Tag: Dr. Somdutta Singh

Business World

Omni Channel Customer Experience – Why I Believe It Matters More Today Than Ever?

Nov 25, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Assiduus Global, #Dr. Somdutta Singh, #Harvard Business Review

By Dr. Somdutta Singh – CEO and Founder – Assiduus Global

Over the last few years, there haven’t been many marketing concepts that have transformed from an unknown theory to an essential strategy that almost no brand can succeed without and that is omnichannel marketing. Its effectiveness has been proven across industries, and its uses have expanded into many areas, from marketing to customer service.

What Does Omni Channel Customer Engagement Mean?

Pretty much what the name suggests – Multichannel customer engagement refers to companies interacting with customers through multiple channels, such as phone, email, and live chat, with each channel managed in its own platform. ‘Omnichannel’, on the other hand, blends these channels with one another and manages them all from a single, unified console. This provides a cohesive and seamless experience for both the customer and the agent across devices and touchpoints.

Private social messaging has emerged as a significant channel for creating meaningful interactions.  Think about it, we spend a significant amount of time on social media.  We share photos and updates on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, we share ideas and updates via a tweet on Twitter, we connect our professional network on Linkedin.  As consumers, we ALL lead digital lives.

According to a Harvard Business Review, omnichannel customers spend 4% more in-store and 10% more online than single-channel customers. For every additional channel they use, the customer spends more money.

Contrarily, according to Forbes, 80% of businesses believe they provide excellent customer service, but only 8% of customers agree.

The number of channels could increase often. Only five years ago, Facebook was the primary channel of a brand’s concern. You couldn’t even advertise on Instagram yet.  Now, Instagram is the brand leader in channel focus, and TikTok is taking over more and more of a brand marketers’ thoughts daily.

Beyond social media channels, however, an omnichannel customer experience also includes your own website’s UX, lead flow, sales process and customer service.

Simply: Any aspect of your brand that touches a customer or a potential customer is part of your omnichannel customer experience.

Be Where They Are…

Millennials and Generation Z are flexing their spending muscles and quickly becoming dominant consumer groups. Millennials and Generation Z are already trending heavily in this digital-first direction – for example, 60% of them have used private social messaging, such as Facebook Messenger, for customer service, which represents a higher adoption rate compared to their older peers.

Being present in these channels and offering them to your customers creates an incredible opportunity for you to bring your customers closer to your brand.  You’ll increase your interactions and make them more meaningful and in doing so, create strong advocates for your brand.  But this doesn’t mean other generations aren’t using digital channels like online chat and text. In fact, online chat continues to rank first in customer satisfaction on average, across all age groups. Overall, agent-assisted methods, like chat and phone, receive higher ratings than self-service channels.

That might be due in part to the relative immaturity of AI-powered self-service methods, such as chatbots, which today mostly solve straightforward problems. The human touch is still important.

The global omnichannel retail commerce platform market is expected to grow to $11.1 billion by 2023, according to Market Research Future, which also notes that key factors driving the growth of omnichannel retail commerce platform market are the increasing adoption of e-commerce for convenient online shopping purposes and the rising adoption of smartphones and tablets.

Final Thoughts…

A sensible approach to the omnichannel retail strategy is what’s needed for sustained customer experience and improved ROI. This year is going to be a huge year for omnichannel. Other trends to watch out for including instant communication support, removing friction from the checkout process online, and using data better to hyper-personalize the CX. They all have one thing in common: a convergence toward the deliverance of a more intimate, urgent, and emotionally resonant experience. With customer experience becoming the key differentiator in the digital age, slow adopters could soon find themselves behind the times.

Business World

Witnessing The Rise Of A New Wave Of Entrepreneurs

Nov 20, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Assiduus Global, #Dr. Somdutta Singh, #entrepreneurs

By Dr Somdutta Singh – CEO and Founder – Assiduus Global

A crisis can at times act as a catalyst or can speed up changes that are on the way serving as an accelerant. The current COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the very nature of our existence. The phrase social distancing that had hardly been searched till February is now topping the charts. But the crisis could open several doors and nations such as India have the potential to become a manufacturing hub in the face of leading countries such as Japan considering moving their manufacturing operations from China.

In the face of the pandemic, entrepreneurs have to face a new reality: that it is not only a huge sanitary and health crisis affecting millions, but also an unprecedented downturn on the global economy. Supply chains are being interrupted, events are being cancelled, and millions of people around the globe have lost their jobs. There is no doubt that the virus is causing problems and grave suffering for many. But is there a chance that it may also harbour massive opportunities for businesses?

Businesses must navigate the financial and operational challenges of coronavirus while rapidly addressing the needs of their people, customers and suppliers. It has given great impetus to convergence, collaboration and co-creation. It has given us the idea that many can act as one and – that we can do so with ease and speed. At present, we face a challenging virus that has shaken our way of life. To overcome it we need entrepreneurship at the societal and global scales working in collaboration for a collective purpose.

All entrepreneurs are, at heart, problem solvers. They bring a product or service to the market to meet a need or a gap. In the fight against COVID-19, entrepreneurship has taken a lead role in developing contact tracing apps, repurposing factories to manufacture ventilators and PPE, creating makeshift hospitals, and accelerating the search for a vaccine, to name a few examples. Within the new social distancing norms, people have learnt to work, exercise, study, celebrate weddings, conduct concerts and do much more using collaborative digital platforms.

We can now explore an entrepreneurial way of life where enterprises can help communities across the globe solve socio-economic problems while being true to market forces. Maybe it is time for individual enterprise and collective purpose to work in harmony. Not only the scope of entrepreneurship will rise across the globe, but there will also be a drastic growth of startups. These startups will also help in bridging gaps between countries of the world. The increase of entrepreneurship will thereby create several employment opportunities for people.

Let’s take a look at the crucial industries that showcase massive opportunities as the pandemic progresses.

  • The Entertainment Industry

We should see opportunities in Online Entertainment (OTTs). Consumers would not be going to cinema halls and concerts for some time. They have more time to watch videos, movies and TV shows at home. I was reading how the engagement time of a lot of OTTs are up from 20 to 50% in India alone during the lockdown period.

Online gaming is also getting a big boost. As kids can no longer play outside, a lot of the physical playtime is shifting to virtual playtime. Usage on some gaming apps has surged 40% during the lockdown. I am more bullish on social games because they are always new and fresh compared to static games. Something makes me feel, this looks like the demonetization moment for the Gaming industry in India.

  • The Health Industry

Like movie theatres, gyms will be shut for a long time too. There have been a surge in online fitness classes and meditation & therapy apps. Again, how do you make these experiences more social and engaging? I have already written about the gym and their customer engagement stratagems in one of the previous articles.

In fact, counter-intuitively, even clinics and hospital revenue and utilisation have reduced significantly because elective healthcare has been postponed and people are afraid going to a clinic/hospital where there could be a high chance of viral infection. People would prefer online doctor consultation over going to the clinic/hospital. Accordingly, we are seeing a boost in teleconsultation and telemedicine.

  • The Education Industry

Consumers have tested the efficacy of learning online during the lockdown and this should continue even post lockdown. Online education should see a huge boost. This holds true both for curricular courses like UPSC, IIT-JEE, CAT etc but also extra-curricular courses like Guitar, Painting, etc.

Unfortunately, a side effect of the economic shutdown would be layoffs. Many skills that made people employable might not be as valuable. There is, therefore, an urgent need for people to reskill and upskill themselves to find new jobs and a that would lead to a shift in job patterns. Maybe the demand for healthcare workers would increase, and so people need to be skilled for those roles. These might lead to more usage of upskilling platforms for grey/blue-collar jobs.

Lots of schools have come online because you cannot conduct offline classes. Large tech companies have high-quality products for schools. A lot of teachers are using technology to this extent for the first time. We are already seeing a surge in remote work tools and Zoom saw a massive increase in adoption in businesses across the world. Needless to say, once people start working from home more, the difference between a remote worker and at-office worker would not be very high. For industries where it’s doable, we should shift to remote work.

A lot of work conferences will move online. After having attended so many conferences over the past year, I personally think online conferences can be a huge improvement from offline conferences.

  • The Retail Industry

The most impacted offline sectors in the market are supermarkets, restaurants and traditional retail. For each of these spaces, we could see new opportunities because, for the first time in many years, we will have assets that are unutilised and partners willing to work with tech companies. Many small and large enterprises have been deeply impacted, and new companies could be created to serve these companies or customers of these companies better.

Grocery delivery has seen a big peak in demand during lockdown already, and it should continue because many people would prefer not to go out to supermarkets to buy because of fear and in search of convenience. Kirana stores will be digitised further.

For restaurants, we should see innovative cloud kitchen models, or enabling restaurants to be more scalable by working with virtual kitchens. Restaurants are badly hurt and would continue to be bleeding for some time. We are already seeing their eagerness to come to all delivery platforms to ensure they have as much visibility as possible, but this would not be enough.

For fashion retail, live streaming commerce models which enable retailers to showcase and present their products on a larger commerce destination could be viable now. Amazon Live is getting traction in the US where brands are adopting the channel to engage with customers.

What Is To Come?

Companies that wish to experience rapid growth in the aftermath of this crisis, can do so if they become competent or re-purpose in areas that are relevant to economic and social recovery. They will do well if they can capitalize on the transformed mindsets, attitudes, perceptions and behaviours of customers and consumers. This is what will enable strategic competitive advantage in a post-pandemic economy.

Companies that did things well and with a social conscience during the lockdowns may be able to capitalize on a new loyal customer base and trust. And crucially, companies that are thinking ahead may reflect more strategically on looming future crises such as further pandemics or climate catastrophe and provide goods and services in a meaningful way to avert further meltdowns. This means rethinking product and process innovations including supply chain resilience, but also thinking about the value-added of businesses or start-ups to society and as well as their environmental impact. This will be hard to do when economies are failing so badly, so resilient leadership, solidarity, institutional collaboration and the sheer grit demonstrated during the lockdowns will be required.

Business World

Data Strategy – Nailing It & Why It Really Matters By Dr. Somdutta Singh – CEO and Founder – Assiduus Global

Nov 11, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Data Strategy, #Dr. Somdutta Singh

With rapid advances in AI and data science, data has become an essential asset to every enterprise. Setting up a data strategy, therefore, has become every enterprise’s mission, particularly in the C Suite and at Executive levels.

What is a data strategy and how do we create the right data strategy?

Data strategy defined

A data strategy is a common reference of methods, services, architectures, usage patterns and procedures for acquiring, integrating, storing, securing, managing, monitoring, analyzing, consuming and operationalizing data. It is, in effect, a checklist for developing a roadmap toward the digital transformation journey that companies are actively pursuing as part of their modernization efforts. This includes clarifying the target vision and practical guidance for achieving that vision, with clearly articulated success criteria and key performance indicators that can be used to evaluate and rationalize all subsequent data initiatives.

Key takeaway: All aspects of a data strategy should be agile and deliver frequent, iterative value to the business. Such agility enables the strategy to evolve over time, changing as the organization changes and allowing for input and recommendations from all levels of the organization.

The data strategy vision

All organizations make decisions about how they engage with, operate on and leverage their data — whether at an enterprise or project level. Companies that form a holistic point of view in adopting an enterprise-grade data strategy are well positioned to optimize their technology investments and lower their costs. Such a strategy treats data as an asset from which valuable insights can be derived. These insights can be used to gain a competitive advantage by being integrated into business operations.

Organizations that want a smooth transition to becoming data-driven — aligning operational decisions to the systematic interpretation of data — need a plan for advancing their digital transformation journey and treating data as a corporate asset. Creating a data strategy is the first step toward enabling such a plan and increasing the organization’s Analytics IQ. This term refers to an organization’s ability to deploy advanced analytics at every point of interaction — human as well as machine — to continuously improve decision-making quality and accuracy.

The key elements of a good data strategy

To create a robust data strategy, business leaders need to consider many factors. Here are the critical points I would expect to see in a strong data strategy:

  • How are you meeting your data needs? In order to find the right data for you, you must first define how you want to use data. You may need certain types of data for some goals and different types of data for others.
  • How you will source and gather the data? Having identified what you are looking to achieve with data, you can now start to think about sourcing and collecting the best data to meet those needs. There are many ways to source and collect data, including accessing or purchasing external data, using internal data and putting in place new collection methods.
  • How that data will be turned into insights? As part of any solid data strategy, you need to plan how you will apply analytics to your data to extract business-critical insights that can inform decision making, improve operations and generate value.
  • What are the technology infrastructure requirements? Having decided how you want to use data, what kind of data is best for you, and how you might want to analyse that data, the next step in creating a robust data strategy is considering the technology and infrastructure implications of those decisions. Specifically, this means deciding on the software or hardware that will take your data and turn it into insights.
  • What are your data competencies within your organisation? In order to get the most out of data, it is essential to cultivate certain skills. There are two main routes to developing data-related competencies in your organisation: boosting your in-house talent and outsourcing the data analysis.
  • What about data governance? Collecting and storing data, especially personal data, brings serious legal and regulatory obligations. Therefore, it is vital any organisation factor data ownership, privacy and security issues into their data strategy. Ignoring these issues, or failing to properly address them, could see data go from a huge asset to a huge liability.

Here are my final thoughts. In business, information is power, and Big Data is providing information we couldn’t have dreamed of collecting or analysing just a few short years ago. With the massive growth in Big Data, plus the rapidly evolving methods for analysing data, the importance of data across every aspect of business will only increase. Those companies that view data as a strategic asset and develop robust data and analytics strategies are the ones that will succeed in this new data-driven world.