(Originally published elsewhere in 2019) This post follows on from my previous posts on Digital Transformation opportunities and themes, this time focusing on the theme Digital Consumption.
The DTI assessment[1] from May 2018 noted that the following are key themes that have emerged from the analysis of digital transformation across 13 industries (health, retail, professional services amongst others):
- Maximizing return on digital - discussed in a prior post
- Digital Consumption - discussed in this post
- Digital Enterprise - discussed in prior post
- Platform Economy - discussed in prior post
- Societal Implications - future post
- Unlocking Digital Value to Society - future post
Digital Consumption
Digital customers needs and expectations are evolving, and businesses / organisations serving these customers must adapt, primarily through
- Offering experiences rather than products and services. Customer experience is the number 1 priority.
I must list the one that comes to mind first: Amazon principle, Customer Obsession:
Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.
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Hyper-personalisation. Customers expect services tailored and personalized for them. As an example, netflix offers a match percentage when viewing a show, though I sometimes question if it matches anything I want or just matches based on proximity to other shows I may have clicked over. Spotify has the ability to suggest songs or playlists based on other previous playlists and songs a customer has listened to, which helps to promote new songs and playlists ultimately improving the experience of the user.
- Ownership to access, where customers would rather pay for access-based models rather than purchase outright. Think of renting a movie via Apple Movies, or a Spotify subscription where you don’t actually own any of the albums you listen to.
I believe the access-based model is becoming more prevalent, especially as platforms drive us to consume content, video and audio for a subscription fee, and more relevant is likely how many customers prefer that to buying a DVD, CD etc and not enjoying the whole album. The choice and flexibility in offering these experiences is highly desirable to older models of purchasing and ownership, just as an example. In my next post I’ll discuss one the next themes, Digital Enterprise, with more on disruption and innovation of business models, operating models and how the DTI paper suggests new metrics should be added and tracked to gauge performance outside of typical financial indicators.
[1] http://reports.weforum.org/digital-transformation/
Originally published elsewhere on 31 March, 2019.
24+ years experience in solving business problems and maximising opportunities through technology in a variety of industries, public and private sector internationally. I founded architectFWD™ to provide knowledge and trusted advice in the areas of strategy, technology, cloud and digital to enable organisations to become Digital Leaders.