marketing tech software solutions. These digital technologies make businesses more resilient to operational disruptions by improving efficiency and productivity. On the other hand, the risk of being disrupted not only while the crisis is ongoing, but also after the pandemic is high for those organizations that resisted adapting digital products or channels.
6. Digital Payments
The use of digital payment channels has increased because of the pandemic. COVID-19 has promoted cashless societies, and it looks like it’s going to stay that way. Consumers adopt digital transactions not only because of ease, but also due to their desire to protect themselves from the spread of the virus. Organizations offering contactless payments have been able to maintain or scale operations.
Final Thoughts
For organizations that are more change- or risk-averse, the crisis brought by the pandemic has created a unique opportunity to apply creative thinking beyond comfort realms. While it’s true that COVID-19 wreaked havoc to many businesses, companies that have seized new ways and transformed digitally by implementing new technological solutions continue to function without fear of failure, and are able to revolutionize their operations during these “new normal” times.
