| |August 20189CIOReviewIt is of paramount importance for companies that they attempt to strike the right balance between digitization and human touch pointsabout a myriad of things ranging from family to cricket. The journey from the elevator to the office seat was the same but the `experience' was certainly different!Fast forward to 2018, recently I visited a fashion shop that has implemented virtual reality to provide a 360 degree customer experience. There are no salesmen in the shop. Everything is digitized ­ from the merchan-dise to billing. You can pick a garment and use the bot on one of the tablets in the shop to mimic you from vari-ous angles draped in the attire of your choice. You can virtually see every angle, every shot to perfection. Once done you go to one of the few billing kiosks, swipe your card and voila you are done. No queues, no cacophony, no human intervention. But to me the experience was akin to breaking into a shop at midnight, shoplifting and fleeing. Where are the salesmen, who would greet me with a smile the moment I step in asking "Kemon achen dada?" (How are you brother?), take me around and suggest smart fits that fills my persona telling me "eta pore dekhun, darun lagbe?" (wear this one, you'll look great), offer a cup of tea while I wait in the billing queue broaching one topic after another from politics to sports and finally walk up with me to the door with a returning smile saying "abar ashben kintu" (come back soon).The journey remains same but the experience is certainly different!In fact, in a survey I conducted some time back, it was revealed that more than 80 percent customers prefer dealing with human beings over digital channels to get their issues resolved. This is the power of `human touch', the power behind customer behavior.It has been proven beyond any iota of doubt that consumer buying behavior is heavily influenced at an emotional level and it is for this reason that people tend to look for a human touch in every buying experience. Even while buying online many of us tend to gather references from people we know personally about their experience in shopping from the site. This is why many companies tend to use multiple sales channels blending the power of digitization with that of human interaction. In a 2015 research report titled `The Millennial Sur-prise' Mattersight Corp., found that a vast majority of the millennials prefers in person interaction over digital options in many instances. "Despite growing up in the digital age, millennials haven't abandoned person-to-person contact," said Mattersight CEO Kelly Conway in a PR Newser article. "Contrary to popular belief, we found that most millennials prefer to communicate in-person and over the phone because it allows them to have the most meaningful conversations."Another interesting point to note is that digitization attempts to automate jobs that are manual and repeti-tive in nature. However, it by no means can dilute the value of human touch that influences customer behav-ior. For example, while looking for a new credit card, a customer looks for someone who has actually used the card and can clearly articulate the benefits and shortcom-ings. Once convinced, they are interested in how soon the card can be delivered at their doorstep. It is in here that the power of automation and digitization rules for it can definitely expedite the process of manufacturing, distribution and delivery of the card.Therefore, it is of paramount importance for compa-nies that they attempt to strike the right balance between digitization and human touch points so as to leverage the benefits of automation while preserving the emo-tional connect with the customer.How does this translate to the workforce of the or-ganization? For sure, the age of digitization is ushering in a quantum change in competencies as well as in man-agement styles. As BOTs and robots take over from hu-mans mimicking cognitive intelligence, there is a gradual shift that organizations are going through from cogni-tive competencies towards emotional agility, empathy and collaboration skills. This demands a shift in leader-ship styles as well moving away from the traditional hi-erarchical model towards a collaborative approach with more focus around empowerment and autonomy. In fact, there is a shift in the culture of the organizations at large, pivoting around continuous learning, collabo-ration and innovation. The future of organizations will depend solely on how well they imbibe this change.
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