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Technology

Technological transformation: a challenge for business culture

The automation of analog to digital processes has changed the way organizations understand technology in their businesses. Precisely for this reason, it is necessary to start by transforming the business culture.

Eight out of ten organizations are in a process of digital transformation, in which their greatest challenge is to consolidate in the new 4.0 economic model hand in hand with a technological strategy. This change,  according to a study  carried out on 600 business leaders from Colombia, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, takes between one, three and up to six years depending on the country for 76% of the companies.

Now, where should companies start their adaptation to a technological context? The first step requires a change in the organizational culture in order to accelerate and lead the disruption processes within an increasingly demanding environment in which, in addition, the starting point must be known to facilitate the transformation process. Because just as technology must evolve, so must the strategy, the culture and the team.

This new focus shapes organizational structures to find the best benefit between human- machine relationships  . For example, 1,300 executives from human resources or talent areas,  according to The Future of HR survey , are training and transforming their workforce, people, and functions according to their needs in the short or medium term.

In a context in which  digital  is growing exponentially and technology is omnipresent, questions arise regarding how the new work culture that prioritizes the employee and the development of new roles should be managed.

The key to this digital start is to rethink internal processes: long-term planned projects, activities without a strategy or lack of co-creation between teams, to give rise to measurements through data, short-term planning, programs that are on the based on trial and error to iterate and, in case it does not work, reduce money and time.

Another factor in this transformation process is the technological infrastructure, because it must connect talent and give them more efficiency through digital tools such as  chatboxes , open or customized platforms, control systems, and microservices.

What elements should be taken into account in the transformation process?

  • Leadership:  the success of a company in a digital environment depends not only on the company’s technological level, but also on the ability of its managers and leaders to drive change. In this case, agile management styles, the implementation of new sources of income and opportunities that manage adaptation are key.
  • Business model:  transforming business culture also requires companies to be willing to analyze their value proposition, customer segmentation, value creation with alliances or value capture, in terms of costs and sources of income.
  • Culture:  technology is permeated by culture and organizational context. This can facilitate technological transformation or complicate it. The first step is to adopt agile methodologies, promote a culture of innovation and have technology as an ally.

How to implement a digital culture in organizations?

Its implementation must be carried out by designing employee experiences with purpose to align the strategy from different levels:

1

leaders

They are the ones who must launch the process of technological transformation within the culture of companies. Through strategies, tools and leadership they will be able to give the team greater results.

2

Equipment

The digitization of companies must be adapted to the needs of the teams and provide them with tools that streamline their work, including process automation and digital skills in e-commerce management, cybersecurity, online  customer service  , user experience  from online channels,  marketplace  and data and information management.

3

Around

Each area or team must co-create and communicate with each other, in order to promote spaces within the company aimed at innovation that allow us to lose fear of change.

Finally, it is important to take into account that technological transformation must be progressive and must go hand in hand with an organizational culture that fosters models of innovation, knowledge management, interaction between interdisciplinary teams and the use of technologies such as big data , computing in the cloud or artificial intelligence.

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Technology

The most important thing about the user experience is onboarding

The first impression does matter. This is precisely the basis of  onboarding , the guide process for new users to find value in a product or service through  software . We tell you what you should know about this process.

A platform can get 75% of the users in the first week. However, at the end of the month if the experience on the tour is negative, you can go from having 100 to 4 assets, according to a study by  Appcues.

Even 8 out of 10 users delete an application because they do not know how to use it and 55% of people in the world do not consume products online because they do not understand how to buy or acquire it, according to the Wyzowl statistics report  .

This is why implementing technological transformation through  onboarding goes beyond retaining users. It is necessary to apply user experience and usability strategies to improve a person’s navigation from the first time they visit a platform, taking into account the following:

1

understand your audience

You must know what type of public you are selling to. This way you will be more assertive with the strategies you implement, you will know how to remove the obstacles that people encounter during their  onboarding  and what support information to provide the user to improve their experience. In addition, at this point it is key to know what the pain points are. This helps to know how to communicate to the target audience and offer your portfolio strategically.

For this, it is important to take into account four key concepts:

  • Emotions:  sensations that users experience with your platform, product or service.
  • Memories:  perceptions that the user has about the brand and after the first impression when browsing a platform to access your service or product.
  • Behaviors:  consumption habits that are generated with content.
  • Results:  viability of the strategy, that is, if it works or not for your audience.
2

Give importance to support communication

According to an article in  Hubspot: The ultimate guide to customer onboarding , after “the initial greeting or welcome message, it is necessary to complement the user experience with tutorials or guides that explain to people how to access the service more easily or product. Once you deliver value with what you offer, people will want to be in constant contact with your portfolio through a platform.”

“Connecting customers with the brand from the first experience increases revenue by 25% to 95%, compared to existing users providing 65% revenue,” according to  global software provider  HelpScout .
3

Analyze strategy metrics

To improve the assertiveness in the strategy implemented during the  onboarding experience  that the user experiences, it is key to analyze the metrics, in order to iterate and implement new ones if necessary. If these are effective, consumers are more loyal to the brands. Even companies that provide a satisfactory experience to their customers grow their revenue between 4% and 8%, above the market standard,  according to customer service statistics from  Bin & Company .

4

Use tools that facilitate the experience

Below we share some recommended tools to implement and improve  onboarding .

  • Intuition HQ:  carry out with this tool an analysis of the actions and interactions that users carry out on your platform.
  • Browsershots –  Validates that the browsing experience is the same for all users no matter what type of browser they use.
  • Crazyegg:  Analyze data on how many users interact with your platform.
  • Google Analytics:  This is one of the most widely used tools to measure user visits, interactions, and other actions on a platform.
  • Pingdom:  guarantee a higher number of visits taking into account speed, load and response reports from your platform.

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Technology

Digital transformation of business financial management

Centralize information and integrate areas: that is the purpose of a digital transformation. In this case, we will talk about how to transform financial management to meet strategic objectives.

The financial management of a company represents a backbone, since it is the one that shapes the bottom of the business strategy. In this sense, we cannot think of a business technological transformation without including accounting responsibilities within it.

And it is that today companies face the great challenge of extracting and processing data in real time, to redesign strategies and find new business opportunities. It is time for the financial directors of the companies (CFOs) to understand that they must think about new practices that allow the optimization of their processes and facilitate their integration with other areas of the organization. These are some technologies that can be implemented.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Removing repetitive tasks from people and leaving them in the hands of robots or software tools  this is what RPA enables. As explained by Ignacio Ignacio Carou, general manager of  2NV , in the article  Robotic Process Automation: the trend that brings robots to offices , accounting and financial management is exposed to daily tasks such as registering invoices payable and receivable , the management of approvals and others, which are usually very exhausting. Now, with the implementation of this technology, all this information is stored automatically, accurately and without possible human errors.

SaaS Solutions ( Software as a Service )

The key is in the use of clouds. Yes, share information in real time and from anywhere. Centralizing the relevant information for financial management in one place allows you to store large amounts of files. With these  services , companies do not need to install software systems , but rather it is possible to access them from an Internet browser. Thus, program update problems that delay the operation are avoided.

Technology will not replace human talent and should not be seen as an ultimate goal, but as a means to achieve business objectives.

Electronic billing

It is about the evolution of the traditional method to a process in which the invoices are generated by means of a  software,  which implies a saving in printing and delivery costs of the documents. In addition, it allows you to store all the information easily and safely. According to the  DIAN , it has the same legal validity as a paper invoice and can be received by email, software  or  a server. To implement this model, you must have tools that meet the technical specifications required by the DIAN and a digital signature certificate.

How to invoice electronically?

  • Through self-developed software.
  • Through a technological ally like Cadena. Find out about our electronic invoicing service here.
  • Using the free billing service of the DIAN.

And all this for what?

In addition to productivity and optimization, including technological transformation in financial management guarantees assertive decision making. The CFO is a key ally for the management of the company; because, as explained in the publication Financial Transformation: A More Strategic Business Partner, “through technology, critical accounting and finance data is always available, without the need to wait ‘close’ once a month to know how the company is doing. Download the full publication here.

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Technology

The success of the customer service culture is based on your experience

Customer satisfaction goes beyond having an attractive space, friendly employees, and timely attention to complaints. Companies like Éxito generate a customer experience that anticipates their needs and is consistent across all channels.

More and more companies are adjusting their business strategy, and even their organization chart, to create, implement and improve the customer experience.

Marcela Quintero, Director of Experience and Success Service, shares how they went from focusing on service to considering that it is part of the customer experience. “Service is no longer a differentiator, it is something that all customers take for granted, so now our goal is to make life easier for people and their interactions with all brands” .

Four attributes are based on the Successful consumer experience: customer obsession, simplicity and speed, trust and omnichannel.

One of the characteristics that a customer experience must have is that each interaction is homogeneous and for them, its planning, execution, evaluation and improvement is key.

In the case of Éxito, the challenge is great because it is a multi-brand, multi-channel and multi-format company, but in the last two years work has been done to achieve it. Marcela Quintero explains how they are doing it.

1

Knowledge

Listening to the customer is key. You need to know what dreams and what hurts in order to anticipate your needs. To find out how he sees, what he says and what he thinks of a brand, the following are analyzed: social networks,  call center metrics, what it says at store service points and in the emails sent to customer service.

The  customer journeys  for each brand and channel are very important because they allow us to determine if the customer experience that was proposed is fulfilled in the different interactions.

2

learn from others

A benchmarking exercise was carried out   to find out what customer experiences are like today in sectors other than those of the business, for example: banking, airlines, health, insurance.

3

Design, adjustments and commitments

From listening and knowledge, a matrix is ​​created that allows finding out what aspects must be modified to improve the experience, from this, actions are prioritized and processes and protocols are adjusted.

Knowing the customer and the dynamics of their interactions was essential for Éxito to quickly adapt to the new needs of consumers due to the pandemic.  To satisfy the desire for security , Buy and collect  was enabled , which allows you to make purchases by WhatsApp and go through them to the stores, the response capacity to homes was multiplied and the points of sale were adapted with biosecurity measures higher than those established by state regulations.

Marcela Quintero emphasizes that in order for the customer experience to materialize, it is essential to have the support of the directives to make the changes and with the participation of all the members of the organization, it is no longer just the responsibility of the employees of the point of sale.

In order to offer a satisfactory customer experience, it is necessary to maintain clear and timely communication that allows consumers to be made aware of the promise of value, as well as the characteristics of the products and services offered.
 

Changes in measurement tools and approach

We went from measuring the level of satisfaction through face-to-face surveys with 55 questions to using metrics with variables defined by the client, to receiving data immediately and obtaining more spontaneous responses with just three simple questions: would you recommend us? Were you satisfied? And from 1 to 10, what was the level of effort in the interaction with the brands and the different channels?

In order to obtain information more quickly, these agile mechanisms were enabled to give customers greater facilities to comment on the experience or answer questions:

to.  An email is sent to the customer the day after the purchase.

b.  The purchase strips have a QR code.

c.  In the boxes there is POP material with QR code.

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Technology

Experiencia de marca: otras necesidades, nuevas experiencias

Hamburguesas El Corral redesigned the brand experience with its customers to respond to the needs generated as a result of the pandemic. New service channels and processes were created and adapted in record time to bring their products to consumers without losing the essence of their brand.

With the knowledge obtained in years of attention in points of sale and  customer journeys  defined and analyzed, the customer experience of Hamburguesas El Corral was adjusted according to new research findings and listening in social networks.

But the pandemic arrived and the closure of the restaurants constituted a barrier to their operation because their service culture is based on hospitality, that is, their employees are hosts and their clients are guests, and given the circumstances they could not receive your guests.

By obtaining important data from customers and the sales process in the different channels, El Corral generated more personalized communications and was able to measure the performance of the new processes and customer satisfaction on a daily basis to detect opportunities for improvement.

The contingency measures announced a few days in advance only allowed operating with addresses and they did not have, only a low percentage of sales were made through an external platform. “This reality forced us to change the scheme and the way of relating to our Consumers. Now we are going to him”, explains Pilar Rodríguez, his Marketing manager.

To achieve this, the company had to believe in its potential for innovation, make processes more flexible, work with all areas to do in days what used to take months, as well as decide and create solutions and new channels in a phased manner.

Agility and confidence

The first step was to enable the Neighbor Plan with homes a few blocks from the restaurant. In parallel, the hiring of personnel, biosafety training, establishment of delivery points for addresses in stores and the production of uniforms, boxes to transport orders and packaging with security seals and double bags to avoid contact were carried out.

A few weeks after the mandatory confinement in Colombia, the operation of a call center began,   which was set up  in-house  with the store cashiers because they already knew the  ordering software  . Updates were made to improve order traceability. and obtain customer data to get to know them better and achieve more personalized communication.

Although the implementation of the electronic commerce channel was planned for the medium term, the dynamics of the business accelerated its start-up and began operating in June. With the new channels, customer service for PQR was complemented with a customer support strategy and immediate attention via WhatsApp for situations that could arise for the consumer.

Back to El Corral

For those who consider that despite the biosecurity measures it is more convenient to personally go through the purchase, the  Take Out was established. While for those who want to leave home, the car service was created in the parking lot and in the restaurants in country areas, picnic areas were provided to give families a space to enjoy the outdoors after months of confinement.

In order for the adjustment of the customer experience and the adaptation process to occur with agility, it was essential to have committed employees and an organizational culture focused on the satisfaction of those who consider themselves guests.

Knowing the  insights  that arose from the extraordinary situation and the  costumer journey  of the new channels, made it possible to find new opportunities to quickly adapt and grow a business that received its consumers in restaurants and now also reaches their homes.

the original recipe

In order to provide a customer experience consistent with its  brand DNA  in the new channels and services created by El Corral, factors such as:

  • The feeling of security that customers needed to open the doors of their homes to the products
  • Provide customers with access to information on telephone numbers to request addresses, how to use electronic commerce or receive help.
  • The temperature at which the food should arrive.
  • The reduction of the times for taking orders and their delivery.
  • Purchases made on the weekend as an indulgence

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Technology

Artificial intelligence in digitalization and document management

In the digitization process of 77,153 documents required by the National Federation of Coffee Growers, Cadena incorporated artificial intelligence techniques to make it much more efficient in terms of time, physical and technological resources, making it accurate and meeting customer expectations.

The “Support for the renewal of coffee plantations” program is one of the most important of the National Federation of Coffee Growers because it allows coffee growers in the country to access public resources to carry out special treatment or renovation activities in their coffee plantations, because while they grow they reduce their productivity, which is why it is essential to keep them young to guarantee good productivity and quality. And this is what the program allows, which emerged in 1998 and after a pause between 2012 and 2015,  resumed in 2016 and since then the Federation has the need to digitize, every year, the documents of the beneficiaries.

“Because it is a program that works with public resources, we must respond to different entities, which is why it is key for us to have all the documents of the people who participate in the program digitized, so we avoid loss and can keep them more easily,” explains Sandra. Milena Mojica Sanabria, Technical Management of the Federation.

Cadena also developed a web platform for storing, consulting and viewing digitized documents (captured images and data).

In the 2018 edition, 77,153 coffee growers from 16 cities of the country participated. For the digitization process of the documentary supports, which were a total of 555,000 pages, the Federation contracted Cadena, which carried out three specific activities in information management: image capture, data capture (registration format  , verification format and farm visit format) and loading and feeding of an online platform for consultation of interested parties.

That was the process

As there were many pages that had to be digitized, including data capture and structured storage for the files,  Cadena decided to automate part of the process by incorporating artificial intelligence techniques, which made it possible to identify the different types of formats and classify them accordingly. automatic , that is, after capturing the images of the documents of the participating coffee growers, the system determined what type of format it was and, additionally, identified the corresponding fields from which the data required by the Federation should be extracted.

The artificial intelligence techniques used were two:  artificial vision and natural language processing , which in other words, allow the computer to identify and interpret what is contained in one or another document. Likewise, two types of training and learning were used for the system:  supervised , in which part of the human team taught the system and audited the captured data, which really corresponded to what was registered; and  unsupervised , in which the system did it autonomously.

Additionally, as Juan Camilo Sánchez, one of those responsible for executing the project, explains, “ we had to identify each of the folders, know the name of each one and the documents that we had to store in them, we did this with artificial intelligence. From Cadena we set out to do this project in the shortest time and make a much more efficient use of technological resources”.

For Juan Camilo, the most challenging part of the digitization and management of these documents was having the data of the coffee growers written manually because the calligraphy varied, “it was not easy to get the computer to properly identify and interpret the different letters and characters, but we did it and in the end, the result was satisfactory both for us and for the client”, he affirms and emphasizes that  the application of these artificial intelligence techniques in document management is recommended so that the process is much more practical and efficient in terms of time, resources, personnel and even physical spaces.

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Technology

Use of artificial intelligence in Agrosavia

Soil analysis is one of the most important activities for crop production in the country. For more than a year, the Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation, Agrosavia, has implemented artificial intelligence in this process to make it more efficient and provide more precise recommendations.

Through soil analysis, an agronomist can know the physical characteristics and chemical properties that it has and, based on the results, recommend to the farmer, according to what his crop needs, supplements and nutrients that allow him to achieve his production objectives. .

Agrosavia has provided this service to the country’s producers since 2007, but it has gained greater relevance and scope since 2015 thanks to the “Before sowing, the soil must be analyzed” program, which in agreement with the courier company Servientrega allows farmers to of more than 900 municipalities in Colombia to access the analysis of their soils so that they have planned production processes and better results.

The prediction made by the AI ​​model is of the nutrients required by the analyzed soil.

In order to contribute more and more to the development and strengthening of this sector, and given the success of the program, in 2018 Agrosavia joined forces with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies, Mintic, to implement artificial intelligence in this process and acquire a system  that facilitate the management of information in the laboratory.

According to Rafael Pedraza Rute, Laboratory Information Management Coordinator, for this program they acquired a LIMS system that has allowed them to improve management and communication with farmers who request the study of their soils.

And the implementation of artificial intelligence was possible because they had a large amount of historical data from the results of soil analysis and the fertilization recommendations that agronomists make.  With IBM Watson they developed the algorithm and the AI ​​model that would allow them to make predictions about the nutrients that the soil needs, for this they used nearly 10,000 fertilization recommendations.

How does your AI model work?

  • The LIMS system sends the data that is valued in the laboratory, for example, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, iron, magnesium, calcium, among others, to the AI ​​model, which based on these and historical information makes a prediction amount of nutrients that a farmer should apply to his soil to improve its characteristics.
  • The agronomist in charge checks if this prediction is correct or if an adjustment needs to be made. If it needs to be done, he does so and the AI ​​model saves it and learns from this new information.
  • With the correction and validation of the agronomist, the model delivers a PDF file that will be uploaded to a portal so that the farmer can see the results of the study of his soil and the respective recommendations.

Main achievements

Initially, the AI ​​model they developed was trained on information from 200 types of crops. Today the best predictions that it makes are those for which there is more data: coffee, citrus, avocado, blackberry, grass … of the others, for example, custard apple or other fruits, more information is required so that you are increasingly more expert in these and make fewer mistakes.

From the implementation of this technology, Rafael highlights that  they have been able to speed up and be more efficient in predictions and recommendations. Before the team made 18 recommendations a day, now they make 36.  “We have increased our capacity for action, but we know that it will get better every time because the system continues to learn, we must reduce the errors that the agronomist must correct.”

Likewise, he says that they have improved the response time to farmers and the presentation with the recommendations that they deliver to them.

Without a doubt, “it is a technology that has served us a lot and we want to continue advancing in its implementation in other processes to be increasingly efficient and precise with what we do and recommend,” concludes Rafael.

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Technology

Making the move to e-commerce in the midst of a pandemic

Muma, a Colombian company dedicated to the manufacture and sale of furniture, very quickly activated its e-commerce to take advantage of the market opportunities generated by the current situation.

Before the pandemic,  the website of Muma , a company that is mainly dedicated to furniture for business and corporate spaces, was oriented towards sharing the products of its portfolio and the experience with them, not so much towards transactionality because most of its customers were businesses (B2B) and not the final consumer (B2C). For this reason, the e-commerce channel, although it was in the company’s plans, was not seen as a priority.

However, due to the global situation caused by the coronavirus, they immediately focused on this business model, even without being fully prepared; They understood that it was the way to respond to the new needs of users and to continue generating value .

Álvaro José Diaz, manager of Muma, explains that they worked on what they already had and  did so under a model of iteration and continuous learning : “we look for the fastest way to iterate, sell and validate the market premises, we change the way of communicate, also the pricing model for that channel and we adapt the structure of internal support and logistics”.

“The transactions on our website were very small, now it has become a very important business unit. We have sales expectations, technological developments and strengthening processes in this channel”,  Álvaro José Diaz, manager of Muma.

What Muma did, a company with almost 70 years of experience and with a presence in the main Colombian cities and in several Latin American countries, was to quickly activate the processes and tools of the virtual sales channel and, in order to offer a good experience to the end user,  assigned advisors with knowledge of the different products in the portfolio to provide personalized attention to customers , also improved the information on each of these on the website.

Muma’s delivery promise is 48 hours, which is why it was also key to quickly find the best logistics partners to meet this deadline and satisfy the customer’s needs. One of the important decisions they made in this process was to have inventory ready in Bogotá, in addition to their main headquarters in La Estrella, in order to dispatch and greatly improve times both in the capital and in nearby cities.

Technology in your e-commerce

As Álvaro José says,  iteration has been a constant in the operation of his electronic commerce channel , proof of this is that one of the first actions was to adapt a new payment button with more specific functionality, currently they are in the third version of this and although some aspects are missing to be included, it works correctly.

Added to this, he says that they have made some developments to improve the experience and navigation in this channel, for example,  they incorporated the 360º virtual Campus , a space in which, through a graphic representation of a real context, customers can see the different furniture in the portfolio and learn basic information about each one of them.

They also included filters that allow customers to see how a table, chair, or other product would look in their home or office. And they have incorporated other  technological tools to have a detailed control of the  leads  and clients that arrive through the website and platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp ; The latter has become the most widely used because, as they are products that generally need specialized attention, many prefer to receive advice and carry out the purchase process there.

What’s next for Mummy?

Throughout this process, Muma’s manager thinks that the most challenging thing has been “having the right energy to activate a new channel in a traditional company, being willing to learn, iterate, validate hypotheses, correct and change the communication style; of being able to release it, let it work and give it what it needs to have differentiated processes”.

He is aware that they are still in a first stage, that they have some very big internal challenges to continue giving life and greater consistency to this business model. One of these challenges is to continue learning from the final consumer, from their realities, in order to strengthen the virtual channel.

Another challenge is  finding the right mix between the physical and the digital, how to achieve the best integration to give the customer the experience they expect.  “We are apprentices in this world of electronic commerce, we know that daring, experimenting and constantly changing is key,” says Álvaro José.

Muma is an example of how a traditional company, focused on developing products for businesses above all, opted for the sustainability of the brand by transforming and activating its e-commerce channel, which has great potential for the future.

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Technology

“There is no single formula in e-commerce”

José Ignacio Soto, Maaji’s manager, believes that in order to be successful with the e-commerce channel, you have to constantly test, experiment and make adjustments. This is how they continue to do it in Maaji, it is something that does not end.

This Colombian brand, created 17 years ago by Manuela Sierra, an administrative engineer with great talent for fashion design, has managed to conquer both the national and international markets with its portfolio of swimwear and beachwear, where it currently has a presence. in countries such as the United States, Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, among others.

In 2017  Maaji , which also has sportswear, accessories, men’s swim shorts and more recently protective clothing and pajamas in its portfolio, was acquired by the private equity fund L Catterton Asia, which among its partners includes the manufacturer of Louis Vuitton (LVMH). Since then it has had significant growth and was what, to a large extent, led its managers to bet heavily on the virtual sales channel.

For the proper functioning of the electronic commerce channel, it is essential to have allies who are experts in logistics, digital standards and in the technological platform as such.

During this year, according to their manager José Ignacio Soto,  they are gathering the results of the work carried out in this channel, which each time leaves them with more learning.

The e-commerce project began when José Ignacio was technology director. His commitment was to understand the final consumer much better in order to reach them in a more direct and effective way, as well as control the experience they have with the brand, whether in the physical store. or in the virtual channel.

For him, the e-commerce channel has many advantages, among these he highlights:  availability all the time, the possibility of adjusting the supply chain according to the demand that is had, being able to test new products more easily, having a centralized inventory , include different means of payment, have control of the relationship with the client … for this reason, he assures, “we wanted to play everything for everything, to be relevant players in this channel, without neglecting the others, guaranteeing the necessary resources for it to grow the way we wanted to grow it.”

rehearse, err, rehearse

If Maaji has learned anything since they opened their e-commerce, a little over two years ago, it is that there  is no exact formula that says what works. To get there, it is necessary to experiment over and over again , in fact, thanks to the tests, to look at what gives results, to do A/B testing, to take into account the analytics, is that they found and understood what it is that converts, what makes the user when entering your site click on a category, select a product, add it to the shopping cart and pay for it.

“The user journey is a theme that we constantly iterate on, we believe that the model of success that works is to test over and over again to see where the user encounters friction and by identifying it, being able to break it.”

In addition to this, José Ignacio considers that it is very important to have news on the page, generate content of interest about the products and the history of the brand, have publications in different media that help generate traffic to the page and once they capture it , do experiments all the time.

The pandemic, a challenge for e-commerce

Although during the pandemic Maaji multiplied the sales of its virtual channel, which reached a participation of 35%, its manager acknowledges that operating at this time was very challenging because the chain did not depend only on them and they faced different difficulties, in some cases, for example, they failed to fulfill their promise of service and delivery. “It was the biggest challenge we have ever had, we suffered a lot, especially in the first month and a half, but fortunately we were able to overcome the situation to be able to satisfy the purchasing needs of our customers.”

Por otro lado, a pesar de las restricciones que tienen por estar en zona franca (en Rionegro, Antioquia) garantizan que la experiencia de usuario sea lo más transparente y agradable posible al darle mucha importancia al servicio cliente, en la preventa y en la posventa, que sea ágil y de calidad, así el cliente puede comprar por el sitio web y, si es el caso, hacer el cambio en una tienda física, asegurándose previamente de que el producto que necesita sí está disponible en la tienda.

En resumen

José Ignacio comparte algunos consejos para aquellas pymes y emprendedores que están pensando habilitar un canal de venta virtual:

1

Choosing the e-commerce platform according to the size and needs of the business , you should not stay with the one that others have, but with the one that works for you.

2

Having a good ally in digital advertising  is key to ensuring that the traffic generated to the site is of quality, that is, it generates conversions.

3

Ensuring that logistics works correctly, in addition to focusing on the  front  (everything the customer sees), it is essential to guarantee everything that happens after the customer makes the purchase ( back ). If you fail a client just once, the chances are that that person will not come back.

4

Not only focus on the transaction, but also on  how it generates value for the user through the content.  Keep in mind that in addition to having an attractive product, you have to tell a story and engage the customer.

5

Try, make mistakes, try again and if something works, try to improve it more and more.

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Technology

Electronic commerce: constant management of the user experience

At Thermos, a Colombian brand specializing in clothing and products for protection from the cold, they are clear that technology and the mentality of the team are key to offering an omnichannel experience.

To guarantee a good user experience for customers and visitors who enter their site  www.thm.com.co , Thermos monitors, manages, and permanently improves through technological tools, for example, they have a robot that records every session, builds heat maps and centralizes all requests, complaints and claims (PQR) in a cloud software that allows them to understand everything that happens on the site from the moment a person enters, browses, chooses their product, until they receives.

According to Juan Camilo Viana, General Manager, the company began its technological transformation two years ago and decided to bet on an omnichannel strategy. In this task, he assures, two aspects are fundamental:

  1. Technology.
  2. The company’s mentality to constantly manage the user experience , not only in the navigability of the page, but, above all, in relation to the service they provide in it, that is, speed, security and compliance.

Integration of the physical and the virtual

One of the great lessons learned by Thermos with its e-commerce channel is that it  cannot be seen as an isolated channel, no, for it to be successful it must be very well integrated with the physical world , in other words, it is essential to connect the ERP with the e-commerce.

When they are integrated, the inventory of products, in this case garments and accessories for handling cold, works like an infinite aisle, that is, it does not matter in which of the brand’s stores the product is, it is also available in the website and once someone buys it through this means, what integration allows is to block it at the physical point so that it is not sold there. In addition, it integrates with the last-mile provider so that when there is a virtual purchase, it receives the order to pick it up at the store on its platform.

“Connecting the physical world with the virtual one allows us to optimize inventory and improve delivery and service times ,” says Juan Camilo.

All of this has been key to having an online sales channel that meets user expectations. In fact, during the pandemic, sales through this medium represent 65% (in December 2019 they were 8%). In order to meet this demand, they made some adjustments, for example, including  plugins  to the site to improve key conversion indicators, residence time, units per ticket (invoice), among others.

However, he says,  the most significant change was transforming the company’s logistics area:  the distribution center, located in Medellín, was transformed into a logistics center with the capacity to carry out more than 1,500 order dispatches in a single day.

“E-commerce is a very logistical business, the logistical dimension is as important as the commercial one, it includes everything from timely replenishment to handling a large number of references at the same time and dispatching to many different destinations on the same day. Having poor logistics can impact reputation, loyalty and repurchase, in addition, the pattern on social networks  because if users have service problems and rate you poorly, the algorithms punish you”, explains Juan Camilo.

For this reason, he recommends working hand in hand with allies, both in logistics issues and in the development of codes to improve the efficiency of the online sales channel, since this way it is possible to focus on what they know how to do best.

experiment all the time

At Thermos they understand that e-commerce goes at a different pace than traditional channels, which is why they are constantly working on  new strategies to generate traffic and conversion . One way to do it is through hypotheses and brand experiments, which do work. , optimize them. These experiments are unlimited and can be for traffic issues, user experience, permanence on the site, conversion.

Once again, permanent monitoring and knowing what is happening in the online channel is essential to provide a good user experience and meet their expectations.

Three recommendations to have an e-commerce

Based on his experience, Juan Camilo recommends the following to brands or entrepreneurs who want to have their sales channel online:

1

Be clear about the focus and value proposition of the brand.

2

Study and understand very well which are the e-commerce platforms and which is the best according to the type of project. If possible, talk to others who have already done it, listen to their experiences.

3

The e-commerce business is much more than having a digital sales channel, it is developing traffic generation and conversion formulas that are sustainable over time.

Technology is fundamental in omnichannel strategies, thanks to it the physical world can be effectively integrated with the virtual one, but it also requires a mentality and organizational culture that works around this.

And once you have your e-commerce ready, go through experimenting, measuring experiments and optimizing all the time to achieve the results you want.