What do you think are the most important considerations for organisations planning to accelerate transformation?
I’d say the most important consideration is having a plan in place for the remote workforce, and understanding the tools you’ll require. You need to understand how to bring people together in a virtual environment because it’s not the same as brainstorming in a room together. How will you help people to bond, to work well together, and be creative?
Second, security must be a focus. Previously cybersecurity was something we thought about, certainly, but now it’s really a business accelerator. Keeping your data accessible and secure is crucial to business continuity and customer trust.
And third, it’s making sure you provide a good customer experience. Are you retaining the right employees so that you can accelerate faster than the marketplace?
You need to understand how to bring people together in a virtual environment because it’s not the same as brainstorming in a room together.
What strategies do you use to help clients enhance customer engagement?
It’s about keeping lines of communication open, making sure you know that although we are virtual, we are not distant from our customers. That requires the use of a few strategies to make sure you are being intentional about having that engagement.
Our strategy is to curate and encourage those things that might have happened organically in person, within this virtual setting. Just because you’re using a phone call or Zoom, it’s important to still establish those relationships.
It’s about keeping lines of communication open, making sure you know that although we are virtual, we are not distant from our customers.
How effective are virtual meetings for managing services like workshops or surveys for clients?
We haven’t fully figured out the hybrid model yet, but I think there will definitely be a place for virtual as we go forward. Technology allows us to have immediate conversations from anywhere in the world, and it’s enormously compelling.
We work virtually with clients and with the right tools and technology, meaning we can feel very close as a team, even if we’ve never met in person.
Having said that, I don’t think it will ever be 100% virtual, because there’s a level of engagement that happens when people meet physically. It’s like a dinner party. There might be a conversation with the host and guest, but there will also be conversations that split off, and side conversations – that can’t happen on Zoom because one person talks and everyone else listens. In that setting people who aren’t very extroverted or aren’t as loud may not be heard.
I think we’re still finding that balance between tools and in person, and making sure that we're understanding when it's appropriate to use one approach versus another.
We work virtually with clients and with the right tools and technology, meaning we can feel very close as a team, even if we’ve never met in person.
How has the current situation shaped your marketing strategy?
Over the last couple years, marketers in general have been vying for people’s attention and I’ve seen a big increase in webinars and virtual events. I think we’ve all got a bit of virtual fatigue, which is easy to blame when the problem could actually be the message. It's easy to just set up a webinar and expect people to show up without answering what’s in it for them.
Marketing is still about understanding your customers’ pain points and producing a thoughtful message. If you’re putting out content that people care about, it will work.
There will always be people who don’t want to join a webinar or read a blog, so you have to be creative in reaching those people multiple times at different touch points in the journey. Marketing has shifted to a more inbound approach, so our job is now about understanding how people want to receive their messaging. We need to think about what the best route to market is, where the target audience is, and catering that message to them, in a way that means it gets through.
Marketing is still about understanding your customers’ pain points and producing a thoughtful message. If you’re putting out content that people care about, it will work.
ALEXANDRA GORRELL BOWER
Sr. Manager, Marketing Campaigns
Presidio
Presidio is a solutions provider specialising in creating digital systems for customers, by curating technology and tools that meet their needs.
The company works with customers on a series of assessments to help understand where they are on their digital journey, and their future goals. Presidio will then help to deliver changes through workforce transformation, cloud, cybersecurity and managed solutions.