Published in Digital Journal by Jack Derricourt, May 3, 2017.
Businesses of varying sizes are facing increasing pressure to go digital, as lean, data-driven competition pushes ahead. Management consultants at Say Yeah look to the challenge of helping companies make the transformation to digital.
Say Yeah founder and CEO Lee Dale is no stranger to the growing pains of getting a company to move forward with digital projects.
When Virgin Gaming hired Say Yeah, they were struggling to get customers to put money in their gaming accounts. The largely manual process had customer service reps jumping between multiple applications, carefully checking each step along the way in order not to lose any money. With each customer service rep having to use five separate documents for each case, with up to 45 steps included each time, there were multiple chances for human error. Meanwhile, the customer was waiting for a long period of time before being able to access their funds.
Despite having a digital offering, it was not optimized for the customer experience.
Say Yeah used a combination of research and data analysis to optimize the service and learn how the customer’s overall experience could be improved in what was undeniably an overly complicated process.
Recommendations made by Say Yeah included automation to reduce time and human error, information-design to improve the workflow and improved communication and speed to meet client requests. Virgin Gaming was able to reduce a 45-step process that was stressful for both customers and employees into a simple three-step list of tasks for each customer service rep.
Virgin Gaming is one example of how Say Yeah looks at customer journeys, going to the heart of the changes that are being driven by social environments. Dale addresses this priority in the form of a simple question: “How do you provide meaningful service across those spaces that people are using?” The geography of digital is vast, and it’s important to focus the particular mix of devices, contexts or locations that will impact a business or a product.
The key is to approach a business from the customer’s perspective and an appreciation that it typically involves more than just one interaction leading to a sale — it’s about addressing the entirety of a customer’s interactions, including the post-purchase experience, to get a better idea of where a business could create more value.
By identifying the customer journeys that are going on around your business, and continually evaluating this process from the customer’s point of view, value can be created out of better understanding of how they’re interacting with a company in a digital space.
For Dale, who founded Say Yeah in 2008 when mobile began to take shape with the iPhone’s release, digital transformation is all about helping businesses find efficiencies and make smarter decisions.
“Regardless of the level of digital literacy within an organization, there are missing pieces,” Dale said. Say Yeah will begin its process of working with businesses by auditing workflow and setup in order to determine if there are missing pieces in a business process. In addition, Say Yeah will advise a business on where they think the value is for the customer, a focal point that is key to growing a digital footprint and funnel that attracts customers.
Dale says it’s all about being practical and setting sights on the more immediate goals for any business looking to innovate. The majority of customers that approach the Toronto-based management consulting company come to Say Yeah with a problem that needs fixing. More often than not, technology provides a solution.
A recent study by the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) shows that businesses understand the need to go digital. But a majority of businesses and companies surveyed by CFIB are still dragging their feet on things like data and multiple channels of social media — there’s more to digital life than just Facebook, after all.
While the company began by focusing on small- and medium- sized businesses, Say Yeah now works with larger companies from a variety of backgrounds — financial services, insurance, sports work and various B2B organizations. They’ve also partnered with Digital Main Street in Toronto to be a part of helping small businesses go digital in the city.
There are multiple things to consider when making the jump to digital. When it comes to looking at customer journeys and finding value and efficiencies, regardless of the project or scale, digital tools and processes can give businesses the leg up they need.