3 ways COVID19 has driven digital adoption

As the world learns to live with a global pandemic, economic uncertainties and getting used to a balance of working from home. We have just been spoilt by new ways of digitising of lives. There is no denying the mass and swift digital adoption that has been driven by COVID-19.

Businesses and industries the world over has had to make decisions that just last year didn’t seem like such a rush. People and businesses everywhere has been forced to adapt to digital as means of communication. Most of the population were not even aware what a QR code was before the pandemic hit us! Lockdowns meant that digitally communicating with customers was the only channel.

We’ve seen apps like Zoom, Microsoft Team and Slack become more popular than every before as companies strive to ensure their employees are able to work as effectively and efficiently as they can from their homes.

As one CEO of a large tech company recently stated, “We are witnessing what will surely be remembered as a historic deployment of remote work and digital access to services across every domain.”

Never before have we seen such a mass drive to foster and adopt digital transformation. According to recent data, we have catapulted five years ahead in the business and consumer digital adoption in a space of eight weeks! And it’s only going to accelerate even beyond the recovery of the pandemic.

Here are 3 ways COVID-19 has driven digital adoption in business.

 

1) Remote Working

As you’re well aware, many organisations have made the move to remote-working models almost overnight. There’s long been rumours of the need for offices, especially as more and more businesses started adopting work-from-home says throughout the week for their employees, but no one could have predicted that the shift would have happened so quickly.

At Mobiddiction, we stopped using emails about 4+ years go for internal communications and being a digital native business, moving to remote working almost immediately wasn’t that much of a journey. Being a technology company, we were fully digital before COVID19. But, as we’ve noticed with some of our clients, that is not the case with everyone.

“We still get phone calls to our landline.” says Mobiddiction Director, Mike Vasavada. He also said: “Digital adoption is here to stay, COVID-19 has forced us to change habits.”

A Deloitte survey reports that: an overwhelming majority of people currently working from home believe that doing so does not harm their productivity.

According to McKinsely, “A remote-first setup allows companies to mobilise global expertise instantly, organise a project review with 20—or 200—people immediately, and respond to customer inquiries more rapidly by providing everything from product information to sales and after-sales support digitally.”

As much as remote working has been a positive, there is no doubt it has come with its challenges. These include:

• A lack of personal interactions with colleagues and clients
• Feeling isolated
• Distractions

Even so, there have been some businesses that have made the move to being completely virtual for the foreseeable future.

2) Rapid Adoption of Internal Digital Channels

One of the main reasons remote working has been successful is because businesses have been actively adopting a variety of digital channels from which to work from. From internal communications to recording of work and development of databases, digital tools are high in demand. Communication tools like Slack, Zoom Hangouts and Microsoft Team are proving more popular than ever as businesses work to ensure their employees aren’t feeling too lonely.

According to Zoom Info, other digital tools that have been adopted include:

• Docusign (for cloud based document signing)
• EmploymentHero (for HR and Payroll)
• Google Hangouts Meet (for video conferencing)

Mobi has been confident of our adoption of selected internal digital channels over the years. From Slack, Trello, JIRA to Confluence, we’ve always worked off a digitised foundation and we’re excited to see more and more companies are finally coming around and adopting these necessary tools.

Through these times, we are seeing the team at Mobiddiction assist other clients in the uptake and education of how digital can help their business.

3) Customer Behaviour

It goes without saying, just as businesses have had to confront a changed work environment, they also have to face changed customer behaviours whose preferred interactions have shifted. No longer are customers ready to haphazardly venture out of the house to purchase things, instead many have opted for digital services. Companies will have to make sure that their digital channels for engaging with customers are on par, or better than their competitors.

This is especially true when we look at the fact that 75% of people who use digital channels for the first time say they will carry on using them even when things go back to “normal”. One variety-store chain in Europe established a fully functioning e-commerce business in just three months so they could ensure they were keeping up with customer behaviours.

Although it’s important to remember that it’s not just about digitisation.

Businesses that succeed during this time will be those who are able to reimagine customer journeys to ensure they meet safety requirements and new customer or client behaviours.

Whilst many businesses are moving towards digital adoption, it is not always an easy change and you can end up adopting tools you don’t need to. If you’re thinking of embracing this digital adoption, but aren’t sure what strategy is best suited for your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Mobiddiction. Our customised consultancy offering is suited to investigate and meet individual business demands.

Get in touch with us today.