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Table of contents
Introducing the Digital Now
All your customers are digitally demanding
Digital transformation has been on the collective agenda for years.
The concept is not new - it’s been impacting the world and driving growth and innovation long before COVID-19. Contrary to popular opinion, the pandemic hasn’t been so much of a catalyst for digital transformation as the ultimate test of business buoyancy and agility in unsettled times.
The transformation that was already happening may now, thanks to the pandemic, be happening even faster. Businesses that failed to prioritise digitisation before 2019 haven’t just lost the race, they aren’t even in it. The impact of the pandemic is undeniable. It has, according to the 2020 McKinsey Global Payments Report, not only compressed a half-decade’s worth of change into just a few months but also had a profound effect on areas that are typically slow to evolve, such as consumer behaviour1. But this is not just another piece of research dedicated to its accelerating effect.
The reality is far more interesting.
As the results of this new survey reveal, the pandemic has served to increase the adoption of behaviours that were ALREADY gaining traction. The fact is that your customers’ behaviour isn’t changing, it’s already changed.
Gone are the days of analogue consumerism. The digital consumer is here and (SPOILER ALERT) we’re not just talking about digital natives (those who were surrounded by technology from their birth in the new Millennium). The survey shows that older generations have broken free of the digitally dismissive stereotype and the results have uncovered overarching, intergenerational behaviours and expectations.
Our research shows that your customers already have high expectations around the speed and delivery of payments. Digital payment experiences are already an intrinsic part of everyday life, with 44% of people surveyed using mobile or online banking services on a daily basis.
Customers of all ages now expect instant payments, instant receipts and super-easy processes. In fact, the majority say there’s no excuse for brands not to offer the same kind of instant services they enjoy in other areas of their life, as slickly delivered by the Ubers and the Amazons of the world. Even the most technologically sceptical among us are now open to using new financial services or payment methods that make things quicker and more convenient.
These expectations are high across the board, spanning both gender and age. Attitudes that many of us might expect from 18-25 year-olds are shared (and in some cases more widely held) by 40-65 year-olds and those in the 65+ bracket. The overwhelming consensus is that the digital world needs great digital experiences. And that’s a view held by young and old alike, regardless of whether they consider themselves sceptical or enthusiastic adopters of technology.
But while an amazing CX nowadays invariably means a digital one, digital doesn’t always mean a good CX; it’s simply the latest iteration in the customer experience evolution. The stickiness of these behavioural changes will depend entirely on the satisfaction of these new experiences. At the moment, only a third of people surveyed see any type of online service provider fully meeting their expectations when it come to the processes that make or break the customer experience - the payments. Optimising this experience and taking full advantage of the considerable opportunities that this new normal presents is the next digital transformation frontier.
In this eBook, we’re going to help you to navigate this new digital landscape. And, while the survey showed that more than half think we’ll have an almost cashless society within five years, we’re not just jumping on the ‘death of cash’ bandwagon (possible but not probable in the immediate future in our opinion – think less-cash as opposed to cashless). Instead, we’ll look at what we know now about the digitally demanding audience, who they really are, what they really want and how to attract and keep them. We’ll also explore the very different obstacles and opportunities that the Digital Now offers to both challenger companies and more traditional, incumbent organisations. And we’ll give you the recommendations you need to please your digitally demanding customers.
It’s time to stop thinking of the digital future and start catching up with the Digital Now.
