We’ve chosen three examples of how digital transformation has positively impacted customer experience. Our first is Carwow, an industry disrupter that reduces the pain of buying new cars. The second is RBS that use a digital journey to reduce the pain of closing a bank account following a bereavement. And finally, Whirlpool, with service engineers fixing more customer faults on their first visit.
Rogan Hounsell-Roberts was a founder of a successful scale-up; has helped organisations across many sectors achieve success; a founder of KR5 Consulting; and passionate to help ambitious business leaders succeed.
You might think it’s too much of a leap to connect digital transformation with customer experience. Yet now, increasingly, people connect digitally with business. That said, digital transformation and customer experience are difficult to get to grips with. For this reason, it’s easier to see with some real examples.
If you’re a small business leader, you might think these too big or complex for you. Yes, these examples are bigger and more complex than most businesses will face. Yet looking past that will help you see customer experience improvements in your unique context. For example, the scope might be smaller or have less functions, but the key is seeing that digital can transform any part of your customer experience for the better.
Carwow industry disruption
Our first example is a digital transformation that disrupted an industry. Carwow disrupted car showroom sales by turning the buying process on its head.
Carwow is like a dating site for car buyers. Potential buyers tell the site what car they’re interested in, then dealers can woo them with their best price. It all started with CarBuzz collating car reviews from around the web, but they weren’t making money. They looked at readers’ questions and experience of buying new cars to discover that buying a car was a painful process, and customers never knew if they were getting a good deal or not.
Carwow set up in 2013 to turn the relationship between the customer and the showroom on its head. Rather than the customer tour endless showrooms looking for a deal, the deals come to them. Customers win through better service, and dealerships win through more sales. Moving from car reviews to selling cars was a digital transformation that improved customer experience and disrupted showroom sales and the dealership network.
RBS bereavement notification
Our second example is a digital journey to notify a bank of a bereavement. RBS customers can close a bank account for their lost loved one from the comfort of their own home. It’s a better customer experience because:
- There’s no need to visit the branch with documents
- Nothing’s lost in the post
- It’s not only easier, it’s also much faster.
You might think that digital journeys are purely transactional, but things are changing. You can’t get much more sensitive than a bereavement notification. Yet the digital customer experience is better than the non-digital one, which was long & sometimes painful.
Whirlpool increase first time fix
Our final digital transformation helps repair engineers fix customer problems faster. Whirlpool use voice and SMS automation to help engineers carry the right part so they can fix a fault on their first customer visit.
Whirlpool make home appliances and have 1200 engineers and make 6000 customer visits per day. They found that the first visit would diagnose the issue and order the part, with a second visit to fix the issue. This was inefficient and resulted in the customer waiting longer to have their appliance fixed.
A van can hold 780 parts, yet there are 64,000 parts that can go wrong. Having the right part depends on knowing details about the model with the fault. Calling customers before the engineer’s visit is costly and time consuming, so they turned to a digital solution.
An automated SMS & voice robot verifies the model number. As a result, engineers are more likely to carry the part. This means that instead of fixing 1 in 8 drum calls on the first visit, they now fix between 8 & 9 out of 10 on their first visit.
Finally
In these three examples we’ve seen how digital transformation can make a customer experience better. The first showed how customers can tell sellers what they need so they can deliver the best offer. This saves time and delivers a better service. Our second example showed that digital can reduce hassle for customers, making it faster and easier. Finally, automation used to gather essential information to help engineers fix faults sooner. You also might want to check out Why customer experience matters for scale-up design.
As you think through your business activities, where do you want to improve? If cost or time is stopping you, then it’s certainly worth considering a digital solution. We can help you think that through, and help you find affordable options.
KR5 Consulting help businesses to deliver more value, faster and at less cost. We learn what makes your business tick so we can help you with digital technology solutions that work for you. Our job is to help you move faster, increase profits, scale-up, acquire customers and beat the competition.
If you’d like to explore the ideas in this article further or need help and advice, please contact Rogan at rhounsell@kr5consulting.com – to arrange an informal chat.
If you’ve found this blog interesting or useful, please ‘like’, ‘comment’ or ‘share’ so it can help others too.