Earlier this month, Matt Brittin, President EMEA business and operations at Google, confidently told the annual convention of the U.K.’s Institute of Directors, “In today’s world every business is a digital business,” and I would have to agree.
We are moving into a digital-first Britain, with UK consumers confirming that they are ready for a nation that is “digital by default”. Recent research suggests that over a fifth of us will always opt for a digital-first approach, when a digital service is offered. Driven by a desire to speed up (66%) and simplify (62%) everyday processes, the results show a digitally confident nation, one that is seeking to move faster towards a digital future (39%).
From booking a holiday to ordering takeaways, and paying utility bills to fulfilling a medical prescription, consumer experiences are becoming increasingly digitally-led. The demand for digital services that can provide access to anything, from anywhere, at any time on any device has only shown no sign of slowing down.
In this digital era, businesses large and small can no longer afford to see progressive technology as a ‘nice to have’, but must understand the crucial importance of listening to the needs of the end user.
To cater to this demand, many industry sectors are seeing digital IT overhauls of their legacy approach as an absolute necessity and are prioritising such projects. Yet some are still struggling to make the transition – whether it is purposefully ignoring the digital demand of their customers or genuinely having a lack of understanding as to how to do it.
Financial Services is the Digital Hero
To explore the growing interest in digital services, Fujitsu commissioned research to compare the performance of organisations across different industry sectors to see just how well they are delivering on a digital reality. According to the research, the Financial Services sector outperformed all other industries, achieving the highest levels of usage and satisfaction amongst consumers.
Why? Because consumers’ expectations of Financial Services’ providers have changed and the knock-on effect for business has been huge. The report reveals that online banking took the top slot for both “most valued” and “most used” digital service across all sectors (67% and 63% respectively), proving the sector is on its way to meet the high demands of its customers. In addition to this, the report also revealed that financial digital services are considered the most important in the day-to-day lives of consumers (62%).
Perhaps not surprisingly, online shopping is a close second – being one of the most valued (63%) and actually topped out as the most used (66%) digital service, with one in four consumers always choosing a digital option when available when it comes to Retail. It is also arguably the sector that has provided what others have failed to – a multi-channel experience that empowers customers to shop in a way that suits them; whether that is online shopping, click and collect or visiting the high street. Argos, for example blends the digital and physical worlds by replacing its paper catalogues with tablets that let customers pay instantly and fast-track the shopping process. It has also teamed up with Blippar, an augmented reality app that lets people scan from physical catalogues to retrieve more information on mobile devices. Fashion retailers, including Top Shop, are also using augmented reality to let shoppers “try on” products.
Whilst Retail and Financial Services continue to digitally excel on the whole, it is important for those who have not yet embraced digital to start thinking about it to avoid being left behind by their digitally-savvy competitors.
Digital advocates lagging behind
And it is not just us as customers – continually championing the digital revolution, the UK Government has also created a demand curve that it is now under increasing pressure to meet.
This is a two-way pull – the Government has cited more digital services as one way to get the deficit down (and I believe they were the first to coin the phrase “digital by default”). This is coupled with an expectation for both Central and Local Government departments to provide citizens with the same sophisticated digital services that they are offered by commercial enterprises. The knock-on effect is more pressure on the Government to meet this new standard of demand and deliver the same kind of digital services that citizens have come to expect across other industries.
Fujitsu’s research revealed that whilst we are reaping the benefits of Central Government-led digital applications, citizens and even employees in the Government sector are vocal in their demand to see even more progress in this space. 20% of citizens wanted to see improvements to Central Government digital services, whilst almost a quarter of Central Government employees strongly agreed that more investment in technology applications is needed.
The Government – both Local and Central – needs to find its ‘Uber’ moment.
This is no mean feat, however – whilst the push for digital in Central Government doesn’t stem from market competition as it does for other sectors, the Public Sector struggles to lure citizens to opt for the digital route with incentives like discounts or other benefits, and “digital by default” is easier to say than deliver for those sectors of the population who need these services the most yet are less comfortable with accessing them digitally.
To effectively meet this digital demand, Government Departments may need to work more closely together to provide that incentive that citizens need to start using these digital services – this may be as simple as making changes in internal processes that lead to better service for the customer – for example by cross-departmental data sharing and integration resulting in users not needing to provide multiple data sets for similar transactions.
A digital-first Britain
Whilst Britain is on the right path for digital greatness, education and support in this transition is essential. For most Private Sector businesses, offering a digital front-end is critical to survive and avoid being left behind by the online pure-plays. In the Public Sector is equally essential for survival – in their case to be able to continue to deliver a service despite sweeping budget cuts.
Set against this background, the platform is not only burning, it is frankly an inferno… and no sector is doing sufficient to be truly complacent.
Only by collaborating, learning from others and facing this issue head-on can we ensure Britain becomes a digital-first nation, taking its place on the world stage as a leader in digital services and an example to the rest of the world.
