According to Grayscale, the market opportunity for bringing the metaverse to life may be worth over $1 trillion in annual revenue. NFT sales grew to $2.5 billion in the first half of 2021, with crypto artists and crypto investors creating enormous wealth in a matter of months. I think it’s just a rehearsal for a truly digital future in the metaverse.
AR, VR and the metaverse will take customer service to a whole new level in all areas of our lives. Although it will take years for this technology to become part of our daily lives, consumers are already actively adopting it.
Is your business ready for this challenge, and how do you best prepare for and fully take advantage of the opportunities of the digital future?
The experience economy is the key to the metaverse.
Most, if not all, industries are now experiencing a digital transformation. Digital services are shaping consumer needs and behavior through digital channels.
Some emerging phenomena, such as the billion-dollar capitalization of joke cryptocurrencies, unicorn startups without sales and million-dollar crowdfunding campaigns, are hard to explain from the traditional economics point of view. To explain this, we have to shift the focus from technology to humans. Digitalization has created a new paradigm where emotions and experience dominate economic relationships. Consumers are hungry for engaging experiences. As a result, the experience economy has become the main value driver in the modern world.
In the experience economy, people don’t just buy and sell products, services or features. They also want the experiences and emotions behind them. In the metaverse, I think this paradigm will become mainstream. People will pay large sums for intangible items that provide social meaning and offer relevant experiences.
In the digital world and the coming metaverse, I believe design is the primary tool for creating value. The problem is that the traditional understanding of design limits what a business can do and doesn’t help it grow.
Focus on the customer experience.
A business’ typical main challenge at the beginning of its development is sales. Sales often become the main goal and value of the company. This is where the company has its primary focus. This creates the first challenge.
To succeed in the experience economy, a company must move beyond sales and put the customers’ interests, needs and experience at the forefront. By creating positive customer experiences, companies can win the competition and generate sales, even without a sales department.
The key to success for today’s entrepreneurs is the internal mindset and approach to making the business customer-centered. According to a Dimension Data study, 84% of companies have increased their revenue by adopting a customer-centered approach. A McKinsey study shows that customer experience leaders increase company revenues by 10%-15%, have higher customer satisfaction scores, reduce service costs by 10%-20% and increase employee satisfaction.
Provide advanced value.
However, for true success, it’s not enough to just focus on creating maximum value for customers. Most well-known companies began by providing a product or service that solved a customer’s problem. It was a simple solution with proven effectiveness.
The growth of the market and the emergence of competitors can push companies to improve the external value they offer. They try to better meet customer needs through convenience, a pleasing design, matching social status or even embracing social missions, such as saving the planet from warming.
If a company wants to succeed in the digital age, and subsequently in the metaverse, it’s not enough to use advanced technology. It is necessary to provide advanced value. They must go beyond basic functionality and offer their customers a better experience.
Create an experience through design.
Of course, the main question is: How do you create such an advanced value for customers that they forget about your competitors?
I think the main problem is that most entrepreneurs perceive the external aim of design to be creating attractive “packaging” for a product or service. However, that is not what creates value for the customer. All design efforts should be focused on creating a customer experience, not a package, to provide competitive value.
How will your website, app and social profiles help your customers at every touchpoint? If digital platforms are thought of only as storefronts, it can be hard to notice what emotions users experience when they are interacting with them.
In the customers’ perception, the mobile app can be the main and only representation of your company. Therefore, if the app is full of friction, unfriendly and outdated, the customer will instantly switch to a competitor, despite the thousands of employees and representatives engaged in business development and sales.
Turn design into a system.
How do you ensure business agility in a digital world, where everything changes by the minute? It takes a system to overcome this chaos.
In the beginning, design, like any other tool, is used to solve local problems. However, as the business matures and develops, the internal potential of the design approach unfolds and strengthens all levels of the company.
Through design thinking and CX/UX (customer experience/user experience) design system, you can provide customer-centered value and build a successful digital strategy. It will ensure maximum agility and adaptability to digital innovation, or even market disruption.
Become the disruptor to succeed in the metaverse.
At the intersection of the external and internal value and design vectors discussed above, four different business cultures emerge: the manufacturer, the seller, the innovator and the disruptor. If you examine leading brands, such as Apple, Google, Amazon and Tesla, the culture of the disruptor is dominant. It provides a long-term competitive advantage, customer loyalty and support for their brand. They realize the maximum potential of their business model, by integrating the design approach into the cultural DNA of the business.
By constantly creating advanced customer value through design, businesses can develop a successful strategy for adapting to digital reality and the metaverse. Rethink the traditional approach and change to a new, more customer-centric model that challenges the industry and creates new opportunities and benefits for people.
Source : https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/02/25/preparing-your-company-for-the-metaverse/?sh=651a7e7072b6