Digital Transformation – Age of Instant Gratification!!

Remember the scenario of 1990s office environment:

• We had our family photos pined on the board,
• Our contacts were written by our hands and arranged in alphabetical order for easy retrieval,
• For calling anyone we used to have one black dialing phone at the end of the hall
• Most of the time outside dialing was allowed to only select few privileged seniors,
• We used yellow post-it stickers to put our thoughts on the bulletin board,
• Any software delivery to customer was copied on the 8 inch floppy disk and shipped across continents to be hand delivered.

Now fast forward to 2016 – we have Twitter and blogs to post our thoughts, Pinterest and Instagram to post our photos, no more wait for calling anyone, Facebook to talk to friends, smartphone to store our contacts, we can do not only audio but video calls via Skype or Face Time and software deliveries are instant via email.

Today we live in the world of instant gratification and digital transformation is making it happen.

Our smartphones have become more important than our spouses. We can’t live without them. They can do the jobs of alarm clock, camera, radio, torch, music systems, maps, books, news channels, credit cards, language translators & play games. We can do anything and everything from anywhere at any time. They are no more just a communication device, but has become our life’s remote control.

Here are some examples of Instant gratification – here and now!!

UberRUSH – Delivery service by Uber with ability to directly talk to/ chat with couriers to track the package in real time instead of notification or sms alerts.

Click and collect your merchandise, multi-channel easy returns, free WiFi access while shopping, the ability to check stock online, update customer via beacon technology… these all can enhance the high street experience, bringing it more real time to customers.

An experiment of customer experience started at LaGuardia Airport, where food and Beverage Company OTG had set up 300 tablet kiosks located in the terminal. As a traveler, you can use the tablet to check flight status, order food, play games or shop at airport stores. When you order food or purchase products, they can be delivered to you at your gate. While improving the travel experience, this is also creating more revenue for the restaurants and shops. This new approach has become so successful that it is being rolled out at other airports. This is instant happiness to customers.

Digital transformation is helping to reduce customer information gaps, wait times and frustrations.

"We will revert immediately" is not fast enough. Customer wants the service NOW!!