This post was contributed by Lucy Manole, a Creative Content Strategist at Marketing Digest.
Digital transformation in businesses today is inevitable. Even if a business is not able to transform entirely most companies depend on technology and automated tools to drive their processes. As the number of people depending on eCommerce platforms to sell or procure on behalf of their business is on a constant rise, topics like technology change management, digital transformation, and digital adoption have come to the forefront of the discussion. In this post, we’ll talk about the latter.
In order to efficiently scale up their business in a cost-effective and timely manner, companies have to integrate digital tools and technologies within the processes. Gone are the days when investing in digital transformation seemed like an optional initiative to companies. About 50% of companies now state that they would be investing in digital transformation significantly despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their business.
Digitization is the way to go for companies to sustainably grow in the long-term, which is more apparent as there is an increasing need for teams to become remote and for processes to become automated. With this wave of digitization, organizations also need to ensure that their users are able to adapt to their digitized processes.
All of this becomes a bit easier with the integration of a digital adoption platform.
What Is a Digital Adoption Platform?
Digital Adoption Platforms or DAPs are software that integrate within a host application and offer training and knowledge about the application and its features to users. Such platforms can facilitate seamless onboarding and training to new users and highlight all the features that they can utilize, for better digital adoption. Digital Adoption Platforms generally work with elements such as walkthroughs, videos, and self-help menus to guide the user through the onboarding process, and automates training, eliminating the need for manual intervention in the process.
Many popular digital adoption platforms are now available for enterprises of all sizes, such as WalkMe, Appcues, and Apty among others. Several Appcues alternatives also offer attractive features and robust integrations in a cost-effective manner to make digital adoption easier within organizations.
Now that you have a good idea of how Digital Adoption Platforms work, here are some of the salient features that are offered by them:
1. Onboarding Time
Digital Adoption Platforms can substantially decrease the time taken for onboarding and training users. When you implement enterprise-grade software in your organization, it is natural for your users to struggle with using all its features effectively, let alone start generating immediate results through it. In such cases, you may have to design a training program or detailed onboarding sessions to ensure that they are aware of all the features and benefits they can leverage through the software.
Enter: Digital Adoption Platforms. With a detailed walkthrough process and visual cues for teaching users while they use the application, the need for a separate training session is eliminated. As a result, you can save tons of time and resources that you would otherwise need to spend in producing training material and conducting sessions with users.
2. Customer Retention
Did you know that the onboarding process that you offer your customers is a definitive part of your value proposition? An estimated 86% of customers state that their loyalty towards a business depends on onboarding content that can not only welcome but also educate them effectively. So, onboarding processes are not just about satisfying customers with your post-sale service, it is about solidifying their loyalty to your brand. Makes it sound so much more important, right?
But hang on, customer retention can be tricky if you do not have the right digital adoption tools to up your ante. Digital Adoption Platforms can be intuitive in guiding new users through features and process flows that you might overlook in a manual onboarding process. They can point out the specific functions of each feature in the application seamlessly, while the customer is using the product, thus helping them learn and implement the various features simultaneously.
3. No Training Required
As discussed earlier, training employees and customers can be quite an arduous undertaking. Especially if you are a growing company with a lot of employees and customers. Imagine having to put your growth strategies on the back burner, so that you can conduct employee training on a large scale. With digital adoption platforms at your fingertips, such a situation can be easily mitigated.
Digital Adoption Platforms can help you automate your training processes, by providing detailed instructions and cues when a new user uses an application. This helps the users learn and retain information, without too much manual intervention. 94% of people watch videos to learn how to use an application, making it apparent that they are open to self-learning if facilitated correctly.
4. Insights and Analytics
The foundation of effective enterprise-level software lies in its ability to offer unique insights into the processes that it moderates. For instance, if you implement a platform for managing your customer service processes, you would want the software to provide analytics such as their satisfaction score, the turnaround times for query resolutions, individual service quality metrics for customer service personnel, among others. With these insights, you can develop better strategies that can improve your processes and their outcomes.
Digital adoption platforms can offer insights into how people are using the application, and other useful user analytics such as onboarding time, number of queries, and more, so that you can optimize and regulate the onboarding process successfully. With these analytics, you can improve your strategies to generate better end-user adoption rates, which can be a crucial measure in defining the success of your software and brand.
Why Is a DAP Important?
So far, we have discussed what digital adoption platforms are, and the various useful features that they offer. Here are a few benefits that can be achieved by effective implementation of DAPs in your organization:
Enhanced User Experience
One of the primary benefits of implementing a digital adoption platform is the ability to enhance the user experience that you will be able to provide to your users – customers or internal employees. As you might already know, product adoption is a major part of the user experience, and onboarding can be a decisive factor in determining how the user feels about your company.
In this regard, Digital Adoption Platforms can primarily ensure that the user experience is as seamless and hassle-free as possible. When any of your users start using your software, they need to go through a learning curve, which can essentially be shortened through digital adoption platforms. As a result, they would learn the features and functions within the software easily and be able to integrate them for process improvement.
Saves Time and Resources
Implementing new enterprise-level software is easier said than done. Generally, when new software is implemented to be used throughout the organization, there is a need for a detailed training plan and program so that the users can be trained to use all the features in the new software. While this has been the norm for a long time, it is barely practical or cost-effective in modern-day large organizations.
For manual training processes, organizations would need to deploy various resources including personnel, technology, and money. Furthermore, planning and implementing these programs can take a long time, which organizations can redirect towards other important business activities. Digital adoption platforms eliminate the need for manual training and make training content accessible to all users seamlessly while they use the application. Additionally, DAPs can also help you improve the efficiency of your processes and onboarding programs, making integration of applications easier.
Reduced Burden on IT
Generally, when new applications or software are implemented by organizations, the IT department of the organization springs to action from start to finish. Right from selecting the right application to creating an effective training program, IT personnel in your organization will be involved every step of the way when you implement a new enterprise application. However, involving human resources in every activity related to the application will eventually prove to be expensive as it eats up time they can spend on other useful activities.
In such cases, digital adoption platforms can completely replace IT personnel and departments by automating the process of educating and training users when a new application is implemented. DAPs use visual cues, defined workflows, and other visual tools to teach users while they use the application thus freeing up your IT resources to tackle more advanced tasks and challenges.
Closing Thoughts
With these features and benefits in mind, you already know that digital adoption platforms can substantially improve your user experience, especially in the initial stages when user education is of prime importance. Whether it is your customers or employees, true deployment of an enterprise application happens only after your users can effectively utilize all the features of the application.
While manual training might seem effective at the outset, it is neither practical nor cost-effective to sustain over the long term, even if automated tools and digital adoption platforms are readily available. As a company, you should monitor the need for adoption in your organization and integrate with digital tools that bring maximum benefit.
