As global spending on Digital Transformation is projected to reach US$1.78 trillion in 2022, James Bayhack, Director, Sub-Saharan Africa at CM.com, looks at innovations that will reshape the business landscape in Kenya in the future.
As 2021 has come and gone, many businesses are still responding to changes in the business environment brought on by COVID-19. The global crisis introduced the necessity to innovate, forcing many to rethink how they communicate with their customers and repackage product and service offerings for the new landscape – one that is defined by Digital Transformation.
A single solution for omnichannel communications
As more businesses engage with their clients in online and remote spaces, there is a need to streamline and improve communication channels. The result is an omnichannel approach to the customer experience (CX), comprised of multiple platforms on which customers can engage with business operators and services. It’s a process that’s kept as simple as possible, while also being accessible and cost-effective.
Automation and humanity
Automation has been with us for centuries, but its application in the digital age is something entirely new. We are seeing it creep into almost every aspect of our lives, with far-reaching and never-before-seen results.
Take, for instance, at sporting events such as the 2021 Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix, where fans could order tickets, procure refreshments, secure purchases and get all their questions answered through a chatbot that runs through WhatsApp. With the help of data reporting and features such as suggested answers, internal collaboration and skill-based routing, the Dutch Grand Prix could interact with fans efficiently and effectively. This was made possible by deploying a customer data platform (CDP) to manage event pre-registration data and using marketing cloud software to introduce attendee reductions due to the pandemic. The technology helped create a seamless experience for both event organisers and fans.
While this kind of technological automation has been focused on improving customer experience, it has the potential to impact employee experience (EX) as well. Because in 2022, the notion of total experience is set to guide many business decisions. Strong CX principles or taking the stance that the customer is always right, cannot come at the expense of employees’ wellbeing. This impacts the well-being of the business itself.
The power of mobile connectivity
No more a device for just making and receiving calls, mobile phones accounted for more than half of all web traffic globally in the first quarter of 2021. A sizeable portion of the world’s population interacts with the Internet via a mobile device, creating the necessity to innovate and expand service offerings on them.
Kenya itself is home to Africa’s biggest mobile platform success story, M-PESA, which revolutionised mobile banking and dramatically improved financial inclusion across the continent. Beyond banking and retail, most other sectors have also embraced mobile platforms to deliver quality service and products to customers, deploying solutions that digitise traditional processes and improve convenience.