Acceleration of digital-first customer experiences in the vertical mobility industry

The world today has clearly pivoted to digital and it’s not a case of technology for technology’s case.  Individuals and businesses across industries have changed, adapted and embraced the digital first experience. Unlike the years prior, technology is ubiquitous and pervades every aspect of businesses and goes beyond just product innovation; it forms part of the buying experience, the installation process and the maintenance aspects. In essence, all of this in totality, aims to maximize customer lifetime value. Continual improvement in digital customer experiences is clearly tied to business’ success. While the vertical industry has been at the cusp of this transformation, the pandemic has shone the light brighter on the adaptation and use of technology.  

The start of the changeover began with the introduction of the destination dispatch systems. It is a digitally operated quick dispatching systems that smartly assigns the same car to passengers travelling to nearby floors to minimize the number of stops per trip and avoid car crowding, thus reducing travel times. In response to customer’s challenges arising out of COVID, some elevator industry players introduced enabled mobile phone apps to register an elevator and choose the floor to their destination. Some of these apps are powered by Bluetooth. A user can simply connect, put in the floor information for pick up and drop on the app, and a lift will be allocated within seconds with no to minimum passengers in it. This eliminates the use of touching public access buttons thereby reducing the potential risk of contracting unhealthy germs or viruses. 

Adopting a digital first culture is about adopting a customer centric attitude and goes beyond permeating traditional or the more visible aspects of a business. Technology needs to also be embraced at the process efficiency level and seek to understand how it can add value to customers.  CRM to help manage customer queries, orders and track customer requests are one of those examples. Service digitalization is another manner in which major elevator companies are looking to bring proactiveness to maintenance and offer visibility and transparency to the customer. The elevator and escalator industry is heavily invested in building a digital ecosystem that harnesses the power of real-time data analysis, machine learning and cloud computing. Today, by means of sensors placed atop elevators, field personnel are notified through mobile applications about the elevator health so that potential issues can be fixed proactively, preventing sudden shutdowns. This also helps gather all relevant information so field service personnel can arrive on site with all the requisite tools to get an elevator up and running faster and without the need for multiple visits. By proactively preventing elevator related issues, overcrowding due to an out of service elevator, can also be avoided. Similarly, the installation process too is being digitized so that customers, project managers and field operations teams have access to real time information. 

A digital-first approach seeks to maximize real customer lifetime value by meaningfully engaging customers at every touch point in their journey. Here the company website becomes a very important touch point at the start of the customer experience with an organization. Therefore, tools that allow customers to digitally create their elevators both in terms of design and specifications becomes very crucial, as it gives the customer something valuable to take back home and keeps them coming back to the website and then eventually the company. All the same, it is important for companies to be actively present, in spaces where customers are present. This enhances the availability of the company and their products. The selling of elevators online makes this technology available to a wider audience from the comforts of their homes and the convenience of their laptops or mobile devices. It empowers the customer to choose their elevator specifications, looks and makes available to them, the price in full transparency. 

Digital first is not just merely a catchphrase, it embodies the transformation of a customer first mindset and being present for the customer when and where they want, understanding their inherent needs and evolving ourselves to deliver, just that. At the end of the day, the customer is the centrifugal force in achieving digital transformation.

Authored by Sebi Joseph, President, Otis India