Imagine tube and taxi drivers being replaced with self-driving cars and machines. It’s not that far away. In fact, if Tesla can produce half a million cars by 2020, then Uber CEO Travis Kalanick will reportedly buy them all for his service.

One reason why companies like Uber have been so successful is that technology has allowed them to put the consumer at the forefront. Uber has no legacy of employing cab drivers, so when it implements self-driving cars it won’t be problematic.

This customer-first mindset is creating new revenue opportunities for a number of other disruptive technology companies too, like Commuter Club and AirBnb. As these disruptors arrive on the scene, the biggest risk for larger businesses is not to do anything at all. Larger businesses must address their current customer experience to identify where they could make improvements, and digital often provides the answer. Solving problems with your own customer experience is the only way to ensure that a disruptor won’t come along and solve the problem better and faster.

Here are a couple of examples of how marketers have improved their own customer experience using digital, allowing them to become organisations for the 21st century:

In Education: Salford University

When you compare the student life of Facebook, Instagram and Tinder with the traditional communications channels through which universities handle clearing, like telephone and direct mail, there is a major gap.

The University of Salford was the first university to offer a Tinder-style app “Match made in Salford” aimed at matching students to a course through clearing. This meant that the university could engage students and respond to clearing demands in the way that students are most familiar with; mobile.

The app asks users to ‘swipe left’ or ‘swipe right’ when they are provided with personalised course recommendations based on their grades achieved, course and career of interest. University of Salford saw over 10,000 different users signing up to the matchmaker to find courses, with site engagement (measured by time spent on site) increasing by 264%.

In third sector: The Women’s Institute

The WI had a digital makeover for its 100th birthday so that they could boost online engagement, allowing them to connect with a new generation of members who are increasingly digital. WI events take place in a range of different venues across the UK from village halls to tents so a mobile responsive site was created where WI members could share information and demo the site to new members on the go.

The WI needed a nimble, responsive online companion at all times of the day, on any device and in any environment. By changing its communication to be digital-first, the WI reported a 22% rise in traffic, a 23% rise in new users and a 20% rise in tablet/mobile users in the first month.

Every business can be a disruptor if it champions business transformation internally. If an established business has continually developed and evolved, they can disrupt their own industry before a new player beats them to it, and most excitingly, marketers can lead this charge.

These examples show the impact that thinking digitally can make and highlight how influential marketers can be in the process. Gartner predicts that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on technology than their counterpart CIOs. As marketers become the intersection between technology and customer relations, they can champion innovation across their companies and lead the digital revolution in customer experience within their companies. The influence and advance of digital in the customer experience spells an exciting future for the marketing profession.

 

By Stephen Morgan, Co-Founder at Squiz.

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