There is an indirect but fundamental benefit to implementing DTM solutions: the improved quality of the Customer Experience. How important is this aspect? Turning legislative compliance into lowering costs for business and increasing efficiency on all fronts. Also: translating this into improved work dynamics and internal company communication. Finally: giving a positive boost to the relationship with customers and the Customer Experience.
All of this can and must be done. It can and must be done simultaneously, through different strategies that nonetheless have a common starting point: Digital Transaction Management solutions. DTM is a broad and varied category of services built to manage, both digitally and in cloud computing, document-based transactions.
We talked about this in our previous post all the documents you can dematerialize where we focused on the types of documents that can be dematerialized and the benefits of implementing DTM solutions.
To report them in a nutshell: cost savings, time optimization, rapid sharing capabilities, increased security, flexibility and scalability, and integrability with CRM and CCM systems.
So far, we have listed only the most direct and obvious benefits. However, it’s time that we consider another side, one that is perhaps less direct but certainly decisive and central. We’re talking about the extremely positive effects of DTM systems and Customer Experience on the relationship between company and customers.
Let’s take it from there, first asking: how important is the Customer Experience today?
The importance of customer experience – in numbers
Here, we are answering the question that we posed in the previous paragraph with numbers and statistics. Let’s start immediately from the front of customers themselves:
- For 90% of people, the quality of customer service is one of the deciding factors in choosing to purchase products or services with a company (source: Microsoft Dynamics 365 – Global State of Customer Care).
- 89% of customers are more likely to make another purchase with the same company after a satisfactory Customer Service experience (source: Salesforce – State of the Connected Customer).
- 93% of consumers feel driven to make repeat purchases with companies that provide excellent Customer Service (source: hubspot.com).
- Millennials are willing to pay up to 21% more to do business with companies that have a smooth and efficient Customer Service processes (source: customerthermometer.com).
Conversely:
- 89% of customers who left a company to switch to competitors did so primarily because of problems in the Customer Experience (source: customerthermometer.com).
So now, let’s move to the company front:
- Businesses that invest in improving the Customer Experience report, on average, an 80% increase in revenue (source: forbes.com).
- For a company, winning a new customer costs 6 to 7 times more than retaining one (source: inc.com).
- A 5% improvement in Customer Retention can produce up to 25% more profit (source: bain.com).
In short, the answer to the initial question could not be more clear and obvious than this. Today, in an open, fast-paced, fluid marketplace, there is nothing more important than Customer Experience: major competitive challenges are won or lost here.
The good news, for companies in all sectors, is that there are many digital tools that can help make the relationship between customer and company increasingly satisfactory (with benefits on both sides). Among these tools, DTM solutions such as electronic signatures and services for digitizing contracts, one example among many, make it possible to offer a more agile, immediate, and personalized experience, with benefits for both parties.
The topic is vast, but we believe there are three key themes to focus on: omnichannel, data-driven, one-to-one. We will get to them in the concluding section of this post. First, though, let’s have a quick look at how customer habits have changed (and how they are changing) in this period as we emerge from the dramatic stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
How the relationship between customers and companies has changed, and how it is changing
If we focus on the relationship and dialog between consumers and companies, of all types and in all industries, the Covid-19 pandemic was a breaking point. There is no doubt about it; and there is no going back.
Indeed, on closer inspection, those emergency phases served as a kind of accelerator for dynamics that had been in place for quite some time. These dynamics are all related to the urgency and need for a relationship that increasingly transitions to digital.
In this regard, let’s consider 2020, the year of the pandemic outbreak. According to “The State of the Connected Customer” report, by Salesforce, 57% of consumers say they have changed the way they relate to companies, during and after the pandemic phases.
E-commerce has grown, certainly; but that’s not all. What is surprising, in fact, is the multiplication of touchpoints through which the customer connects with the company during the Customer Journey (from social networks to email, from dedicated apps to messaging, and so on). A multiplication that is being managed in an increasingly natural way.
In short, the different lockdowns have pushed people to further familiarize themselves with all kinds of online channels therefore, people expect the same from brands. Even in Italy, the trend is very clear: if in 2019 41% of people interacted with companies primarily online, by 2020 this percentage had risen to 58%. In addition, the percentage of Italians who expect to be able to interact with the company primarily online is 68%.
It’s now clear: this is not simply a passing phase related to emergency, but an increasingly solid and unstoppable trend. How much further is there for companies to go? Judging from this data, still a lot:
- 9 out of 10 Italians believe there is a need for companies to accelerate on the digital transformation front.
- 54%, in particular, call for an enhancement of digital engagement and customer service methodologies (source: salesforce.com).
Finally, one last significant statistic, this time very specific and all about the role of Digital Transaction Management systems. In a Forrester study, 32% of respondents said they abandoned closing contracts, agreements, and transactions because they were discouraged by paper and manual procedures. Here, then, the advantage of DTM solutions becomes immediately apparent: being able to manage, for example, a digital onboarding process, completely dematerialized from start to finish, helps meet users’ expectations.
From data to people – the real turning point of the digital customer experience
Remember the three themes we identified above? Omnichannel, data-driven, one-to-one. We have already mentioned the multiplication of digital touchpoints: a competitive company must build relationships with its customers through the most diverse channels, in an elastic, well-orchestrated, diversified way, optimized according to devices (to make it clear: the best practices of a company-customer dialog that takes place on social networks, via smartphones, are different, for example, from the best practices of an email exchange via desktop). And so far, it’s all intuitive.
However, the points we care most about are the second and third: which, in fact, are closely related. And they also concern DTM solutions in a very direct way. Let’s take a small step back and ask ourselves: what is the secret to improving relationships with customers? There is not just one, but a great deal is centered around the knowledge of the customer himself.
If I know the person in front of me, I have a very good chance of addressing them in the most effective way. If I know his or her habits, behaviors, and needs, I will be able to anticipate his or her desires and be ready, in the right place, at the right time, with the right tone and with the right proposals.
In short: it’s about knowing who you have in front of you, to address him or her in a targeted way, with a tailored, personalized dialog.
We’re talking about one of the oldest secrets of communication and then of commerce, which today is made more relevant than ever by digital tools. And, in particular, by the analysis and interpretation of data. And here again the topic of DTM and Customer Expereince comes into play.
Starting with DTM systems, you can collect a huge and valuable amount of data about your customers and all kinds of exchanges that have taken place with them, through the most diverse channels. This information, these traces, will constitute the primary elements to bring out a very detailed and granular snapshot of your audience.
At this point, it is a matter of learning to “zoom in”: that is, to divide your target audience into many clusters of people who have common characteristics, behaviors, needs, and possible desires. No longer a single, indistinct target, but many increasingly specific micro-targets to hit with tailored operations and communications.
And here’s some data on that:
- digital companies that use customer experience systems based on user behavior and data-driven marketing increase their profits, on average, by 15% more than others (source: gartner.com)
Can we do even more? What is the final frontier? Matching the target audience with the individual person. This is the turning point of personalization, that is, of moving from one-to-many to one-to-one communications.
And this is the real breakthrough of digital transformation: it starts with data and always comes down to people, who are put at the center of the business. By relying on specialized companies such as Doxee, you will have all the tools to cover the arc of this journey: from solutions for a paperless business (from Digital Preservation to Electronic Signature to Electronic Invoicing) to personalized customer communication systems (Doxee Pvideo personalized videos and Doxee Pweb personalized mini-sites).