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Digital Confidence Will Play A Critical Role In Allowing
Digital Confidence Will Play A Critical Role In Allowing Businesses To Bounce-Back Post-COVID 19
By Kaঞ e Fisher
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While the economic consequence of COVID-19 conঞ nues to unveil itself, we can’t help but watch the transformaঞ on of consumer confi dence. Consumer confi dence denotes positivity towards the economy and personal fi nancial situaঞ on. It is the driving force behind all economic activity. However, in the aftermath of a global pandemic, when consumer confi dence is at its lowest, digital confidence becomes equally as criঞ cal. The widespread call for public social distancing impacted every aspect of daily life. From hospitality, retail and food businesses to medical and banking services, the coronavirus transformed virtually every business into a digital one. As a result, digital confi dence will play a criঞ cal role in allowing businesses to bounceback post-COVID 19. What Is Digital Confi dence?
Digital confi dence refers to both businesses and customers having highly posiঞ ve aম tudes towards engaging through web pages and mobile applicaঞ ons. For businesses, this means trusting that your digital platforms will provide fl awless user experience every ঞ me. Customers too want to share in that confi dence. They want to have full faith in the ability of organisaঞ ons to deliver services via digital
pla orms. But before you can establish digital confi dence amongst your customers, you must fi rst develop it within your own team.
Why Is Digital Confi dence Important?
When your business provides poor digital experiences, it undermines the validity of your products or services. On the other hand, digital confidence can even enhance an otherwise average product. Aled Miles, CEO of Sauce Labs, discusses the importance of digital confi dence in our society. He states: “Let’s think back to the early stages of the 2020 U.S. Democraࢼ c primary elecࢼ on. You had a hasࢼ ly assembled and even more hasࢼ ly rolled out digital voting applicaࢼ on delay and quite nearly undermine the results of the Iowa caucus. The immediate reacࢼ on from both poliࢼ cal organisers and voters alike was to say this is why you can’t trust digital applications for important things like voࢼ ng. In reality, the exact opposite is true. Digital applicaࢼ ons hold great promise as a means to improve the way we do things in the public sphere, and that includes making it easier for more people to vote. Since the onset of the pandemic, we’ve seen that extended to equally criࢼ cal causes like food delivery, telemedicine, and distance learning. The more confi dence we have in organisaࢼ ons’ collecࢼ ve ability to deliver services via digital pla orms, the more apt we are to take advantage of them. But when you have experiences like the one in Iowa, that confi dence is eroded. Instead of using the mobile voࢼ ng app, maybe you don’t vote at all next ࢼ me. If you have a poor experience with a telehealth platform, maybe you ignore a symptom and don’t call the doctor next ࢼ me. If your child has trouble logging in to the e-learning module, maybe they just skip school altogether the next day. In the absence of digital confidence, progress gets stalled. That’s why it’s so important to ensure every company can deliver it.”
How Can Businesses Build Digital Confi dence?
To create digital confidence within your business, you want to be sure that your customers trust the web and mobile applicaঞ ons you are providing. Consider the risks a company might face in the post-COVID world if they are not providing a strong user experience. Digital confidence starts from the top. Business leaders need to recognise the importance of insঞ lling digital confidence in both their team and their customers. The resoluঞ on to put user experience at the forefront must fi rst be made before digital trust can begin to be built. The paradigm shi[ caused by the COVID pandemic means that digital change has had to happen at a rapid pace. It is now necessary to place quality user experience above funcঞ onality when it comes to creating a great digital experience. In order to build digital confi dence, businesses must encourage team members to step out of their silos and work together to create quality digital capabiliঞ es. When teams can work side-by-side, and developers, engineers, product designers commit to building that quality, the silo mentality is broken down. Everyone should be ready to take responsibility for moving toward being a digital business. When developing digital confi dence within your business, you must focus on agility and modernisaঞ on. Conঞ nuously monitoring customer experience and applicaঞ on performance will ensure that quality is always improving. And digital confi dence will follow closely behind. And finally, always remember to take feedback into account. A business should work with the mindset of delivering the best possible user experience for its’ customers. Take their opinions above your own and value how your customers feel about your applicaঞ on and digital presence. You should create a process of conঞ nuous feedback which is available to everyone in the business.
As we begin to bring ourselves out from the plummeting lows of the pandemic that shook the world, it is essential to recognise the changes to business and the consumer. The importance of digital confi dence has extended itself further toward criঞ cal causes like food delivery, digital medicine, and distance learning. The more confi dence we have in organisaঞ ons’ collecঞ ve ability to deliver services via digital pla orms, the more apt we are to take advantage of them. Our reality has transformed, and the push for businesses to engage with customers via digital pla orms has become a requirement for the restoraঞ on of consumer confi dence. In an unprecedented economic scene, businesses and consumers alike will use digital confidence in a critical role to propel us out of instability. Digital confi dence is crucial in allowing enterprises to bounce-back postCOVID 19.
