The Challenge
One of the largest global suppliers of hospitality products had been experiencing a plateau in sales growth as emerging competitors were disrupting their customer service-oriented differentiation. With a shift in customer expectations and competitive landscape, the company was motivated to undertake a digital transformation that would deliver a better customer experience. To accelerate the transformation, Point B was engaged to develop a digital strategy and roadmap – one of the first key initiatives was a redesign of e-commerce. Knowing that this high-investment initiative had limited business ownership, digital capability maturity and analytic rigor to manage their key sales channel, the company re-engaged Point B to help them elevate their e-commerce experience.
Evaluating Needs
Our initial diagnostic of the organization’s capability to manage the e-commerce platform and overall customer experience revealed significant challenges that risked the success of the e-commerce program and larger digital transformation. We discovered a lack of business ownership, undefined strategy and goals, limited governance and processes to manage priorities and investments, and general underdeveloped digital capabilities.
Internally, these gaps, duplications and misalignments slowed down processes and resulted in a high cost of service. Externally, customers were frustrated with the service and our client saw limited adoption of their e-commerce efforts. To establish an e-commerce program structure that drives accountability and speed, Point B recommended establishing an e-commerce business owner that would uphold a goal based approach, align the organization on priorities, and design to strategic customer objectives.
Additionally, Point B highlighted the need for a longer term evaluation and organizational design to ensure continued success of the program.
Reframing and Refreshing
Point B evolved the company’s focus from tactical management of e-commerce to a broader outlook on management of the customer experience and the interdependency of all channels across the customer journey. To establish a program with the right framework and governance we:
- Evaluated and selected a full-service design and integration agency for customer research, experience design and SAP Hybris implementation.
- Outlined the e-commerce program structure, escalation paths, and prioritization approach to drive accountability, speed, and value-based decisions.
- Supported the role of the interim e-commerce business owner to drive alignment of decisions to program priorities.
- Developed a blueprint of customer experience (CX) and digital capabilities and conducted an organization gap assessment to outline a proposed organization structure for our client’s e-commerce, CX and marketing functions.
Improved Business Amenities
While our client is still in the early stages of e-commerce adoption, they now have the right framework in place to improve sales and operational efficiencies as well as realize increased margin by offering a better digital customer experience to existing and new clientele alike.
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