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[ BLOG CATEGORY ] - Detail Template { Global }

[ AUTHOR ] - Detail Template { Global }

Sila Eser

Joey Unnold

The relationship between brands and customers is always shifting. Gradual evolution in customer preference is typical, but for some industries, the global&nbsp;pandemic&nbsp;forced digital transformation into high gear. In 2019, it was good for restaurant businesses to offer digital ordering. By 2020, it was essential to staying afloat. Even as&nbsp;pandemic&nbsp;protocols, like&nbsp;social distancing, have subsided as decision drivers, the prevalence of alternative ordering touchpoints persists, underlining a transformative shift in consumer behavior.In a rapidly evolving consumer landscape, brands have had to rethink the way consumers eat, purchase, work, and play in order to stay valuable to customers. Today, brands must consider the consumer experience beyond&nbsp;purchasing, and expand focus to&nbsp;enriching interactions at each step of the journey. That means that brands must broaden their initiatives to customers’ ongoing engagement, before and after buying — not just a single moment.<h2>Stores as a Unified Touchpoint</h2>While the&nbsp;pandemic&nbsp;definitely highlighted the importance of&nbsp;mobile ordering,&nbsp;building long-lasting relationships with your customers doesn’t necessarily mean focusing entirely on&nbsp;mobile apps&nbsp;and&nbsp;food delivery. The key is convenience and personalization which today’s customers have come to expect.Many brands are reimagining their restaurant concepts as&nbsp;unified brand centers&nbsp;— places where customers can both receive a product and connect with the brand. [1]We know that&nbsp;Quick Service Restaurant&nbsp;(QSR) customers are more likely to engage with brands that they feel&nbsp;a part of. Brands can forge this bond through personalized recommendations, offers, and ongoing engagement that isn’t easily offered by traditional&nbsp;QSR&nbsp;cashier&nbsp;ordering. More and more,&nbsp;QSR&nbsp;leaders rely on technology to provide this&nbsp;customer experience&nbsp;in the brick-and-mortar setting.&nbsp;Kiosk&nbsp;ordering is one of those tech-enabled touchpoints, and implementation of such a platform can be easily scaled.&nbsp;To stay competitive,&nbsp;Quick Service Restaurant industry&nbsp;leaders have to embrace frictionless&nbsp;service experiences&nbsp;to meet the customers’ demand for convenience and ease of use. Self-service solution with&nbsp;kiosks&nbsp;is one answer to this that can be a catalyst for personalization and insight generation.<h2>The Rise of Kiosks</h2>While improved order accuracy, streamlined processes and lower labor costs are certainly a big factor, what the QSR industry cares about the most is customer satisfaction.&nbsp;Technology solutions like&nbsp;self-order kiosks&nbsp;offer a level of personalization beyond what was once possible.&nbsp;Kiosks&nbsp;serve as the face of the brand, deepen brand perception and acting as a direct touchpoint between customers and the business. While&nbsp;kiosk&nbsp;ordering lacks a human element, which plays a role in brand representation, its consistency, interactivity and scalability more than make up for that. [2]According to the National Restaurant Association, the use of&nbsp;kiosks&nbsp;in service restaurants will be commonplace in 2030. [3] Based on the Association’s insights, 79% of&nbsp;respondents&nbsp;found the&nbsp;kiosk&nbsp;makes their restaurant visit “more convenient”[4], and other research shows that not only 65% of customers would visit a restaurant with&nbsp;self-service kiosks&nbsp;more frequently — 30% would rather order from a&nbsp;kiosk&nbsp;than a&nbsp;cashier&nbsp;even when lines are the same length. [5]All in all, we are definitely seeing a favorable trend in the adoption of&nbsp;touchscreen&nbsp;kiosks&nbsp;and other forms of technology-enabled frictionless service.<h2>Industry Trends</h2>The Monstarlab Experience Insights team conducted a comprehensive analysis to examine the&nbsp;kiosk&nbsp;offerings of leading&nbsp;QSR&nbsp;brands. We assessed multiple facets like&nbsp;brand voice, visual appeal, accessibility, personalization options, revenue enhancement, payment systems, loyalty programs, and overall&nbsp;user-friendliness&nbsp;in leading&nbsp;QSR&nbsp;kiosks.We uncovered areas where&nbsp;kiosks&nbsp;are largely lacking–such as personalization and enhanced loyalty in&nbsp;self-service kiosks. Here are our takeaways, recommendations, and opportunities for&nbsp;QSR&nbsp;leaders.<ol><li>Dynamic Brand Voice and Intuitive Interface</li><li>The&nbsp;QSR&nbsp;industry is moving toward more dynamic and adaptable brand expression. Leading brands prioritize a consistent and authentic brand voice across their omnichannel experiences to maintain consistently high&nbsp;customer satisfaction. A cohesive identity and powerful brand presence delivered through the&nbsp;kiosks&nbsp;are integral to achieving a sense of familiarity and belonging and also forging lasting bonds with customers.</li><li>AI-Driven Analytics</li><li>AI solutions open up entirely new avenues for enchanting&nbsp;customer satisfaction. New&nbsp;menu items, better&nbsp;ordering processes, and other efficiencies based on customer behavior are just the tip of the iceberg.</li><li>While Artificial Intelligence has multiple applications in&nbsp;full-service&nbsp;and&nbsp;fast-casual&nbsp;venues,&nbsp;QSR&nbsp;is unlikely positioned to take advantage of this technology.&nbsp;Restaurant kiosks serve as excellent touchpoints for gathering data, and the changes based on these insights can be implemented quickly and effectively.</li><li>Enhanced Personalization</li><li>The menu experience plays a central role in QSR. Successful kiosk design implementations prioritize user-friendly navigation, clear categorization of items and gamification. This makes ordering predictive and responsive to the individual needs of the customer. Unique preferences, dietary restrictions, and special instructions that previously needed to be addressed by a human staff member now become an integral part of the customer journey.AI-powered personalization goes one step further, offering add-ons and tailored suggestions, for example filtering out non-vegan options or items the customer is allergic to, creating a delightful personalised experience.</li><li>Overcoming Staffing Challenges</li><li>Labor shortages that have persisted ever since the pandemic are a constant challenge for restaurant operators. Relying on fewer workers helps the restaurant’s bottom line and kiosk solutions help accomplish this without sacrificing the quality of the service.</li><li>Cultivate&nbsp;Customer Loyalty</li><li>Industry leaders utilize loyalty programs to facilitate personalization and gather valuable data for tailored offerings. Successful customer loyalty experiences seamlessly integrate loyalty into the kiosk experience. We believe that communicating loyalty benefits to the customers in an effective way and using loyalty interactions as a feedback loop can help leaders refine the experience over time.</li><li>Integrated&nbsp;Upselling&nbsp;to Increase AOV</li><li>Upselling, cross-selling and driving higher value menu items are crucial revenue boosters. Customers tend to customize orders more and apply premium add-ons more often when the time pressure of a human cashier is not a factor. Effective upsell strategies involve presenting the options at the right moments, and in relevant contexts. Technological implementations of add-ons into the ordering experience, adopting dynamic pricing, providing timely offers to drive exploration into premium and complementary items are all effective ways to boost AOV.</li><li>Enhanced Payment Experience</li><li>Meeting customer expectations when it comes to the payment journey is more important than ever. Offering various payment options based on new technologies, including contactless methods like NFC, mobile wallets, and biometric authentication adds to the overall restaurant experience, winning the restaurant goers over with frictionless and efficient service.</li><li>Ease of Use</li><li>For overall ease of use leading brands invest in&nbsp;high-quality&nbsp;imagery, interactive visual feedback (like animations), and innovative design elements. Simplifying information presentation to minimize cognitive load and&nbsp;streamline&nbsp;the&nbsp;ordering process&nbsp;ensures that customers are comfortable with using&nbsp;kiosks&nbsp;over and over again.</li></ol><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F26c8426becd04c1cb8f1b599fd066791"><h2>The New Era of Customer Interaction</h2>Our research, undertaken by the Monstarlab Experience Insights team, has pinpointed trends and areas for improvement within the industry, notably in personalization and loyalty programs. Leading brands are proactively adapting to these changes by embracing dynamic brand voices, AI-powered menu experiences, advanced customization, and predictive personalization driven by AI.&nbsp;Customer loyalty&nbsp;remains a cornerstone, with loyalty programs seamlessly integrated into the buying process, with integrated&nbsp;upselling&nbsp;strategies and an enhanced payment experience shaping a memorable and effective customer journey.Self-serve&nbsp;kiosks&nbsp;are an excellent tool for the&nbsp;QSR&nbsp;industry to make use of all these improvements while utilizing an existing retail space, at the same time serving as a source of valuable feedback and enabling continuous enhancement. Our exploration has shown that physical stores are transforming, offering a strategic avenue to cultivate enduring relationships with customers.<h2>Elevated Experience in Practice</h2>In essence, our principles can guide&nbsp;QSRs&nbsp;in crafting&nbsp;kiosk&nbsp;customer experiences&nbsp;that transcend transactional interactions and foster human connections. Our approach is to craft innovative and enriching&nbsp;kiosk&nbsp;experiences that not only satisfy but truly engage customers, ensuring that brands remain at the forefront of this dynamic era. And as with any performant digital product, it’s essential to navigate this space by testing, learning, and adapting.See our&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/cases/shake-shack-2/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Shake Shack</a>&nbsp;case study; where we delivered an end-to-end digital ecosystem that drives higher&nbsp;customer satisfaction,&nbsp;user experience&nbsp;and revenue. We streamlined the intersection of digital and physical touchpoints, identified key points of friction in the in-store experience, ideated solutions, and rolled out new features and tools. The results have extended Shake Shack’s best-in-class reputation from the kitchen to your smartphone and onto Wall Street.Another example is<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/cases/end-to-end-contactless-food-service-pilot/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;Wingstop</a>&nbsp;where we piloted a Seamless Contactless Food Service, and delivered a unique experience that allows customers to order ahead via digital and pick up their orders in-store. There is no need to line up to settle payment as a dedicated self-serve kiosk ordering process that is integrated into the POS system can accept payments. Upon completion, the customer can get their order inside a designated heated locker. No long lines, wait times, easy payment, and hot food right off the locker.<h2>References</h2>[1] J.Goldstein,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2023/08/18/adapting-to-the-new-retail-landscape-embracing-omnichannel-strategies/?sh=1cc10ef9406a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Adapting to the New Retail Landscape: Embracing Omnichannel Strategies</a>, Forbes Business Development Council, 2023.[2] D.Klein,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.qsrmagazine.com/technology/why-future-fast-food-phygital" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Why the Future of Fast Food is Phygital</a>, QSR Magazine, 2023.[3]&nbsp;<a href="https://restaurant.org/nra/media/restaurant-2030/restaurant2030.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Restaurant 2030 Report</a>, National Restaurant Association, 2019[4] O.Unlu,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.qsrmagazine.com/outside-insights/how-kiosks-empower-guests-and-boost-restaurant-business" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">How Kiosks Empower Guests and Boost Restaurant Business</a>,&nbsp;QSR Magazine, 2023[5] A.Kelso,&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciakelso/2019/07/30/self-order-kiosks-are-finally-having-a-moment-in-the-fast-food-space/?sh=3458cfcc4275" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Self-Order Kiosks&nbsp;Are Finally Having A Moment In The Fast Food Space</a>, Forbes, 2019.

Kiosk Culture: Designing Elevated Food & Dining Experiences

Education has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, driven
 by the global&nbsp;pandemic, advances in technology, and the changing needs
 of&nbsp;learners.&nbsp;Generation Alpha, born in the early 2010s, will be the
 first generation to grow up entirely in a world shaped by advanced technology.
 As such, their behavioral, cognitive, and socio-emotional needs will differ
 from those of&nbsp;Gen Z&nbsp;and Millenials. They are passionate
 about&nbsp;interactive, engaging, collaborative&nbsp;learning
 environments&nbsp;that encourage social and emotional learning.&nbsp;Meeting their unique needs calls for a transformative shift
 in&nbsp;EdTech&nbsp;solutions&nbsp;— one that is deeply rooted in human-centric design. For organizations,
 reimagining education for&nbsp;Gen Alpha&nbsp;demands innovative and
 collaborative approaches. It now takes more than a
 singular&nbsp;methodology&nbsp;to address educational challenges. That’s
 why&nbsp;co-design&nbsp;is a must.

<h2>Understanding Generation Alpha</h2>

 Generation Alpha, born after 2010, represents the youngest and most digitally
 immersed generation to date. They are currently learning, exploring, and
 growing in K–12 environments. This cohort has been growing up in a world
 characterized by constant connectivity and has never known a time without the
 internet or smartphones.[1] Highly tech-savvy and comfortable using technology
 for learning, collaboration and entertainment; these&nbsp;young
 people&nbsp;are socially conscious, multidisciplinary&nbsp;entrepreneurs.


 <img
 src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fa88e433df9774515ac65ccc656f5eaf4"
 />

<h3>Characteristics of the Generation Alpha</h3>
<ul>
 <li>
 They are accustomed to integrating technology into their lives
 </li>
</ul>

 Generation Alpha&nbsp;is a generation like no other in the way that they
 seamlessly integrate technology into their daily lives. They are accustomed to
 getting information quickly and easily. This tech-savvy generation thrives in
 dynamic, engaging, and collaborative&nbsp;learning environments&nbsp;that also
 encourage social and emotional learning. [2]

<ul>
 <li>
 They have a strong sense of social consciousness and desire social
 change
 </li>
</ul>

 They are growing up in a world where climate change,&nbsp;sustainability,
 social inequality, cybersecurity, and human&nbsp;well-being&nbsp;are at the
 center of public discourse, and they are passionate about positively impacting
 the world. They view these global challenges not as obstacles but as
 opportunities for innovation and positive transformation. They seek to harness
 the power of technology and collaboration to address these issues. As they
 navigate the educational landscape, they are driving a shift towards a more
 purpose-driven, socially aware approach to learning.

<ul>
 <li>They thrive in collaborative environments</li>
</ul>

 From a young age, with their&nbsp;interactions&nbsp;with&nbsp;social media,
 gaming, and technology platforms, they are comfortable with being in
 collaborative environments. They thrive in environments that encourage
 teamwork, creative&nbsp;problem-solving&nbsp;and&nbsp;decision making. They
 value the richness that diverse viewpoints bring to the table. This generation
 is driven by the desire to achieve collective goals and make a positive impact
 on their communities and the world.

<ul>
 <li>They value self-expression and multidisciplinarity</li>
</ul>

 And&nbsp;learning environments, platforms, and spaces that enable it. They
 engage with things that allow them to express their ideas and opinions
 uniquely.&nbsp;Generation Alpha&nbsp;is drawn to&nbsp;learning
 experiences&nbsp;that provide the freedom to explore and express their
 personalities. In their learning journey, they seek out opportunities to
 integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines, connect dots easily, and foster
 a holistic understanding of the world.&nbsp;

<ul>
 <li>They have a willingness to experiment</li>
</ul>

 They have a strong desire to continually explore new ideas, try new things,
 and they eagerly seek feedback. They embrace the opportunity to refine and
 enhance their knowledge through&nbsp;iterative&nbsp;learning. With an
 entrepreneurial spirit, they love getting the chance to redo things using the
 newly acquired learnings. They are good at fostering a growth mindset rather
 than adhering to a “one and done” approach in their educational journey.
 They&nbsp;also feel&nbsp;empowered&nbsp;by the many resources available to
 them, including generative AI-driven systems and online education platforms;
 which can help them quickly turn their ideas into reality, such as designing
 digital apps and launching social campaigns.

<ul>
 <li>They value agency and personalization</li>
</ul>

 Because members of&nbsp;Gen Alpha&nbsp;are immersed in information and
 technology from a very young age, they are more focused on practical
 applications of their knowledge.


 This drive towards&nbsp;entrepreneurship&nbsp;and&nbsp;professional
 development&nbsp;asks for a&nbsp;learning experience&nbsp;that is
 contextualized and connected to the&nbsp;real world. The&nbsp;next
 generation&nbsp;of students requires agency and&nbsp;validation&nbsp;of their
 ideas that go beyond standardized testing and traditional&nbsp;metrics.

<h2>Current challenges with meeting their needs</h2>

 Meeting their distinctive cognitive, behavioral, and socio-emotional needs
 presents a pressing challenge for existing&nbsp;educational institutions. It’s
 critical to recognize their unique needs, as&nbsp;education
 systems&nbsp;and&nbsp;EdTech&nbsp;solutions prepare students to be better
 individuals who can navigate an ambiguous and complex future.


 The gap in meeting the educational needs of Generation Alpha encompasses
 various facets, including the cultivation of metacognitive abilities, seamless
 technological integration, and the nurturing of
 socio-emotional&nbsp;competencies&nbsp;into their&nbsp;learning experiences.
 Moreover, according to the&nbsp;World Economic Forum’s 2020 The Future of Jobs Report, some of the top skills for the future include complex&nbsp;problem-solving,
 critical thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence. These components
 are integral to be adapted to&nbsp;Generation Alpha’s&nbsp;learning
 environments&nbsp;to equip them with the skills necessary to thrive.


 In response to these challenges, we believe that a human-centered approach
 that emphasizes&nbsp;co-design&nbsp;becomes
 indispensable.&nbsp;Co-design&nbsp;is a participatory approach to design and
 innovation that values inclusivity, collaboration, and the active involvement
 of&nbsp;stakeholders&nbsp;throughout the design process. As
 these&nbsp;learners&nbsp;have a distinct approach to education, such as
 valuing&nbsp;iterative&nbsp;processes and active involvement in the solutions
 that are tailored to their experiences,&nbsp;co-design&nbsp;is needed to
 guarantee better&nbsp;learning outcomes.

<h2>A New Approach for the New Generation</h2>

 For&nbsp;educational institutions&nbsp;and&nbsp;providers, reimagining
 education for&nbsp;Generation Alpha&nbsp;will require a collaborative approach
 that facilitates exploring and experimenting.&nbsp;Generation
 Alpha&nbsp;students carry a strong desire to continually try new ideas, do new
 things, and seek feedback. They embrace the opportunity to refine and enhance
 their knowledge through&nbsp;iterative&nbsp;learning and with opportunities to
 redo things using their newly acquired learnings.


 They value hands-on, experiential learning that allows them to apply their
 skills and knowledge in&nbsp;real-world&nbsp;contexts.[3]


 With these distinct characteristics and values, they expect to have an active
 voice and involvement in the solutions that are designed for them. We believe
 that days when a singular perspective of leaders could address complex
 educational challenges are gone and&nbsp;co-design&nbsp;is now no longer
 optional but essential when building educational tools and environments for
 this generation.


 This human-centric design approach allows for immediate feedback,
 diverse&nbsp;problem-solving, and shared ownership that are intrinsically
 aligned with&nbsp;Generation Alpha‘s behavioral characteristics and
 expectations.&nbsp;Co-design&nbsp;can provide an&nbsp;empowering&nbsp;form of
 participation in design for this generation and thus achieve digital inclusion
 goals.&nbsp;[4]


 Aligning a shared collective vision with&nbsp;Generation Alpha&nbsp;students
 when designing&nbsp;EdTech&nbsp;solutions will be crucial for their
 effectiveness. We can learn a lot and create products that speak to this
 generation by including them in the design process and placing their needs and
 experiences front and center. A collective involvement of&nbsp;Generation
 Alpha&nbsp;students, teachers, organization leaders, and parents will make
 sure that emerging&nbsp;EdTech&nbsp;solutions are grounded in their needs.


 The earlier educators can bring this young generation into the process, the
 more they’ll hear and build on ideas together. Ultimately, the solution will
 be something the students will be excited about because they will have made it
 happen. Involving this young generation in the process will also help
 educators iterate their solutions, experiment quickly, and see what did not
 work so that they can start doing something new.


 <img
 src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fd6b8350cd0e14ccc94e9682fd0914511"
 />

<h2>Guiding Questions for Stakeholders</h2>
We invite stakeholders to some guiding open questions:
<div style="padding: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; border: 1px solid #333333;">
 
 How are Generation Alpha voices involved in the way you design learning
 systems?


 How might we seek education solutions that are aligned with the desired
 visions of learning of this generation?
</div>

 Co-design&nbsp;activities can be accomplished
 through&nbsp;interactive&nbsp;discovery workshop techniques that encourage
 creativity and self-expression. Collaborative discovery activities, including
 gamified&nbsp;real-world&nbsp;scenarios, can immerse this young generation of
 students to be open to sharing their needs and generate belonging to the
 designed learning systems. Imagining workshops in the form of play can excite
 this generation to design solutions together with educators.


 At Monstarlab, we enjoy learning from&nbsp;Generation Alpha&nbsp;and creating
 solutions with them. Our recent project for a prominent global organization of
 K-12 schools involved primary and secondary students and
 teachers&nbsp;co-designing&nbsp;digital experiences for measuring and
 developing their metacognitive skills. When designing solutions, mutual
 learning that occurs early in the product development process can expand
 benefits and create&nbsp;learning opportunities&nbsp;that are engaging,
 meaningful, and impactful.


 Our team would like to know your challenges in
 designing&nbsp;EdTech&nbsp;solutions.&nbsp;<a
 href="https://monstar-lab.com/americas/contact/"
 rel="noopener noreferrer"
 target="_blank"
 >Reach out to our education experts</a
 >&nbsp;to set a 1:1 consultancy session or schedule
 a&nbsp;co-design&nbsp;workshop with us to reimagine tailored educational tools
 for your&nbsp;ecosystem&nbsp;needs.

<h3>References:</h3>

 [1],[3] Y.Kong,&nbsp;<a
 href="https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/151565/kong-yvekong-msms-sloan-2023-unsignedthesis.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y"
 rel="noopener noreferrer"
 target="_blank"
 style="font-size: 14px;"
 >Gamifying Higher Education for Generation Alpha</a
 >: Aligning Cognitive Needs with Business Value through a Human-Centered
 Approach, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2023


 [2] Cathy Hackl, T<a
 href="https://hbr.org/sponsored/2023/07/the-business-case-for-understanding-generation-alpha"
 rel="noopener noreferrer"
 target="_blank"
 style="font-size: 14px;"
 >he Business Case for Understanding Generation Alpha,</a
 >&nbsp;Harvard Business Review, 2023


 [4] M. Cardona, R.Rodríguez, K. Ishmael,&nbsp;<a
 href="https://tech.ed.gov/files/2023/05/ai-future-of-teaching-and-learning-report.pdf"
 rel="noopener noreferrer"
 target="_blank"
 style="font-size: 14px;"
 >Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning</a
 >, U.S. Office of&nbsp;Educational Technology&nbsp;Insights and
 Recommendations, 2023

Designing EdTech Solutions for Generation Alpha: Importance of Co-design

Jackie du Plooy

Gabriel Valmonte

The Metaverse is touted as the next big thing in digital. Here’s a high-level overview and what we think this means for your brand.In the last quarter of 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding of the popular social network company to Meta. Proclaiming that the company is shifting its direction to usher in a new era in providing digital experiences; particularly the metaverse.“In our DNA, we build technology to bring people together. The metaverse is the next frontier in connecting people, just like social networking was when we got started.” – Mark Zuckerberg [1]Metaverse has since been the latest buzzword, stirring a ton of early interest and getting major players to start claiming their stake in this still developing phase of technological evolution.Being in its very early stages of development, a universal definition of the metaverse has yet to be defined and a platform that can truly call itself the metaverse has yet to come. But in principle, the metaverse is a combination of multiple elements of technology—including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and video—where users live within a digital universe. This allows a greater overlap of our digital and physical lives in wealth, socialisation, productivity, shopping, and entertainment.<h2>Metaverse’s Roots in Gaming</h2>One key characteristic of the metaverse is that it has to be a persistent virtual world that continues to exist and function even without the active participation of the player. And it can simultaneously be accessed by several players at any given time. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games or MMORPGs have been around as early as 1997 spearheaded by the game 1 Ultima Online [2]. MMORPGs gave us a glimpse of what vast virtual worlds can do and the experience they can offer.Next-generation gaming platforms like Fortnite and Roblox have extensively elevated the experience. Enabling users to watch concerts, build their own games within the platform, socialise, and buy/sell in-game items.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fbb135fc76c084d8393ee2b568e9cb9b3?format=webp">American band Twenty-One Pilots staged a full virtual concert on Roblox.What sets it apart from the metaverse currently conceived, aside from the inclusion of more technological elements, is that its existence does not centre on stories or specific gameplay. It is developed to give individuals full control of their virtual existence and experience. We believe we will however see how gaming and other day-to-day use will be integrated into the metaverse –&nbsp;maybe test drive a virtual Ferrari before work. As in Metaverse, you would skip the commute to work as you switch from entertainment to work on the fly.<h2>Why Should Your Brand Enter the Metaverse?</h2>Metaverses are in their infancy stage. When will it be grown-up? Not very soon. We will see how the graphics improve, and with that, every laptop will have to be built to ensure an immersive experience and get the benefits of the metaverse. In conjunction, we will see utility hardware for AR, VR, and similar experiences come down in price and sold as a package with your laptop or mobile phone. It will be a standard accessory.More wearables will follow, and with that, more experiences and more real-world actions will be simulated. In time, this will replace the web as we know it today. It will not be sudden but done slowly, slowly, then suddenly. If you are a business and you are not in the metaverse, where will you be? We are at the same stage from the early 90s when every company was registering their web domains. We claim our spot on the web of the future, today. Speculators are buying land and selling it at huge mark-ups. Latecomers will pay the price.These titles are examples of MMORPGs and those that offer an open world, but the main difference is that these MMOs still revolve around stories, only offering a more lax approach to following them. Users may still feel like they are in control of their story or quest, but it does not give them full authority.On the other hand, the metaverse will give the public full control over their life, quests, missions, and entire virtual existence. There may be games available, but the reason for being in the metaverse does not revolve around the game, and people may come and go there, unlike games that are the entire world of the digital platform.As most technologies started with games that eventually evolved, we believe the metaverse will be no different. We believe we will see how gaming and other day-to-day use will be integrated with the metaverse – maybe play a game on your way to your digital office and collect some NFTs on the way whilst eliminating a couple of thugs?<h3>Which Metaverse to Choose?</h3>Although it is early days and it is definitely possible for you to create your own metaverse with the audience you have (if you do have an audience), it is far more difficult and requires a lot more resources, financially and otherwise. Given that It is new and it is still evolving, we can not give an answer as to which metaverse to go for but we can help you decide by looking at several factors including but not limited to:<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F9a5b470ced9f4deaa93185fcab0adf99?format=webp">PlatformStart by having a look at the available platforms. Try to get a good understanding of the purpose behind its development. What do the creators envision with their platform? and does it align with your own? How is platform development progressing, and do they have a roadmap for ongoing and future developments? Then give it a run by experiencing the platform yourself. This will help you get a glimpse of how users actually experience the platform which will also indirectly translate to how they can potentially experience your brand in that virtual world.CommunityJust like in the real world, we do not cater to everyone universally, but instead, work with defined customer segments. That will likely be the same when brands dabble in the metaverse and engage their communities. You would want to look at the people who make up the community, are significant in number, but most of all, are the right audience you want to engage with.MetaverseThe third area for consideration is the metaverse itself; the virtual world where you would claim a stake for your brand. You would want to know who has control over it, including the level of development autonomy they will allow for participants and the tools available to enable this. Then, have a look at interoperability (or the potential of it) with other platforms, the intrinsic economy that will invigorate the virtual world and, of course, the financial costs of participation for your brand.<h3>Is the Technology Ready?</h3>The baseline hardware and software to create the metaverse are there, but not quite at the point where it is envisioned to be. With every major shift, there is a transitionary period where technology is upgraded and improved over time to enable a great user experience.Accessories, as has always been the case with games, will improve and standards will be set to ensure interoperability between hardware, software, and across metaverses. The tech is evolving, and we will see a rapid replacement of what we have now and what will be needed to truly experience the metaverse at its fullest. There is no end point where we will say we truly arrived. It will continue to evolve and rapid innovation will grow and change the way we see and experience things.The question you have to ask yourself is “how long will I wait to enter the metaverse and claim my space?” While there may be no “right time”, you do run the risk of being left behind and finding yourself scrambling to catch up with the front runners that will inevitably help shape the emerging experience.<h2>Some Key Aspects of the Metaverse</h2><h3>Centralised or Decentralised</h3>Everything starts centrally. Even Bitcoin was central in its early stages. It appears that most of these metaverses are creating a transition to decentralisation where the community eventually takes control through a foundation and decisions are made by the community.A centralised metaverse will result in the same challenges we have with big platforms where they decide what can be said and who gets banned. It is our metaverse “constitutional” obligation to ensure that decentralisation is prevalent and that we do not end up with a metaverse god or a purported ruler who has absolute control of the experience.<h3>Crypto and the Metaverse</h3>The internet of money—crypto—will be our “passport” to the metaverse. No more login with either Google, Apple, Facebook accounts, or even email. Your crypto wallet will be linked to the relevant metaverses and you will be able to seamlessly transact peer-to-peer.Your wallet will eventually house your NFTs, not only your ape avatar but your NFT ID, and a lot more. You will be in control of all your own data and you will even be able to sell it to whomever you want if you wanted to.<h3>Metaverse Possibilities and Actualities</h3>Now let’s get a glimpse of what businesses can possibly do in a Metaverse. Here is a simple first example.Taking Virtual MeetingsLet’s reimagine the endless video calls and meetings we all had over these past two years with the pandemic. Imagine your next meeting with Hiroki:You receive a personal (avatar) invite to meet with your boss Hiroki, who is based all the way in Japan, and others across the globe for a financial management meeting in the metaverse.You, via your avatar, log in to Decentraland with your crypto wallet. On arrival, Hiroki arranged a concierge agent avatar (now still a new made-up job, but definitely something to consider) to meet you and take you to his office in the metaverse. You teleport to the office and are welcomed by his receptionist avatar and taken to the virtual boardroom with a 12-seater table where you meet the seven other participants in this meeting. You make some small talk and then eventually start the business discussions.Now imagine all of this with all the accessories – that’s how it can be in real life.Let’s take a Health and Wellness ScenarioAn insurer builds a clinic in the metaverse. All health and wellness professionals approved by the insurer have a booking system in the metaverse where you can book some time to consult with any one of them. This can even be done in groups for large simultaneous sessions.The consultations will remain anonymous and people that are especially feeling vulnerable to being ostracised by their peers can visit the clinic without any fear. Nobody sees the transaction that goes off from their wallets and they remain anonymous if they prefer.Health care professionals will rent from the insurer based on revenue generated and all of this can settle seamlessly without the need for reconciliations and invoices.The possibilities are indeed exciting, but there are actually a lot of activities happening in the metaverse as we speak. Decentraland, a user-owned virtual world, is already hosting large events in its realm.Music festival with real artists: Decentraland had a Metaverse Music Festival headlined by Deadmau5, Paris Hilton and more.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F8fb4eedc5bf548138e139a4fbac4e7ef?format=webp">Sporting events as it happens: Australian Open has collaborated with Decentraland for its 2022 season.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fa05f846f87df46cbb6bcf0d4ef199fbe?format=webp">Photo from The Crypto Times.Art exhibitions with real artists.&nbsp;Sotheby’s has opened its own virtual gallery in Decentraland.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fcfcf7a877f7441d1b9fd7da99154ff2a?format=webp">Photo from Sothebys.comCheck out more events here: https://events.decentraland.org/<h3>Your next app and web development</h3>When is the right time to migrate from web 2 to web 3? This is not a question for us to answer. What we do know is that you need to start planning now. Your page will get fewer hits and engagement as the transition to the metaverse speeds up. As a minimum, start all your research now, make sure you understand the metaverse (as it is now and where it may go) and be ready to make that transition rapidly.Web 3 and dApps are maybe just terminologies you have heard of but do not really know what it means and how they will impact your brand. One morning this will all change and will leave you wondering why you did not engage with a technology partner that could have helped you keep pace with this digital transition journey.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F9f59f49b1c2543cfac70aa965cc7a05c?format=webp">And Meta?Meta is centralised and we will have to see what Mark Zuckerberg and his team will deliver. We hope and believe that decentralisation will get preference from participants as they gradually understand the disadvantages of centralisation. As mentioned earlier, we need to avoid the creation of a meta god.<h4>Expert Featured:</h4><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F1cb157a60d804ad39d6561199464ef7f?format=webp">Jackie Du Plooy | Executive Engagement Director, Middle East20+ years experience in digital transformation, strategy &amp; innovation and commercial management across industries, including BFSI, in several countries in the role of Client Partner. Focus has been on building high-performing teams and sound strategic partnerships by bringing together delivery and commercial teams to drive the customer strategy and journeys of digital transformation.<h4>Endnotes:</h4>Meta.com, Founder’s Letter, 2021Gamerant.com, Ranking The Oldest MMORPGs (That Are Still Online Today), 2022Variety.com, Twenty One Pilots to Stage Elaborate Roblox ‘Concert Experience’, 2021Coindesk.com, Decentraland Books Deadmau5, Paris Hilton and More for Metaverse Music Festival, 2021Cryptotimes.io, Australian Open Enters the Metaverse in Collaboration with Decentraland, 2022Decentraland.org, Sotheby’s opens a virtual gallery in Decentraland, 2021Coindesk.com, What Is Web 3 and Why Is Everyone Talking About It?, 2022Investopedia.com, Decentralized Applications (dApps)Wired.com, What Is the Metaverse, Exactly?, 2022Ibc.org, Understanding the Metaverse: Opportunites, Challenges and Gen Z, 2021Polygonalmind.com, Metaverse Platform Comparison – Virtual Worlds on the Blockchain, 2021

[ BLOG ] - Detail Template { Global }

What is the metaverse? And is it worth your time?

Monstarlab Marketing

<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/smart-places/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Part of our Smart Places series</a> In recent years, the role of the university campus has evolved.While it remains principally a place of learning, campuses are today also a central hub for socialising, living and research.&nbsp;&nbsp;Beyond the student body alone, these sites can accommodate thousands of support staff and workers, alongside external visitors using on-site facilities. Specialist universities may also derive additional income from hosting research and development, secured via a bidding process.So, put simply, the modern-day university campus has to be a lot of things to a lot of people. But are they set up for that?&nbsp;In most cases, campuses have been optimised for the student experience – their principal function and source of revenue – with the remainder of the university ecosystem left uncatered for.Space is typically at a premium on site and digital infrastructure is seldom suitable for the myriad functions required on a day-to-day basis.&nbsp;These issues are, in many ways, to be expected. By their nature, campuses are inefficient, with buildings sprawled across rural areas. This is in direct contrast to cities, for example, which tend to build upwards rather than outwards to better maximise space.On-site geography can be a challenge to navigate too, not least for students and visitors, but for the interconnectivity with staff such as professional services.<h2>Smart strategy</h2>The idea behind Smart Campuses is to leverage digital technology to optimise the on-site experience for&nbsp;all&nbsp;its patrons.Creating a more seamless digital environment allows a campus to cater to its residents on a more efficient and scalable basis. For example, university grounds are typically populated with an array of large buildings, each with different functions and a revolving door of users. To manage this effectively, reliable internet connectivity is crucial and can alleviate the administrative burden on staff and students alike.In many ways, the challenges of the post-Covid university present as a Venn diagram:<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fb471e0ac1ceb4a37b0e41db5359e0358?format=webp">On one side, there are problems that require solutions. These can include structural issues such as site layouts, limited connectivity and space, the latter of which remains a quandary to many universities as they continue emerging from the pandemic.On the other side are the more aspirational aspects of the site. Social connection, student experience and, where possible, additional revenue in the form of R&amp;D.We see Smart Campuses as the intersection of these two segments – using digital technology to mitigate existing issues while facilitating a university’s ambitions via augmented infrastructure.<h2>Sustainability</h2>Smart Campuses can also help address a site’s environmental impact.Sustainability has transitioned from buzzword to legislation, with many jurisdictions mandating energy targets for offices, residential buildings and indeed, universities. Failure to meet these requirements can result in financial consequences as well as increased scrutiny from local councils and, potentially, reputational damage.Far from being purely altruistic, campus sustainability is also a financial consideration as worldwide energy prices have skyrocketed over the past few months and show no signs of dropping in the short to mid-term.Universities must also consider how they are perceived by their ‘customers’ – namely students,&nbsp;many of which are Gen Z and deeply concerned about matters relating to climate.Universities are, of course, a business and must be mindful of how outdated energy technologies and policies may affect their bottom line.Smart Campuses offer these institutions the optionality of greener energy and, perhaps more pertinently, the means of which to record and share those credentials.There is a spectrum to be considered, from simply minimising a site’s environmental impact to actually generating its own energy via on-site technology. Both of which are valid and leave a university better situated for the current climate (consumer and legislative).A commitment to such practices will reflect well on adopters, particularly in the eyes of prospective students who are more likely to be attracted to a university that mirrors their values.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fa968075af6444e189f346c896b00474a"><h2>Process over outcome</h2>At Monstarlab, we support businesses and institutions in upscaling their digital infrastructure and creating Smart Places that work for everyone.Clearly, each university campus is different. Some are rural and situated in historic buildings, while others are more modern and situated near towns and cities. The quantum of staff, buildings and faculties will vary, and so too will each site’s underlying requirements.What we’re saying is that no two campuses are the same.So, when we are approached to work on a site, we take this into account and conduct extensive due diligence on both the purpose and needs of each project. We call this our Discovery Process.By working backwards, and understanding the ecology of each campus, we are better able to address its needs first time, installing technology and processes that are specific to the user and that, crucially, will be used time and again.We understand the temptation to reverse this process and dive in ‘tech first’, as typically a client will have identified a specific issue they would like resolved. However, in our experience, this approach can leave blind spots and lead to limited uptake from stakeholders.We view technology as an enabler, but for it to be fit for purpose, we need to understand exactly what we are looking to enable. By following our Discovery Process, we can better understand the landscape of the project, the relationship between the site and its users and ultimately, provide bespoke solutions that will have meaningful and lasting impacts.In doing this, we can better align the goals of the campus, its constituents, and their wider area, to pull in a singular direction.<h3>Learn more about Smart Campuses</h3>For more information on Smart Campuses, join Monstarlab’s Engagement Manager&nbsp;<a href="https://uk.linkedin.com/in/charliemacdowall" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Charlie MacDowall</a>&nbsp;as she discusses these issues and more on the PlaceOS podcast with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanmcfarlane/?originalSubdomain=au" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jon McFarlane</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://au.linkedin.com/in/sabrina-venish-b25392128" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sabrina Venish</a>&nbsp;–<a href="https://place.technology/podcast?wchannelid=vk2666fvka&amp;wmediaid=dlx43poji6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 18px;">listen to the full podcast episode here</a>.To learn more about our expertise in developing Smart Places then&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/uk/blog/smart-places-development-in-practice-a-case-study-compilation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">download our Case Study kit</a>&nbsp;here or&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/uk/thoughtleadership/creating-experience-focused-smart-places/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">visit our web landing page.</a>Monstarlab are&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/uk/ml-news/global-digital-consultancy-monstarlab-partners-with-integrated-platform-provider-placeos-to-create-next-generation-smart-places/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">partners with PlaceOS</a>&nbsp;who offer a scalable, smart workplace solution that enables businesses to have a customisable front end and the flexibility to integrate with existing digital infrastructure.

Putting User Experience First – Understanding Smart Campuses

Andrea Nalupa

<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/the-future-of-banking-financial-services-and-insurance/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Part of our Banking, Financial Services &amp; Insurance thought leadership series</a>This year, we’re seeing insurance businesses take more leaps towards innovation and make clear efforts to catch up after lagging behind banks and other industries in tech innovation in the last decade [1]. With&nbsp;InsurTechs&nbsp;at the forefront of driving digitisation in the market at the height of what is thought to be the&nbsp;fourth industrial revolution&nbsp;[2], investment toward digital across the globe has grown from 7 billion USD in 2019 to over 14.6 billion in 2021 [3].&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fc52f92db154b44adb09e6a28d2ff0305?format=webp">Source: [2]&nbsp;This positive digital disruption presents the industry with the perfect moment and a unique opportunity to push past its ‘traditional’ boundaries in step and connection with the rest of the world and to unlock more value for stakeholders through technology. Key players who have recognised this are on a quest to recast insurance into a better-adapted and future-proof role in society through the following trends.&nbsp;<h3>Product Innovation Powered by Data Analytics and Machine Learning&nbsp;</h3>The insurance industry has been in operation for a very long time. The earliest record of an insurance policy has been traced to a Babylonian law code from around 1750 BC [4]. And the essential structure of the business as we know it today has been deployed in the US since the 18th century [1]. Those who have endured the long history of the business considered their continued success a result of consistent and reliable performance. And they were further convinced by the descent of companies with irregular structures and incompetent distribution systems.&nbsp;Because of this, the industry has matured to equate effectiveness with consistency and operational stability. And though reliability and standard procedures are commonly favourable for business, the clientele’s changing tastes and needs are upending what determines success in the market. What has worked for these companies then may not necessarily translate into equally good standing now.Today, industry players are learning the importance of being more dynamic and well-adjusted. Ergo, a widespread shift in priority towards product innovation enabled by digital solutions has transpired. By maximising the combined powers of data analytics and machine learning to better and faster calculate risks, align pricing, and estimate Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), insurance companies are now able and active in innovating their products based on more contemporary lifestyles, data, and customer profiles. And the market response to pioneers employing this strategy and embracing the possibilities tied along with it demonstrates significant opportunities for companies willing and committed to innovate.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Ff4086628752b43468ca68fd541cc3624?format=webp"><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F9ffeade2931347c28dca8c13bbae4948?format=webp"><h3>Improved Customer Experience through Integrated Connectivity</h3>Tethered with the fourth industrial revolution and with greater customer expectations, insurance companies are taking customer-centricity to the next level – connecting their services and being more attentive to various aspects of their clients’ more digital lifestyle and daily engagements.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F14f9a82c0cc947acb2438d9bce2ed45a?format=webp">Health and fitness, for example, have been cumulatively digitised for most of the industry’s target group – millennials. This is evident in how these clients now use online platforms to learn about and track their health, as well as purchase wearables to monitor heart rates, daily activity, and even sleep schedules far more than older generations. This rise of digital in adjacent industries has provided insurance with a wealth of data and a host of opportunities to more easily extend their insight, reach, and influence into customers’ lives and service their customers with a more natural, overall better flow.&nbsp;In the case of life and health insurance, by extracting health and activity data provided by the&nbsp;modern wellbeing industry and collected through IoT-linked devices and using it to gage health levels, not only do insurers shorten and simplify the KYC process significantly – creating a more convenient and seamless onboarding experience for customers, they can also more accurately perceive risks and adjust policy features accordingly. A perk of utilising real-time data in lieu of user-provided data based on imperfect memory.&nbsp;National Trades Union Congress – Income (NTUC-Income), which partnered with Monstarlab for their Snack by Income mobile app, perfectly demonstrates the wonders that connectivity can do for insurance. By creating an app fit for today’s digital lifestyle and developing a user flow that allows micro-investments to automatically align with regular spending habits and including a wide selection of partner merchants and brands integrated into the system, the company and app are able to penetrate the market more easily and connect with clients on a deeper level. And their success became even more evident as they placed 1st runner up in the Singapore Financial Institution Category of the Singapore Fintech Festival in 2021.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fb8b51c6aec994e7181c63d5fd9028ebd?format=webp">You can read more about Snack by Income in this&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/cases/snack-by-income/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">case</a>&nbsp;and about IoT data’s impact on insurance&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/expertinsights/evolve-from-being-traditional-insurers-to-insurtechs-with-iot-data/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">in this article</a>.These are just some of the many ways that companies in the insurance market are grounding and improving their customer experience with connectivity. P&amp;C and non-life insurances, for example, can also link up with digital automobile maintenance channels, city council and other property evaluation databases, and other digital systems from other industries to the same effect.&nbsp;As consumers progressively embrace digital channels, with the vast majority accustomed to and anticipating positive experiences, expectations for the same – if not better-quality experiences in insurance likewise propagate. With this, the shared seamless experience has become the gold standard.<h3>Creating Collaborative Insurance Ecosystems</h3><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F49c4f002e1274a1eb017eb955dce7f31?format=webp">This year, well-established insurers have started collaborating with the market’s newcomers. Inspired by the recent success of budding firms and providers that have built their foundations on technology, and simultaneously challenged by the rapid evolution of the market, legacy companies have started forming partnerships and placing significant investments in more digitised insurance startups and scale-ups [3].&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fab1164fbc6144b1bbd0da7ebc0f57fbe?format=webp">This year, well-established insurers have started collaborating with the market’s newcomers. Inspired by the recent success of budding firms and providers that have built their foundations on technology, and simultaneously challenged by the rapid evolution of the market, legacy companies have started forming partnerships and placing significant investments in more digitised insurance startups and scale-ups [3].&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Ff37c7bd76b2e4f92b090474e3918d687?format=webp">According to research, legacy companies have become some of the largest financiers behind these startups in the belief that collaboration will become the turning point that their business and the industry needs [2].<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fa7ca404ed4794af0a37217bf3fcb81c9?format=webp">With these recomposed ecosystems, insurers aim to combine extensive industry experience with fresh and modern solutions and talent to transform the landscape. And a significant portion of the group has expressed growing interest and general intention to influence mobility, healthcare, and smart places [5]. In consideration of the newfound capabilities and prowess of operating in collaboration, the prospect of attractive returns, and the imperative to continuously deliver stakeholder value, more businesses in this arrangement can be expected to emerge and flourish.Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/the-future-of-banking-financial-services-and-insurance/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">banking, financial services &amp; insurance page</a>&nbsp;to learn more and check out some of our projects around this vertical. More expert pieces on technology reshaping insurance:&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/expertinsights/how-is-blockchain-impacting-the-insurance-industry/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">How is Blockchain Impacting the Insurance Industry?</a><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/expertinsights/evolve-from-being-traditional-insurers-to-insurtechs-with-iot-data/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Evolve from being Traditional Insurers to InsurTechs with IoT Data</a><h3>Experts Featured</h3><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Febfa66ac873848cc84f5f1bef1225101?format=webp" style="cursor: nwse-resize;" width="277">Saad KamalFollow on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/saadsg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="mailto:saad.kamal@monstar-lab.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">saad.kamal@monstar-lab.com</a>Saad, Managing Director of Monstarlab Singapore,&nbsp;has more than a decade of experience in driving digital transformation for government and large multinational organizations alike. Delivering world-class and award-winning digital solutions for various industries including banking &amp; insurance, transportation, and smart places.Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/sg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab Singapore.</a><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F07899e345e1740dfbde15a9277c56d6f?format=webp" width="303" style="display: block; margin: auto;">Tobias MorvilleFollow on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobiasmorville?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAAKiWJsB5E6AqyWOias9-HLGoNMlGHjd2D4&amp;lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_all%3B%2Bpz1M7cXRh6dmk9d2gao9w%3D%3D" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="mailto:tobias.morville@monstar-lab.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">tobias.morville@monstar-lab.com</a>Tobias is the Head of Machine Learning at Monstarlab. He has a PhD in Computational Neuroscience and has worked with designing, developing and deploying machine learning models in both Danish and international companies for the last four years.Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/dk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab Denmark</a>.Endnotes:[1] Omega Computer Services,&nbsp;“Why insurance lags behind other industries with the integration of new tech”,&nbsp;2019[2] PwC,&nbsp;“How insurers can seize InsurTech opportunities”, 2022[3] McKinsey &amp; Company,&nbsp;“Creating value, finding focus: Global Insurance Report 2022”[4] Risk Engineering.&nbsp;“Insurance and Risk: Some History”, 2020.[5] OECD,&nbsp;“Technology and innovation in the insurance sector”, 2017

How is Insurance Closing in on its Innovation Gap with Other Industries?

Get a quick introduction to Monstarlab’s approach to smart places development, our key partnerships and get acquainted with the people that can support you.<a href="https://bit.ly/SP-2pager" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 18px;">Click here to download.</a><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fc5fbeb4715864a369d8444e422857ba9?format=webp">Get more insights around smart places from our expert thought pieces and get inspiration from some of our cases&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/smart-places/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;Learn more about the latest smart places trends and developments from your local office.<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/uk/thoughtleadership/creating-experience-focused-smart-places/#" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab United Kingdom</a><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/ae/thoughtleadership/putting-people-at-the-heart-of-smart-places-development/#" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab United Arab Emirates</a><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/americas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab Americas</a><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/jp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab Japan</a>

Monstarlab’s Approach to Smart Places Development

Developing solutions and technologies for smart places is not new for us at Monstarlab. Having engaged with different stakeholders for projects spanning smart homes, smart buildings even smart cities. We have collated this document that highlights some of our top projects that cater for the areas of sustainability, accessibility, and technological agility. Featuring our works with some of the world’s leading companies from various industries across the globe.<a href="https://www2.monstar-lab.com/Smart-Places-Case-Kit-Webpage-CTA" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Click here to download.</a><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fe2d0993ec67a4e759b72bcaf8f73d78a?format=webp">Get more insights around smart places from our expert thought pieces and get inspiration from some of our cases&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/smart-places/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.Learn more about the latest smart places trends and developments from your local office.<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/uk/thoughtleadership/creating-experience-focused-smart-places/#" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab United Kingdom</a><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/ae/thoughtleadership/putting-people-at-the-heart-of-smart-places-development/#" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab United Arab Emirates</a><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/americas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab Americas</a><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/jp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab Japan</a>

Smart Places Technologies in Practice [Case Study Compilation]

<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/smart-places/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 18px;">Part of our Smart Places thought leadership series</a>Smart places, more popularly referred to as&nbsp;smart spaces, are emerging as viable solutions and pose a well-received people-centric approach towards achieving long-term sustainability. While better known and initially sought for their quality-improving impact on daily living, business, and communities [<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/11/15/smart-spaces-are-only-as-smart-as-the-sum-of-their-parts/?sh=d2fa1fd37daf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1</a>], more organisations are realising the true potential of smart places for catalysing their sustainability goals. In fact, recent reports show that “green building initiatives and environmental concerns” have been the top drivers of market growth since 2020 [<a href="https://www.kbvresearch.com/smart-space-market/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2</a>].<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fcb2bc21ba0cd4566b30c105dafd1f304?format=webp">In an effort to achieve such sustainability goals while simultaneously pushing for the applications in the figure above, organisations from sectors far and wide are now shifting towards this technology-driven approach. This is largely attributed to its offerings of optimal use of space and facilities while promoting sustainability as well as operational efficiencies. However, the route through which most companies deploy their smart place building strategies—building from scratch, has a worthy opponent of arguably more sustainable qualities—smart redevelopment.&nbsp;And here we reveal its advantages and unrealised potential for your business.<h3>The common route: Building smart places from scratch</h3>In the advent of smart places and smart cities, most of the development revolves around creating entirely new infrastructure [<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/01/19/what-do-we-really-need-to-build-smart-cities/?sh=643c29413048" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">3</a>]. There is a certain allure to “smart from the start” projects and working with a clean slate that has captured the attention of investors and the public (evinced in the figure below). After all, this way around development enables experimentation and tenders a certain flexibility of being able to “do anything”. Finnbar Toesland from Raconteur even goes so far as to say&nbsp;“A hallmark of a successful smart city [or place] is its ability to add new functionality and scale as it grows”&nbsp;in a piece he wrote about smart from the start cities.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fe9dfc81e17684dd0849c0bb337421faf?format=webp">Source: McKinseyBut who’s to say that the same—if not greater—success cannot be afforded by redevelopment initiatives? In the same way, who’s to say experimentation yields better results than numbered but well-orchestrated and time-tested approaches?In our research on the mechanisms of smart place development from scratch, we have found a number of restraints and disadvantages that this approach entails in conjunction with the coveted clean slate. While a&nbsp;tabula rasa&nbsp;would seem enjoyable, there are underlying costs and complications some seem to overlook.Creating smart spaces requires the coordination of logistics, technology, and people that integrate into a single digital ecosystem. Building smart spaces from scratch in its truest sense would then also mean your organisation would have to rebuild your business, city, or infrastructures virtually from the ground. And that has rather negative implications on your budget, time, business flow, and existing infrastructures. Implications that can be diminished or even avoided by going off the beaten track.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F3b6762f58d5049bd82fd42819844d67f?format=webp">Source: [4]<h3>The road less travelled: Smartening up spaces</h3>Developers, property owners, and virtually all organisations managing or simply interacting with physical spaces are under constant pressure to promote sustainable operations and to simultaneously meet fast-changing expectations from stakeholders. This is compelling them to lean towards smart places with the following use cases in mind [5].&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fa89fc0ded1684a7084d22426574a9db6?format=webp">“There’s a richness in data and the advantage of a deeper understanding of human-space dynamics when working with existing spaces. Optimising long-standing infrastructure systems with an overview of historical use of space can be your secret weapon for better customer experiences, resource-saving performance, and overall success. Data acquired here can be leveraged to make a difference through grounded, data-driven decisions for fool-proof and truly intelligent infrastructure.”–&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jackie.du.plooy@monstar-lab.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jackie Du Plooy</a>, Executive Engagement Director, Monstarlab DubaiRetrofitting as a way to smarten up spaces can produce the same outcomes without the costs and cons of going back to square one. Many organisations can derive the greatest value by maximising their real estate footprint. And it all boils down to creative and resourceful planning and design.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F0048cb6ec74d41cf96d9f0d7e35946e0?format=webp">Source: [4]“In the construction sector, we make the design life of the building to between 30~50 years, without the need of major structural renovations. It is the norm to see buildings go beyond this, such as the White House in Washington to Kasumigaseki building in Tokyo. Buildings then go on to become landmarks and vessels of the cultural history of a city and its people.However, space use and social behaviour patterns drastically change within this time period. This calls for user-first planning&nbsp;supported strategic digital infrastructure. With the I.o.t sensors becoming ubiquitous and data-driven design. We can now retrofit buildings to have experiences that improve occupants’ well-being, incorporate sustainability goals and adapt to the future needs of society.”–&nbsp;<a href="mailto:nondo@aco-tokyo.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nondo-Jacob Sikazwe</a>, User Experience Expert, A.C.O.Mindful design and planning, and their ability to transform experiences with even just the smallest but conscious adjustments, can make all the difference when applied to existing spaces. Some of the most successful and inventive projects in the market show us the powerful impact of being considerate of the customer, the environment, and the envisioned future of the company. And a prime example is Tishman Speyer’s story.In partnership with Tishman Speyer, Monstarlab created a centralised platform called&nbsp;Zo.&nbsp;Putting their extensive insights on the use of space in their office buildings and data on stakeholder engagements and challenges to use, we employed a truly customer-first strategy. This effectively allowed the company to continuously learn about and build relationships with their customers, enabled the creation of dynamic, continuously relevant experiences for their customers, centralised management of services, promoted efficient and environmentally responsible facility use, and overall improved the total Tishman Speyer dwelling experience. A perfect example of what creativity and innovation can do with preceding infrastructure.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F8bda5a83fe904160934cd7799e4b1512?format=webp">Read more about this successful partnership&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/cases/zo/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here.</a><h2>What you can do next.&nbsp;</h2>First and foremost, the priority is to consider the needs of your customers who are using your spaces, whether they are tenants, employees, or consumers. At Monstarlab, we are passionate about working in collaboration with our clients to come up with solutions that meet their business goals while delivering an exceptional experience and adding happiness to their customers’ lives.Talk to us about how we can work in partnership to create truly Smart Places for you and your customers.You can also visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/smart-places/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smart Places page</a>&nbsp;to learn more and check out some of our projects around this vertical.<h4>Meet our Experts</h4> <img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F1cb157a60d804ad39d6561199464ef7f?format=webp">Jackie Du PlooyConnect on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackieduplooy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jackie.du.plooy@monstar-lab.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">jackie.du.plooy@monstar-lab.com</a>Jackie has over 20 years of experience in digital transformation, strategy &amp; innovation, and commercial management across industries including BFSI in several countries as a&nbsp;Client Partner.&nbsp;Her focus has been on building high performing teams and sound strategic partnerships by bringing together delivery and commercial professionals to drive the customer strategy and journeys of digital transformation.Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/ae/thoughtleadership/putting-people-at-the-heart-of-smart-places-development/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab UAE</a><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F26529528b6714e509b909d5bcc0bc897?format=webp">Nondo-Jacob SikazweConnect on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nondojacob/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="mailto:nondo@aco-tokyo.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">nondo@aco-tokyo.com</a>Nondo graduated with two Masteral degrees in both Engineering and Architecture. He has also worked as a licensed architect and designed, managed, and built larger city-scale urban projects both for commercial and government organisations. He also has material experience with R&amp;D in user experiences at various scales from digital services to smart cities in APAC and EMEA regions.&nbsp;Learn about&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/jp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab Japan</a>&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<a href="https://aco-tokyo.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">A.C.O, Inc.</a>Endnotes:[1] Forbes,&nbsp;“Smart Spaces Are Only As Smart As The Sum Of Their Parts”, 2019[2] KBV Research,&nbsp;“Global Smart Space Market By Component (Solutions and Services), By Application (Energy Management &amp; Optimization, Emergency Management, Security Management and Others), By Premises Type (Commercial, Residential and Others), By Region, Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2020 – 2026”,&nbsp;2021[3] Forbes,&nbsp;“What Do We Really Need To Build Smart Cities?”,2022[4] Think Tank Demos Helsinki,&nbsp;“Can We Ever Really Build a “Smart City”?,2016[5] Cognizant,&nbsp;“Making Spaces Smart”, 2019Other Reference:PWC,&nbsp;“Smart Cities in 2050: Rebuilding the future of Japanese cities”, 2021

Smarter Spaces: Existing Infrastructures Made More Sustainable

<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/wp/cx" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fdc9f11b8e4e94f4c8940057a488a6664?format=webp"></a>The Banking, Financial Services, &amp; Insurance Industry landscapes may vary depending on where in the world you are conducting your business.Get a better outlook of local BFSI industries and more relevant insights through your own local Monstarlab offices.

CX – The Road to Sustained Competitive Advantage in BFSI [White Paper]

Retail 2030: The Tech Strategy to Power Retail Brands into the Future [White Paper]

<h4><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/empowering-life-science-in-the-digital-era/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Part of our Health, Wellness &amp; Life Science Series</a></h4>Technology has always played an important role in healthcare. From the very first computerised physician ordering system in the 70s to Blockchain technology and Robotics Process Automation today, technology holds the key to transform our healthcare system. This is particularly true when it comes to behavioral science. Infiltrating both mobile and clinical patient care, behavioral science integrations are making a difference in the novel patient experience and modernising core technologies.This article explores:<ul><li>The role of behavioral science in healthcare</li><li>Promising trends in digital patient care&nbsp;</li><li>Noteworthy examples of behavioral technology applications</li></ul><h3>Gamification &amp; Competition</h3>In behavioral science, it is common knowledge that people are inherently attracted towards winning&nbsp;[1]. The educational sector was among the first to recognise this and maximise similar behavioral science principles in getting to their goalposts. Witnessing this, as well as the continuous emergence of gamification, other industries are now starting to catch on – including healthcare.&nbsp;Healthcare providers, with the help of behavioral economists, have developed health gamification technologies that incentivise good health practices. Techniques such as&nbsp;<ul><li>targeted diet programs</li><li>competitive fitness maintenance schemes</li><li>rewarded consistent medication</li><li>online support groups for smoking and drug rehabilitation</li></ul>are becoming popular and significantly motivate behavior modifications with varying success. Not only do these strategies improve patient experiences, they also make it significantly easier and more interesting for health institutions too – optimising data collection, patient monitoring, and service speeds&nbsp;[2].A few notable examples of gamified healthcare technologies are Mango Health – a smartphone application that tracks, reminds, and rewards punctual medication intake, and&nbsp;Vivofit Jr., a mobile app that encourages and incentivises proper sleep, recommended activities, and good healthcare practices in pediatrics.&nbsp;<h3>Virtual Reality</h3>According to the Uncertainty Reduction Theory, people are more inclined to engage more in interactions and processes when they are more certain of the process as well as the outcomes&nbsp;[3]. This concept also transcends through healthcare. When patients are more aware and are able to visualise procedures and outcomes, they are more likely to proceed. The same goes for practitioners. Combining this inclination with the fact that interactive environments are also known to be more attractive and conducive for faster recovery speeds, it makes sense for healthcare institutions to seek the technology that maximises both concepts – Virtual Reality.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F8e45f3abb70a41789c8c0970a1c41911?format=webp">Virtual Reality (VR) is stepping up patient care and medical practice with its simulations. With surgery walkthroughs for patients, educational and practical simulated operations for practitioners, virtual therapy and rehabilitation, and even virtual consultations and conferences, this technology has been leveraging the patient and physician experiences since its medical adaptation&nbsp;[4 &amp; 5].Some of the successful models for VR in health are the GestureTek Health’s VR exercise programs that enable patients to safely interact with engaging virtual surroundings and RCSI Medical Training Sim’s simulations for cost- and risk-free physician training.<h3>Collaborative Digital Care</h3>“Community-based health care is an essential part of primary care at all times…”– World Health Organization (2020)It is widely recognised, both in the medical and behavioral science fields, that communities in health and patient care are indispensable. Several studies accredit improvements in recovery speed and mental well-being of patients to communities where collaborative care is key&nbsp;[6 &amp; 7]. The industry, upon discovering this, is aligning its efforts and promoting community care in a more modern fashion – thus, the dawn of collaborative digital care.Applications like the Goochland County Community Care App based in the USA, are revolutionising patient monitoring and assistance by allowing third-parties (persons and other institutions alike) to track, engage, and participate in digital patient care – creating a more supportive, holistic, and personal program for users by developing a digital culture and capability.<h3>Visual Reporting and Mobile Medical Photography</h3>Back in the 80s, bulky hospital equipment and long queues to use them were a lot more tolerable because of the relatively slower pace of the analogue age and lack of choices. However, in the rapidly developing digital age that domesticated an&nbsp;on-the-go-generation, traditional medical photography and basic consultations are no longer worth the wait&nbsp;[8].&nbsp;&nbsp;Intuitively, the healthcare industry has forged a way around time-consuming appointments. With more patients needing access to quick and convenient consultations, pioneers in the business have created and are promoting virtual consultations and DIY medical photography with innovative apps. With timely innovations of applications like MDLive (an online non-emergency consultation app) and Rx Photo (a guided mobile medical photography app), it’s no wonder why mobile’s taking the medical world by storm.<h3>Key Takeaways</h3><ul><li>Understanding patient behaviors and thought processes is key to successfully creating grounded, engaging, and overall relevant services</li><li>Community engagement, in-depth patient communication and guidance, and fun-factors are not only impact consumer experience, but also that of providers&nbsp;</li></ul><h4>Endnotes:</h4>[1] AJMC,&nbsp;“The Gamification of Healthcare: Emergence of the Digital Practitioner?”, 2019[2] Digital Commerce 360,&nbsp;“Modernizing patient access through digital engagement”, 2019[3] Bartleby Research,&nbsp;“Uncertainty Reduction Theory Of Health Communication”, 2020[4] The Medical Futurist,&nbsp;“5 Ways Medical Virtual Reality Is Already Changing Healthcare”, 2020[5] Virtualise,&nbsp;“Virtual Reality in Healthcare”, 2020[6] Health Science Journal,&nbsp;“The Contribution of Family in the Care of Patients in the hospital”, 2020[7] JMIR Publications,&nbsp;“Using Patient and Family Engagement Strategies to Improve Outcomes of Health Information Technology Initiatives: Scoping Review”, 2019[8] Harvard Pilgrim Health Care,&nbsp;“Millennials and Healthcare Benefits”, 2018<h4>Other references:</h4>The Medical Futurist,&nbsp;“The Top 15 Examples of Gamification in Healthcare”, 2017<h4><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/empowering-life-science-in-the-digital-era/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 18px;">Read more insights and see more of our work on health, wellness &amp; life science</a></h4>

Behavioral Science Integrations Changing the Game in Digital Patient Care

<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Ff3c847bafc4b499c8259cb004d2a000a?format=webp">Digital product development is a complex process however, the changing environment has also introduced new opportunities for successful strategies.<h2>Delivering digital products is a complex process</h2>Teams often start out with a clear idea of what they want to build. They impose structure through models, maps, and frameworks and a plan for the creation of a digital product laid out in a straight line in the form of a Gantt Chart with a clear route from the start to the end of the project. The assumption is that every feature, problem, constraint, risk and solution is known and understood and that to build the end product we simply have to write the code in the order that it’s been laid out.But in reality, the journey to get to a successful digital product is marked by a series of decisions, trade-offs, problems and ambiguity, that often side-tracks the process. And unfortunately, we humans are rarely prepared for nor very efficient when it comes to dealing with this level of chaos.&nbsp;<h2>The more complex the project, the more we plan</h2>Humans possess a natural emotional response to create a structure where there is ambiguity and so the more complex the project, the greater the temptation to do more planning. Teams focus on a more and more granular analysis of problems that may be as long as 3-6 months away, leading to frequent struggles when the problem then suddenly requires a different solution than the one imagined 3-6 months earlier.&nbsp;<h2>And the more reluctant we are to abandon a plan that has been proven wrong&nbsp;</h2>The reality is that circumstances change and the teams and ways of working that must be able to adapt are not set up in a way that allows an easy and quick change of direction. Worst off are teams and projects that are unwilling or unable to adapt even when continuing on the same path is going to cost more and lead to an unsuccessful outcome. The same plan that was meant to ensure success, now owns them. I’ve seen teams double down on their decisions even when the evidence is clear that they need to change course.<h2>The new norm is based on quick feedback and re-calibration</h2>The most effective teams I have worked with didn’t work off of a traditional plan. There was a&nbsp;list of priorities&nbsp;set by the Product Owner which would change based on new information from the business or feedback from people using the product.&nbsp;Features were released&nbsp;iteratively as working code in production environment from where they could be used and tested by real users.&nbsp;Feedback would then be gathered&nbsp;and the team would&nbsp;adapt and change course&nbsp;based on what they had learnt. This feedback loop was the key driver to being able to test hypotheses and assumptions that had been formed early in the product’s life-cycle.Other teams use techniques such as mind maps at the beginning of each new sprint to identify the work ahead. This shows the relationship between items but not the order in which they should be built. The team would then discuss the tasks and decide on the best way to design, build and test each as well as how to measure success. Unfortunately, many digital product teams release features or products without a clear idea of what success looks like and how to measure it. This ability, to measure and react to new information, is a key indicator of a highly performing digital product delivery team.It’s important to point out that these teams were not working completely blind.In my experience, successful teams have<ul><li>Clear business objectives, a North Star based on the end-users’ needs that are shared and understood by everyone on the team,</li><li>The skills, experience, and autonomy to decide on the best way of getting to the agreed outcome, quickly, and</li><li>Frequent and well-described feedback loops that are evaluated objectively and used to steer the decision-making.</li></ul>Want to know more about how we build digital products or how we can help turn your project into a success?Contact me on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauldedwards/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="mailto:paul.edwards@monstar-lab.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">paul.edwards@monstar-lab.com</a>.

Successful digital product delivery in times of rapid technological development

<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/revitalizing-wholesale-retail-ecommerce-for-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Part of our Wholesale, Retail, &amp; eCommerce Series</a>A lot of brick &amp; mortar stores have taken the back seat to digital commerce due to the sharp shift to online shopping. The question you might be asking is, how can you get the most out of them in this situation? Here are some ideas on how you can generate business value from your physical stores.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;News of retail store closures has been in and out of the news cycle this past year due to the pandemic.&nbsp;In the United States alone, UBS analysts estimate 80,000 stores to cease operations over the next five years&nbsp;while online sales continue to surge [1]. Of these closures, around 60% are deemed to be permanently closed for retail. [2].However, it must be noted that the UBS store closure projection actually tempered from a much higher number of 100,000 at around the same time last year April 2020 as retailers are starting to find intrinsic value in their physical stores. With most retailers having to shift quickly to digital channels in response to the global crisis, their brick and mortar stores have taken a back seat in this transition. As businesses steadily found their footing in this new normal, physical stores have slowly found their place back in this thriving digital ecosystem.&nbsp;As businesses, we have to maximise our assets to generate the most value, especially in dire situations. In this article, we offer perspectives on how you can make the most of your brick and mortar stores to provide immediate business value. And just as important, as we move out of this pandemic in the near term, on how you can begin reimagining the customer experience for your physical spaces to adapt to the evolved customer behaviour powered by technology.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Integrating Physical Stores as Key Digital Retail Ecosystem Components</h3>The prevalence and apparent ubiquity of digital shopping have forced retailers to come up with viable solutions to reclaim value from their now stagnant physical stores, finding ways to incorporate them into their relatively newly established digital ecosystem. Here are some of the ways retailers find the much-needed purpose for their stores that you can also implement.<h4>Distribution Points</h4>One of the challenges of a fully digital retail operation is distribution. In fact, due to the resulting surge in online shopping, shipping companies were caught unprepared with the sheer volume of deliveries they have to fulfil. Increasing package volume to almost 60% compared to the year prior [3]. As a result, consumers found that delivery dates tended to take longer, from mere weeks to as long as a few months.In response to this challenge, retailers have found a silver lining in their stores. By using them as distribution points they can tap smaller and more localised same-day delivery services to provide much better order fulfilment, inadvertently improving customer experience along the way.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h4>Order Pick-Up Venues&nbsp;</h4>Buy Online and Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) option has also started gaining ground among consumers. According to a survey by Investp,&nbsp;65% of shoppers stated that they availed themselves of this type of service over the last few months.&nbsp;Top reasons why shoppers prefer BOPIS are&nbsp;being able to see the products before they take them home&nbsp;and&nbsp;saving on shipping costs&nbsp;[4]. And also to a certain extent being able to experience a semblance of physical shopping experience.Utilising the curbside pick-up experience allows retailers to reinvigorate highly manageable store traffic while at the same time ensuring employee-customer safety. It also provides the opportunity to interact with the customers and encourage additional purchases while in-store.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In fact, a similar project was recently undertaken by Monstarlab for international brand WingStop, where we helped them develop a pilot for a practical process of ordering, looking, payment and pick-up via lockers for a truly seamless and contactless transaction.&nbsp;<h4>Experience &amp; Engagement Hub</h4>Social has also taken an integral part in the new retail landscape, with brands constantly engaging their market in social channels in a bid to get more of their attention, and ultimately, their share of pocket.&nbsp;And quite a few brands have brilliantly transformed their physical spaces to coincide with their social and community efforts. Lifestyle brands can offer limited slots to engage brand enthusiasts in community-based activities in-store while adhering to the safety standards and protocols. The event can then be broadcast on social and digital channels to allow their wider audience to participate in the safety of their own homes, all the while subtly promoting their fitness products through targeted interactive features in their digital channels.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;According to Incisiv, 91% of shoppers miss in-person shopping while another 5%, although small in number at this time, plan to visit and experience products in-store in the near future [5]. In response to this, larger retail brands are exploring the possibility of an exclusive shopping experience wherein customers can book in advance exclusive in-person shopping time which can allow them to shop without much worry about their personal safety.On top of that, contactless solutions and an integrated digital experience such as using AR and VR are an essential part of this solution.&nbsp;In a recent Businesswire survey more than 8 out of 10 shoppers explicitly mentioned that they prefer to shop in stores with a reliable contactless and self-checkout option, especially while still under the pandemic&nbsp;[6].&nbsp;Consumer demand for AR/VR technology is actually growing in Asia. According to new research from Worldpay,&nbsp;84% of respondents said they believe VR/AR is the future of shopping [7].&nbsp;It is emerging as a key component of the retail customer experience. In one example, international clothing brand Uniqlo partnered with Alipay to launch the “AR Red Packet” feature in China. This allows customers to shop in-store and take part in a treasure hunt for “red packets” on the premises using AR. Adding another layer of fun and engagement in the shopping experience.&nbsp;In another notable execution, major online retailer JD.com recently launched a mobile app that allows users to virtually try on pairs of shoes and even measure their foot size using AR. At present, JD.com AR has launched hundreds of applications for various categories such as make-up, clothing, hair colouring as well as an AR virtual store. They are also working with brand partners to promote and develop more AR experiences both online and offline [8].<h3>Moving Forward: Anticipating the Next Normal Retail Experience&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>Admittedly, the pandemic has transformed a lot of longstanding consumer behaviours that may stick even as we move out of this predicament. But as industry survivors, we have to brace ourselves and take a serious look at how the retail experience will take form in the near future.So despite the convenience and comfort currently provided by eCommerce, it is safe to assume that eventually, consumers will be looking for far more in terms of physical shopping experience. And what better way to deliver that expectation than through innovative digital and physical experiences.&nbsp;&nbsp;But before we even get to that point, we should begin by reimagining the in-store service model altogether, identifying new opportunities to monetise physical space, streamline operations, and deepen customer relationships. After all, as we move from survival to growth we need to make sure that key aspects of our operations provide value for both the business and the customers in the near term.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our global expert on creating connected experiences, Daniel Kalick, covers this topic in the article&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/expertinsights/how-stores-can-drive-business-in-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">How Stores can Drive Business in the “Next Normal”</a>. Give it a read to learn how you can manage your physical store experience as we move to the next phase of the retail evolution.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h4>Conclusion</h4>Physical stores can still provide strategic value to your operations that have become largely digital. By looking closely at our customer’s behaviours and preferences, we can find ways on how to best position our stores to augment business aspects from operations, logistics, to customer engagement in this new normal.&nbsp;But as we move out and recover from the pandemic, we will have to take an even closer look at the role the physical stores will take in the long run given the anticipated enduring changes in consumer behaviours.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/revitalizing-wholesale-retail-ecommerce-for-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read more insights and see some of our works on Wholesale, Retail, &amp; eCommerce</a>&nbsp;<h5>Endnotes:</h5><h5>[1] CBS News,&nbsp;Tens of thousands of stores could still close even after the pandemic ends, 2021</h5><h5>[2] CNBC News,&nbsp;Yelp shows 60% of business closures due to the coronavirus pandemic are now permanent, 2020</h5><h5>[3] Digital Commerce 360,&nbsp;Retail Merchants use stores to tap into same-day delivery, 2021</h5><h5>[4] Invesp,&nbsp;Buy Online Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS) Statistics &amp; Trends</h5><h5>[5] Forbes,&nbsp;50 Statistics Showing The Lasting Impact Of COVID-19 On Consumers, 2020</h5><h5>[6] Businesswire,&nbsp;87% Of Shoppers Prefer to Shop in Stores With Touchless or Robust Self-Checkout Options During COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020</h5><h5>[7] Chinadaily,&nbsp;Chinese rush to use VR and AR for their purchases, 2017</h5><h5>[8] JD.com,&nbsp;JD.com Explores AR Foot Measurement Tool for Online Consumers, 2020</h5>

Maximise Stores in the Digital Retail Experience

<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/revitalizing-wholesale-retail-ecommerce-for-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Part of our Wholesale, Retail, &amp; eCommerce Series</a>With increased demand for online shopping and dramatically transformed market conditions for retail businesses during the pandemic, most companies were forced to shift to Direct to Consumer or D2C sales practically overnight. Without a well-planned transition, many of them resorted to creating or jumping on to almost random online sales platforms without proper assessment of the intricacies.A year after such undertakings, more and more businesses are facing the ill consequences of their hasty actions and finding themselves caught in the shortfalls and nuances of their chosen channels. So much so that a sizable number of them are now looking to replatform themselves with alternatives. So before anyone dives head first again into another platform, we offer a quick breakdown and comparison of options that can help you put more thought into your selection.<h3>Choosing a Third-Party Platform</h3>Third-party platforms like Amazon, Shopify, and Shopee offer a wide range of benefits. With little need for back-end adjustments, they allow businesses to manage orders, ship goods, and track inventory with their built-in tools, to easily tap into their existing customer base, and basically to drag and drop their way to building and running an online store. But awesome as those perks sound, there can be some trade offs:There’s an abundance of&nbsp;platform fees that run your entire stay. Monthly fees go from the standard 30 USD for the basic plan to up to hundreds of dollars for a few additional features. Payment gateway fees for common payment options like Stripe and PayPal can cost about 3% of the overall charge plus an additional 30 cents. On top of all that, transaction fees also commonly cost 1-2% of overall product price. But that 5% in charges can go a long way, especially if you consider the time you save in easily setting up your store with the platform’s tools.Though built-in templates and themes for your store can be very handy, it also means you have&nbsp;less control over customisation. From user experience design and site functionality to product bans and heightened price control, many of the regulations in third-party platforms also double as limitations. Untouchable controls and restrictions on the types of products you can sell and the limitations of platform-dependent customer service, for example, can hold back scaling your operations to your growth in these platforms – not to mention the snowballing fees for making more sales. That being said, it’s important to consider how important customisation and flexibility is to your brand and process.In retrospect, third-party platforms show great potential as a stepping stone. With the ease of store setup and taking the mini-program route here to build initial clout, going with third-party platforms easily enables companies to hit the ground running. But like with all other options, you have to weigh out the pros and cons, and think long-term.<h3>Creating your own platform</h3>For many wholesale and retail businesses with ample time and more budget, developing a mobile app or website can be a worthwhile investment. Whether you’re coming from a brick-and-mortar store and looking to expand online, or coming from a failed attempt at penetrating shared online marketplaces, a bespoke platform proves to have many benefits. Advantages like having more control over functionality and design as well as the obvious monopoly over site visitors or app users easily seems to trump going for other choices, but going deeper unearths two critical yet commonly overlooked factors to consider.Producing your own app or website&nbsp;consumes a cost-efficient but larger amount of resources. Generally, custom platform development translates to initially higher customer acquisition costs. To be exact, it costs an average of 3.62 USD more per customer accounting both installation and development costs[1]. And unlike in third-party platforms where you can completely set up in as fast as a week, your mobile app or website can take months to years longer to build. But those are the costs of working towards a more long-term and comprehensive solution – minimal compared to the 40.5% savings you can enjoy from cheaper lead conversion costs compared to what marketplace apps spend post-development [1].Building a mobile app and/or website&nbsp;demands complex programming. Therefore, manufacturing your platform also requires a complicated tech stack. In mobile app development, for example, ensuring suitability for Android, iOS, and cross platform systems employs multiple programming languages with varying leverage on code speed, readability, and simplicity. Whether you’re planning to develop your app yourself or are looking for a development partner, heavy consideration of the tech stack is needed.Compared to the fees uploading your listings in a common online marketplace and the time it takes to do so, as well as the amount of preparations needed, custom platform development can seem overwhelming. But if done right, the effort will guarantee the rewards of standing out from the competition and propelling your growth.<h2>Employ an omnichannel approach</h2>Selecting a platform is not a binary choice. In fact, infiltrating more platforms can translate into better sales rates and a further-reaching brand. In this approach, your business can enjoy the benefits of both having your own platform and maximising the discoverability from third-party platforms. We recommend combining the following best practices:Create and push content into competitive platforms with&nbsp;Headless Content Management Systems (CMS). With this API-driven technology, you can create listings in populated online marketplaces and social media networks – all from one platform. Without the need to set-up multiple accounts, pages, and in-platform stores, you can easily publish and manage ads, blogs, media, and listings in virtually any viable platform in the market. This allows your business to easily penetrate relevant places for sales and marketing purposes. With this step, you can enjoy increased discoverability and easily drive traffic to your own platform.You can also&nbsp;develop custom third-party mini programs&nbsp;on platforms like WeChat, Snap Minis, Line, and Apple App Clips to reach greater audiences and increase brand awareness. These mini-programs act like lighter apps within third-party platforms. Taking the form of in-app stores, video games, and even music and video players, mini-programs are excellent marketing and sales tools [2]. To top that off, they can also be used to increase engagement beyond the platform. These paid programs commonly allow integrations with your own platform and even physical store promotions to create the perfect blended experience.Monstarlab has first hand experience in this type of platform. Anthea Zhang, China Managing Director, shares that the Chinese market is one of the successful frontrunners of utilizing mini-programs.“Sunning.com, one of China’s largest retailers, recently launched its own mini-program on WeChat and saw a surge in daily active users by more than 300% on top of a gross sales increase of close to 150% compared to 2020.In addition, average time spent on eCommerce mini-programs tends to be longer compared to its mobile app counterparts. Sessions clock in at around 17- 25 minutes on average while most ecommerce mobile apps generate roughly 4 minute sessions [4]. Intrinsic gamified features also lend to this high usage and retention rates. As users can earn in-app currency, they can spend online when they complete tasks and activities.”To complete the well-rounded strategy, you should&nbsp;develop or optimise your own platform. Besides having it as the catch basin of all your leads from the aforementioned suggested efforts, your own platform is the ultimate tool for creating compelling user experiences that turn site visitors or app users into buyers. From total control of design and functionality, to being able to add push notifications, increase security features, and fast track payment processes, a mobile app and/or website can increase sales and improve operational efficiency significantly.Though it likely takes the combined efforts of the first two options and more, it also allows you to enjoy the combined advantages. In fact, by leveraging this multi-channel strategy for engagement, you effectively increase engagement and retention rates compared to single-platform businesses by 70% and 62% respectively [3]; demonstrating the abundance of merits from this proactive approach.All in all, finding the right D2C channel that can help your business maximise and transition effectively into digital retail can be difficult. After all, platform is everything in eCommerce. But getting the choice right this time can spare you from the drawbacks and even help you maximise new normal circumstances.&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/revitalizing-wholesale-retail-ecommerce-for-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read more insights and see some of our works on Wholesale, Retail, &amp; eCommerce</a>Endnotes:[1] Digital Commerce 360 Research,&nbsp;“It costs more than $60 to acquire an app customer”, 2021[2] QPS Software,&nbsp;“WeChat Mini Programs – All You Need to Know”, 2021[3] LeanPlum Research,&nbsp;“How Does App Engagement Work?”, 2021[4] Localytics,&nbsp;Retail App Benchmarks H1 2018Other References:Forbes, “5 Stages Of Omnichannel Retailing”, 2020Harry Guiness,&nbsp;“The best 6 platforms to build an eCommerce website in 2021”McKinsey &amp; Company,&nbsp;“Adapting to the next normal in retail: The customer experience imperative”, 2020

Selecting a Platform: For Retailers Shifting to D2C

<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fa9c8c137f5104f308684173cde04b24d?format=webp"><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/revitalizing-wholesale-retail-ecommerce-for-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Part of our Wholesale, Retail, &amp; eCommerce Series</a>Forced to transform at almost impossible speeds by the global pandemic, many businesses entering eCommerce resolved to integrate premature solutions to try and keep up. A year later, the consequences of rushing into half-baked executions and band aid solutions are catching up. Despite worldwide eCommerce approaching 5 trillion USD this year, countless eCommerce efforts – including yours – are struggling [1]. And here’s why.<h3>1. Your store is not on the map</h3>If you find your online shop lacking or losing traffic despite the wealth of in-site improvements your business has been investing on, the problem might not be with the store itself. Chances are, you’re not welcoming any new customers because they don’t know you exist. With an overwhelming number of options, consumers might not know your products are on the table. And with 7.9 million eCommerce retailers in the world competing with you [2], that’s a much bigger problem than it sounds.In eCommerce, discoverability is one of the key determinants of success. In fact, Shopify reports that over 2.3 trillion USD in revenue for online stores has been attributed to it [3]. That said, it’s important to pay attention to how online shoppers find you and how they do so before landing on your competition’s website instead.Here’s what you can do:<ul><li>By&nbsp;identifying the platforms&nbsp;– may it be a website, your own mobile app, or a booming marketplace – that your target market engages with, you can easily increase your reach and brand awareness. According to research, third-party websites and social marketplaces Google, Facebook Marketplace, and Amazon are the best and most popular platforms for eCommerce.&nbsp;</li><li>Taking a closer look at buyer activities&nbsp;on such platforms, you can also easily position your posts and ads in the right places. Several studies share vital info on captured user behavior such as eye tracking, and applying that knowledge to your ad placement&nbsp;effectively puts you on your target audience’s radar.&nbsp;</li><li>Adding the right tags and searchable keywords&nbsp;to your listings, optimising&nbsp;search for long-tail queries, and making yourself ‘Googleable’ will definitely create results too. After all, studies suggest that more than 60% of online shoppers start their product search on Google [3].&nbsp;</li></ul>Making yourself visible on the right platforms and working towards seamless product discovery will help your business stand out.&nbsp;<h3>2. Your shopping experience feels too much like the real thing</h3>It’s easy to think that replicating the in-store experience is the goal for online selling, but for today’s online shoppers who’ve been transformed by the pandemic, that’s exactly what they’re trying to avoid. According to multiple research, the top ranked reasons why people buy online during the pandemic circle around the convenience of 24/7 availability, door-to-door deliveries, and avoiding the mall [4]. This just goes to show that eCommerce is a whole different marketplace from physical stores and in itself is also different today from what it was before the COVID-19 outbreak.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F3ff9ff46bcf541939892f705b15a8d26?format=webp">Here’s what you can do:<ul><li>Create a user experience truly designed for online shopping&nbsp;by paying attention to your UX. With smartphones accounting for 65% or eCommerce visits and product discovery and majority of checkout transactions being placed on websites over any other platform, making product viewing and site browsing more mobile-friendly and creating a smoother checkout flow for website visitors, for example, are effective ways of adapting and exploiting your UX.&nbsp;</li><li>Populating your platform with options&nbsp;will also create a more satisfying and complete shopping experience for your buyers. Integrating&nbsp;Headless Content Management Systems (CMS), an API-based approach that allows your business to effortlessly populate your website, social media, ads, and virtually any platform with content ranging from products and promotional offers to livestreams and social media posts without the lengthy backend configuration and all from one seamless platform, proves most effective in catalysing and simplifying this process.</li><li>Maximising data to personalise the online shopping experience&nbsp;also allows you to leverage another one of eCommerce’s advantages over physical stores – it allows you to communicate and engage consumers on a deeper level at an instant. In fact, according to research, 75% of online shoppers are more likely to purchase items from retailers that know their names and purchase history, and that are able to make grounded recommendations. [5]</li><li>Ensuring transparency in order fulfillment&nbsp;from payment, stock, and delivery tracking are also key to crafting a customer experience that buyers gravitate towards – especially with most shoppers confined to their homes during lockdowns and with no option to follow up in physical stores. With these being the best-rewarded integrations in online shopping, it only makes sense to add them to your stack.</li><li>You should also&nbsp;show dedication to safety. As contactless policies and increased risks of surface transmission continue to ingrain into the reasonably meticulous mindset of online shoppers, committing to clear and careful protocols such as contactless deliveries and constant disinfection that your shoppers are made aware of will make all the difference.</li><li>Finally,&nbsp;integrating creative technologies targeted towards reimagining online shopping&nbsp;to incite more engagement will also prove rewarding. As Augmented Reality (AR) and video for product viewing sweep through the industry, hopping in on this trend can mean engagement and higher conversion rates for your business.</li></ul>Aside from increasing customer engagement, technology integration can also greatly improve key processes and help mitigate costs. This was the case for one of our partners engaged in uniform and clothing retailing who used AI and machine learning to get a more accurate measurement from clients. Ultimately minimizing costly returns and accumulation of inventory.&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/cases/using-ai-technology-to-mitigate-costly-returns/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read more about it here</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://monstar-lab.com/global/assets/uploads/2021/04/%E2%80%9C.png.webp">Technology integrations such as AI and machine learning not only provide new and exciting customer experiences but also help solve underlying key business challenges that customers may not even be aware of. Which makes it an important aspect for both the business and consumers– Daisuke Hirata, CTO Monstarlab APACThe wonderful thing about bringing your business online is being able to maximise all the perks and moving parts of the internet – and that’s exactly what you should do.<h3>3. You’re forgetting about your loyal customers</h3>Although tapping new customers and converting them into actual leads is a worthwhile pursuit, it’s important to remember that in total sales, new customers bring you just as much value as repeat customers. And what you might be missing out on in focusing on customer acquisition is that its costs far outweigh customer retention costs and that a consistent customer base can bring you just as much or even more business than newcomers [4].Here’s what you can do:<ul><li>Manufacturing loyalty programmes&nbsp;allow tons of engagement points that keep customers coming back. With the world of eCommerce being generally characterised by high purchase frequency and tantamountly high churn rates, something as simple as enabling subscriptions or giving discounts to repeat customers can drastically impact customer retention and increase sales and resales.</li><li>Use available data to get to know your customers better and create impactful, lasting relationships with them. With&nbsp;360° Customer Relationship Management (CRM), you can maximise a customer understanding encompassing far beyond your regular&nbsp;Know Your Customer (KYC). With this single integration alone, you can achieve complete data collection within the whole online shopping cycle. You can furthermore use that data to create experiential customer interactions, make superior predictive analyses that allow you to anticipate and act upon opportunities for cross-selling, re-selling, and upgrades, and overall promote a strong bond with your customers.</li></ul>Multiple outstanding examples from across the globe demonstrate just how these clever marketing activities have helped retailers respond to struggling eCommerce. At this point, you just have to find out which of these best practices are the best for you.At the end of the day, an optimal end-to-end customer experience will generate the most value from your digital retail.<img src="https://monstar-lab.com/global/assets/uploads/2021/04/%E2%80%9C.png.webp">Great eCommerce user experience, in a competitive market, is the ultimate advantage. When ads are increasingly expensive, keywords are getting tougher to rank for, and social media doesn’t play out like you thought it would, return to the basics: provide a user-centric and bulletproof experience– Sarah Bui, Experience Design Director Monstarlab UKMeet our Experts:<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F38aac0f8e49246568344f5b7389370bb?format=webp">Diasuke Hirata, CTO for Monstarlab APAC, is the global lead for innovative technology solutions and integrations. With vast experience in providing advanced solutions with new technology integrations.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/revitalizing-wholesale-retail-ecommerce-for-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read more insights and see some of our works on Wholesale, Retail, &amp; eCommerce</a>Endnotes:[1] eMarketer Insider Intelligence,&nbsp;“Global Ecommerce Update 2021”[2] Etail Insights, “The 2021 Breakdown of the eCommerce Industry”[3] Vue.ai, “6 Ways To Improve Product Discovery &amp; Search Experience For eCommerce”, 2020[4] Tradegecko, “Retail &amp; Wholesale: Challenges and Strategies for Growth”, 2021[5] Accenture, “Pulse Check: 2018”Other references:McKinsey &amp; Company,&nbsp;Rebooting Retail,&nbsp;2020

3 Reasons Why Your eCommerce Is Struggling

<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/revitalizing-wholesale-retail-ecommerce-for-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Part of our Wholesale, Retail, &amp; eCommerce Series</a>As businesses and consumers are ushered into the next stage of overcoming pandemic conditions, wholesale, retail, and eCommerce continue to transform. Exploring and developing various strategies to meet evolved customer demands and keep up with the times, the sectors are diving straight into what we call the next normal – an empowered era where businesses take more control of their future and intently drive positive change. And these trends are laying the foundation.<h3>Trends Leading the Way</h3><h4>1. Stores are driving more traffic into their digital branches</h4>As contactless policies and door-to-door deliveries take over the industry, more and more companies are seeing the value of taking business online and making their online shops their flagship stores. With online selling becoming the most stable marketplace in the past year and consumers responding favorably to its conveniences, an increasing number of stores and sellers are prioritising and placing investments into their online shops this year. And as recent reports uncover that the pandemic has brought the number of online shoppers to an all-time high of 1.92 billion consumers, going online is proving to be the smarter choice [1].<h4>2. Augmented reality and videos are reinventing shopping</h4>Adding augmented reality (AR) and video to product viewing options has been a complete game changer for online businesses. Granting online shoppers a more ‘realistic’ shopping experience is proving to be a great way to engage customers and an even more fun method to inform them about your product or service. In fact, 35% of surveyed shoppers reported that they would purchase more online if they could virtually try products or see such products in 3D, and 22% stated they would be less likely to visit physical stores if AR was available in online stores [2]. With those numbers, it’s not hard to see why so many retail and eCommerce players are going for it.<img src="https://monstar-lab.com/global/assets/uploads/2021/04/%E2%80%9C.png.webp">We are expecting a lot more businesses to utilise AR for their products and businesses — so much so that it will become more standard in eCommerce and&nbsp;social media&nbsp;platforms. We’re seeing it put to use with larger companies, but I think we’re soon going to start seeing it become mainstream for businesses of all sizes.– Tessa Wuertz, Director of Marketing &amp; Partnerships,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.seattlewebdesign.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">efelle.com</a><img src="https://monstar-lab.com/global/assets/uploads/2021/04/%E2%80%9C.png.webp">I see the use of podcasting and&nbsp;short video content&nbsp;to augment the opportunity for buyers to learn about how an eCommerce brand’s products and services provide the solution to the opportunity, challenge or problem a buyer is looking to answer. With these two forms of content development comes the technology to micro track a viewer’s engagement…– Ron Smith, Editor in Chief,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thedigitaloutdoorsman.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Digital Outdoor</a><h4>3. AI and Big Data are making the shopping experience even more personal</h4>Ron Smith, Editor in Chief of The Digital Outdoor, once said that “People want to know that brands care about them.” And what better way to show you care than treating your valuable clients to special experiences built with their needs and quirks in mind? With AI continuously collecting data and analytics processing larger scales of information on how a customer shops and everything that goes into their purchasing process, businesses are learning more about up to millions of shoppers at a time and crafting personal experiences that can’t be replicated in-store. At this stage, these technologies can go as far as to give you instant recommendations, and who could say no to a treat, perfectly suited your preferences, that practically has your name on it?<img src="https://monstar-lab.com/global/assets/uploads/2021/04/%E2%80%9C.png.webp">We have reached the tipping point when it comes to showing irrelevant content. By implementing personalised shopping experiences across all channels to talking directly with your customer, you improve experiences, increase consistency and brand loyalty. If you have data, it can be overwhelming to identify user patterns and profiles for personalised experiences for thousands to millions of users at a time, but that’s why we use AI.– Rasmus Mortensen, Head of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sitecore.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sitecore</a><h4>4. Chatbots are becoming the best assistants</h4>We are now years past the ‘chatbots for feedback’ era and are effectively training them into becoming our best sales associates yet. In fact, 80% of chatbots in the eCommerce industry already interact with online shoppers much like an in-store sales associate would do. With chatbots becoming more intuitive and working hand-in-hand with experience personalisation efforts, experts are finding that it can benefit companies placed anywhere in the sales process [3]; stepping in and saving sales 24/7.<img src="https://monstar-lab.com/global/assets/uploads/2021/04/%E2%80%9C.png.webp">I think that personal shopping assistant bots online will become more prevalent, using previous data to help anticipate new products that you’ll like. Similar to Amazon’s suggestions for similar products.– Duran Inci, CEO of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.optimum7.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Optimum7</a><h4>5. Headless and API-driven eCommerce allow continued innovation.</h4>As it allows online platforms to be completely decoupled from presentation layers, the flexibility of going headless on backend together with its added SEO and content marketing capabilities is creating more effortless content dissemination for many companies. By enabling businesses to find sales opportunities across all devices and platforms without the nitty gritty of the usual backend development, this API-approach is maximising all notable online frontiers and allows companies to respond more quickly to new user demands; making it so easy to plug and play into any sensible digital strategy.<img src="https://monstar-lab.com/global/assets/uploads/2021/04/%E2%80%9C.png.webp">With headless, we get more control over our content and customer journey through checkout. We had a multi-region need that was solved for with the headless BigCommerce solution, allowing us to combine all of our stores into one single domain, for which we have developed additional features.– Antonio Kaleb, eCommerce Architect,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.livelarq.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LARQ</a><h4>Do these make sense for your business?</h4>Though many novel technologies have emerged, not every trend is worth jumping on. Knowing what innovations will be a good fit for your business still comes down to how you will use it. After all, powerful as it may be, technology remains a tool.Meet our Expert:<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F52838e34192447dfb39e2a568d4999bc?format=webp" width="409" style="cursor: nwse-resize;">Rasmus Mortensen, Head of Sitecore, is our global lead for Web Personalization. He has racked up more than 15 years of experience in technology including designing and implementing highly personalized user experiences via Sitecore.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/revitalizing-wholesale-retail-ecommerce-for-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read more insights and see some of our works on Wholesale, Retail, &amp; eCommerce</a>Endnotes:[1] Statista,&nbsp;Number of digital buyers worldwide from 2014 to 2021,&nbsp;2021[2] Michael Prusich,&nbsp;1Digital Agency Interview,&nbsp;2021[3] BigCommerce, eCommerce&nbsp;Trends That Are Powering Online Retail Forward, 2021Other references:McKinsey &amp; Company,&nbsp;Rebooting Retail,&nbsp;2020

Digital Trends Driving Wholesale, Retail, and eCommerce into the Next Normal

Max Oglesbee

<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/revitalizing-wholesale-retail-ecommerce-for-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Part of our Wholesale, Retail, &amp; eCommerce Series</a>&nbsp;The quest to reopen stores is just the beginning. To emerge stronger from the pandemic, brands must reimagine the in-store service model altogether, identifying new opportunities to monetize physical space, streamline operations, and deepen customer relationships.&nbsp;All of which we will cover in this article..&nbsp;&nbsp;***The fits and starts of reopening amid the pandemic have many brands getting creative with ways to deliver in-store service while keeping customers and employees safe. From retailers to restaurants and banks, the constraints imposed by Covid have made it critical to experiment with contactless forms of service and a variety of new spatial configurations.Yet reopening alone won’t guarantee success in the “next normal.” For companies that depend on a large physical footprint to do business with customers, the pandemic is provoking a much deeper, structural question –– one that goes beyond the way to best jump-start activity at brick and mortar stores.That question is whether those stores, as currently conceived, will continue to deliver enough business value to justify their cost in the first place.Fact is that many customers might not be returning to main street shops as often, even once the economy recovers and the pandemic fades from view.That’s because Covid has rapidly accelerated changes in consumer behaviour. If adoption of eCommerce had been inching up before the pandemic, it has now hit a massive growth spurt. The many late adopters who previously shunned digital services are rapidly changing their ways, and some of that change will likely be permanent.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F70f98d0cb2e346f582132642ff243776?format=webp">Companies are rapidly adjusting in turn, pivoting to digital channels to meet the changing needs of consumers. If these channels continue to deliver a greater share of revenue even after stores reopen, and margins can be improved by reducing acquisition and distribution costs, the very purpose of main street shops will need to be examined.The brands to emerge strongest from the pandemic will face this shifting landscape head-on. They won’t let “getting back to normal” become a singular obsession. Instead, they’ll proceed on two tracks, implementing the best solutions to safely reopen in the short-term, while reimagining the in-store service model in the longer term and taking bold steps toward the future.***The longer-term track entails identifying and experimenting with bigger, riskier opportunities to innovate the in-store experience from both an operational and customer perspective. While specifics of execution will differ from brand to brand, and industry to industry, the path begins with a similar set of strategic imperatives:&nbsp;<ol><li>Identify the unique value that only in-store service can deliver.&nbsp;</li></ol>There will always be a substantial segment of customers who prefer to walk into stores and restaurants, either spontaneously or planned. But as consumers have become more and more accustomed to home delivery and other off-premise channels –– and as businesses have in turn grown more reliant on those channels for acquisition and distribution –– the question brands must ask is&nbsp;what differentiated value the in-store experience can offer. What, in other words, is the job that physical storefronts are uniquely positioned to do for customers?Answering this question entails thinking about the friction that can be best alleviated by face-to-face interactions and the problem-solving creativity of store employees. Retailers like Nordstrom, for example, have recently piloted a merchandising-only concept[2] that focuses solely on helping customers find the right clothes. The concept marks a return to the heyday of the department store experience[3] of the 1950s when sales associates had greater expertise in fashion trends and were more attuned to the tastes of their most frequent customers. This type of high-touch, personalized service is hard to execute outside a physical store.&nbsp;<ol><li>Test new opportunities to monetize physical space.</li></ol>With customer capacity limited at many stores and restaurants amid the pandemic, the cost of physical locations has for many companies dwarfed the revenue generated by those locations. This crunch has pushed brands to envision smaller, less costly footprints, particularly in the restaurant industry, where leaders like Burger King are concepting future designs up to 60% smaller[4] than today’s traditional restaurant.In addition to reducing real estate costs, brands are renewing the quest to further monetize the physical space they already have. Service model innovation in this area has already led to positive results. Restaurant chains like Chili’s, for example, are piloting ‘virtual brands’[5], using increased kitchen capacity during the pandemic to launch delivery- and takeout-only concepts that are adding substantial incremental revenue.As restaurants and retailers alike use physical storefronts more and more as distribution centers for goods that have been purchased through digital channels ahead of time, it’s useful to consider the monetization opportunities that might exist as a result of this shift. How can brands upsell customers with relevant offers as they head to collect their purchase from a pick-up counter or BOPIS (Buy-Online-Pickup-In-Store) locker? The most effective way to monetize this part of the customer journey has yet to be fully explored.&nbsp;<ol><li>Pilot technologies that enable streamlined operations and deeper customer relationships.&nbsp;</li></ol>As more technologies form part of a brand’s digital ecosystem, both operations and customer relationships stand to be impacted, and not always in a positive way. While digital ordering opens a much-needed revenue stream for retailers and restaurants, for example, it can also introduce a host of pain points for in-store employees. Likewise, while retail and restaurant marketplaces are adept at bringing new customers to brands, the relationship (along with a sizable chunk of transactional revenue) is often owned by those marketplaces, placing roadblocks in the way of deeper customer engagement.Brands looking to innovate the in-store model have an abundance of technology options that hold the promise of driving both operational efficiency and deeper customer relationships, from real-time inventory management to AI-driven recommendations across digital and physical channels. Finding the technologies that will unlock the unique value of the in-store experience, without negatively impacting operations or the long-term customer relationship, is key.***As we find our way out of the pandemic, the reopening of main street shops is highly anticipated – but it’s only the beginning for brands that rely on a large physical footprint to do business. Shifts in consumer behaviour accelerated by Covid mean it’s more critical than ever for retailers, restaurants, and banks to innovate the in-store service model. By identifying the unique value that only in-store service can deliver, finding new opportunities to monetize physical space, and choosing technologies that enable streamlined operations and deeper customer relationships, brands can ensure that stores will continue to drive business in the next normal.Meet the Expert:<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Ff17d9519d12e43058a5a292ea4f4c42d?format=webp">Max Oglesbee, Monstarlab Americas’ CEO, has over a decade of experience in driving digital innovation and organizational transformation in leading brands globally.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/revitalizing-wholesale-retail-ecommerce-for-the-next-normal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Read more insights and see some of our works on Wholesale, Retail, &amp; eCommerce</a>&nbsp;<h6>Endnotes:</h6><h6>[1] Clearbridge Investments,&nbsp;“The New Normal: Retailers Go All-In Online”,&nbsp;2020</h6><h6>[3]&nbsp;Retail Dive,&nbsp;“Will the once marvelous department store ever come back?”, 2019</h6><h6>[4]&nbsp;Retail Dive,&nbsp;“Burger King to build mobile-focused restaurant model in 2021”, 2020</h6><h6>[5] Restaurant Business,” Chili’s Owner has Some Big Plans for It’s Just Wings”, 2020</h6>

How Stores Can Drive Business in the “Next Normal"

<h4><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/empowering-life-science-in-the-digital-era/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Part of our Health, Wellness &amp; Life Science Series</a></h4>The pandemic has unwittingly ushered entire industries into uncharted territory. All of a sudden, drastic changes in consumer behavior have become prevalent – driving businesses to rethink customer engagement and overall brand experience. Now, more than ever, focus on the customer experience becomes integral and impactful.&nbsp;Businesses are now feeling the impact of technology integration in their operations or the lack thereof. Covid-19 brought about a big shift on how customers interact with brands. It has forced customer interactions to shift from personal to digital at the drop of a hat. Digital interaction has to be navigated carefully to continue providing a great experience as this plays a big role in driving customer loyalty&nbsp;[1].&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fc500e34b88444cc0914092a9bbdb5356?format=webp">The Life Science industry is not immune to sweeping changes in customer expectations. Customer demand has seen considerable uptake especially from brands that provide direct relevant health services. While this may prove to be challenging at the onset, it also serves a great opportunity to transform long-standing procedures into game changing experiences.&nbsp;In order to grow beyond what is currently being done in terms of customer experience, businesses can simply take a look at what successful brands from other industries are doing and adapt to improve current processes.&nbsp;&nbsp;Let’s have a look at some of the remarkable things other industries are doing and what we can take from them:<h4>Hospitality Industry: AI- &amp; ML-Powered Chatbots</h4>With the limitation to face-to-face interactions and reduced number in manpower, the hospitality industry which traditionally relies on personal interaction has turned to interactive AI-powered Chatbots. Hotels are now utilising this smart messaging tool to book reservations that are smart enough to recommend relevant activities. One good example of this is Bebot, Japan’s first AI chatbot for Hotels first made available at Holiday Inn Osaka Namba. This setup allows the customers to enjoy the full experience while having peace of mind as their health and safety are evidently being prioritised.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Life Science businesses can make use of AI-powered Chatbots to cater to a wide range of services without the immediate need for a warm body. It can be deployed to provide personalised and highly relevant health information on demand, book appointments and consultations with healthcare professionals, and even provide needed monitoring support for patients under therapy.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h4>Banking Industry: OmniChannel Engagement</h4>Traditional banking has been evolving to cater to customers who are accustomed to technology. Digital innovations in technology have been necessary to reach new customers and provide them with banking services. The key to this is understanding consumer preferences and providing them with multiple relevant channels to transact, be it via mobile, online, in-person or through a self-serve kiosk.&nbsp;One great example of a bank utilising omnichannel engagement is Bank of America. On top of the conventional branch visit, transactions can be done digitally via easily accessible web and mobile assets. Customers can also opt for a digital branch experience where services are rendered by AI robots or machines. By providing viable engagement choices, customers feel empowered and are more likely to develop brand loyalty.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F01d0bc5330c54600a40bf86dd28cebbd?format=webp">Omni-channel engagement may be challenging to set-up, but brands under life science are sure to benefit from this approach. For one, medical or health service customers may be given several options to avail consultation. They may be given the choice of a mobile diagnostic app, online digital forms, video conference, or even via phone call. Medical facilities and diagnostic clinics, on the other hand, can also provide several channels where the patient can retrieve medical test results and get assistance. Providing relevant channels brings a lot of convenience to the customer and provides more value.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h4>Beauty &amp; Personal Care Industry: Deep Customer Understanding&nbsp;</h4>Do you really know your customers? Do you take the time to talk to them and understand what drives their actions? Beauty and Personal Care brand Glossier does exactly that.&nbsp;Focusing on customer experience, they set up a team dedicated to understanding customer needs, desires, and issues. This team, dubbed as the “gTeam” undertakes direct two-way conversations with customers to get feedback. Actual people are at the forefront of customer conversations and not bots or autoresponders. The gTeam asks details of the actual concerns of the customers and what exactly they can do to improve their services. Information gathered is then fed to the rest of the company to come up with&nbsp;better strategies for loyalty building, product development and addressing issues.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F794feb1a3fa041d2b3cad7ed04adb5df?format=webp">This is one step to a great customer experience. Taking the time to talk to customers and understanding them helps build a deeper relationship and breeds loyalty. Medical device brands and even pharmaceuticals can take a page out this approach. By taking more time to talk to end users, understanding them, and getting valuable feedback, brands not only have the opportunity to retain customers, but maybe even brand advocates.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h4>Finance Industry: Customer Education</h4>The financial industry can be a highly technical industry and requires a lot of information to fully grasp and appreciate. Consumer education is highly important not only to generate more business but also to guide customers to their individual financial goals. Financial industry giant, Deloitte, has taken considerable effort to provide relevant information to their customers (and non-customers to some extent). They came up with Deloitte Insights, a knowledge sharing hub that covers vast topics in the form of blog posts, webcasts, researches, articles, videos and podcasts. It even has microsites for specialised audience segments. Financial information can easily be accessed via web or mobile and even allows the user to curate own personalised library. By providing an extensive but easily searchable content hub, customers can access and consume most relevant information they need in their financial journey. This in turn helps solidify the brand as the industry expert in the minds of its audience.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Much like the financial industry, most (if not all) Life Science brands may lean towards the complex and technical. Having a rich, accessible, and searchable resource of customer relevant information gives customers the opportunity to learn correct product usage, recommended practices, and even troubleshooting for medical devices, among others. The actual content and its format has to be carefully taken into consideration depending on consumer preferences and comprehension to maximise effectivity and encourage usage. A well executed knowledge sharing hub enables customers to efficiently use products and services and can help minimise incidents of customer service requests.&nbsp;<h4>Conclusion</h4>A great customer experience is at the heart of every great industry, every successful business. This pandemic actually provides brands the opportunity to revisit old structures and make way for better ones. Although some companies that embraced digital earlier may have some advantage, businesses are on equal footing in terms of redefining customer experience in this new normal. To move forward, brands under the Life Science industry need to learn, adapt, and execute.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Endnotes:[1] McKinsey &amp; Company,&nbsp;“How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point—and transformed business forever”, 2020[2] DigitalCommerce360,&nbsp;“Why an omnichannel strategy matters”, 2020[3] Microsoft,&nbsp;“2017 State of Global Customer Service Report”, 2017Other references:Moengage,&nbsp;“7 Brands That Have Mastered Omnichannel Marketing”, 2020Glossy,&nbsp;“How Glossier’s gTeam is changing the role of customer service”, 2018Forbes,&nbsp;“50 Stats That Prove The Value Of Customer Experience”, 2019<h4><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/empowering-life-science-in-the-digital-era/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 18px;">Read more insights and see more of our work on health, wellness &amp; life science</a></h4>

Learning from Other Industries to Revitalise CX in Life Science

<h4><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/empowering-life-science-in-the-digital-era/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Part of our Health, Wellness &amp; Life Science Series</a></h4>In healthcare, along with the rise in demands from patients and consumers, rises the costs of meeting those demands with expensive methods and innovations. Across the globe, healthcare systems are challenged by a continuous change in consumer expectations despite consistent efforts, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changing healthcare demands and conditions. Accounting how industry leaders reactively implement various technologies strung together to make cost-effective strategies, experts have gathered substantial and pivotal insights on what it takes to maximise value for patients while achieving the best results for the lowest costs.&nbsp;<h4>In this article, you will learn:</h4><ul><li>What pandemic-sensitive strategic implementations make for a well-structured end-to-end patient/customer journey</li><li>What are the advantages of employing various digital service and customer support strategies within the industry</li><li>How these strategies can fit into your plans and executions</li></ul><h3>Assess patient needs and filter cases promptly</h3>Assessing health needs digitally is a comprehensive process – reading patient-reported conditions and fitting information against set criteria is simply not enough. However, that should not translate into an entitlement to waste a patient’s precious time on tedious investigations when their concerns clearly imply they should be seen by a physician, especially with the high stakes within a fast-spreading pandemic.&nbsp;From the onset, it is vital to incorporate the concepts of triage and capacity to heighten the effectiveness and advance the speeds of necessary health interventions. Making service limitations explicit and setting boundaries on the benefits consumers can pursue in specific platforms makes drastic changes in service efficiency and accuracy.&nbsp;According to experts, the use of rule-based automation to separate and properly sort cases does not only benefit enterprises in increasing service proficiency and high consumer ratings&nbsp;[1]. It also influences the accuracy of priority setting for providers and expectations setting for patents – suggesting grounded proportions of resource rationing and promoting more systematic and cost-effective digital services.&nbsp;<h3>Balance machine and human assistance options</h3>Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming known for its unparalleled augmentation of human abilities. From disease diagnosis to conversing and attending to consumers, this technology is changing the way healthcare providers fundamentally care for patients in a surge of patient populations. However, alongside popularity amongst executives, significant increase in so-called “digital fear” has also been reported by several studies&nbsp;[2]. This brings to light reasonable fears of unemployment for workers and of unreliable “machine opinions” in lieu of professional input as an outcome of the shift in customer support machinery.&nbsp;&nbsp;In order to address such fears and fully exhaust the potential of AI technologies, it is important to highlight how such are used to complement human abilities and not to dehumanise health services or replace the workforce. By using AI to perform basic and routine tasks, and employing workers to take on more complex work, providers can demonstrate and take advantage of harmonious human-machine collaboration.&nbsp;According to recent research with over 1,500 participating companies, the majority of organisations in the industry are applying AI to automate day-to-day processes, and these enterprises are enjoying the most significant performance improvements in the sector and accrue better customer feedback when humans and machines work together&nbsp;[3].&nbsp;<h3>Personalise patient care</h3>Despite the generality of doctrines and regulations within the practice, healthcare should never be treated as a field catering to homogenised audiences. Providers need to understand the importance of seamlessly combining the&nbsp;efficiencies and quality of standardisation with possibilities and occurences of specialised cases. That being said, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for service customisation purposes is highly recommended.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F1854ff224dc84d7894ee7686774fcf29?format=webp">Research highlights the abilities of AI and ML to create unique experiences and align custom-fit offerings to meet the demands of healthcare consumers. From matching concerns to accorded services and patients to physicians with compatible specialisations, credentials, and schedules,&nbsp;to important adjustments in profile information and even interface design, the combination of the said technologies personalises healthcare on deep and rewarding levels while catering to masses of users at the same time. In fact, according to reports, digital healthcare tools and softwares forwarding personalisation are rewarded with more downloads and a 75% higher average of Play Store and App Store ratings compared to more rigid programs&nbsp;[4].<h3>Key Takeaways</h3><ul><li>Setting boundaries and expectations for offered digital services is crucial to efficient service and support delivery in a demanding global health crisis; this not only benefits patients by reducing the time between inquiry and intervention, but also allows providers to screen serviceable demands instantaneously.</li><li>Increased integrations of technology entail positive dynamic disruption when well-allocated. Reliance on technology for certain processes (especially those of larger scales and that require faster actions) does not automatically threaten the livelihoods of professionals in the sector and actually provides them more and better work opportunities while significantly improving their performance – subsequently amplifying service value for patients.</li><li>Complying to standards and regulations should not translate into a one-size-fits-all approach to healthcare. Personalisation is crucial to fostering a culture of accuracy and inclusivity in the industry and should be employed in any and all health transactions.</li></ul><h4>Endnotes:</h4>[1] National Institutes of Health,&nbsp;“Development and importance of health needs assessment”, 1998[2] AdventHealth,&nbsp;“Personalizing Patient Care: A Reference Guide for Healthcare Professionals, 4th Edition”, 2019[3] Harvard Business Review,&nbsp;“Collaborative Intelligence: Humans and AI Are Joining Forces”, 2018[4] IQVIA Institute,&nbsp;“The Growing Value of Digital Health”,&nbsp;2017<h4>Other references:</h4>National Institutes of Health,&nbsp;“Why digital medicine depends on interoperability”,&nbsp;2019Forbes,&nbsp;“Healthcare In The Age Of Personalization”,&nbsp;2019Statista,&nbsp;“Cost decreases from adopting artificial intelligence (AI) in organizations worldwide as of 2019, by function”, 2019<h4><a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/empowering-life-science-in-the-digital-era/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 18px;">Read more insights and see more of our work on health, wellness &amp; life science</a></h4>

Creating a Seamless Digital Experience for Patients

How Do You Measure the ROI of Great Design?

Launching a new product is inherently risky. It is impossible to guarantee success or predict exactly how customers will react. In short, there is no crystal ball to tell you what value proposition will lead to a breakthrough, what features customers really want, or what type of user experience they crave.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F89ea15f776b34e399037bab2363e09ab?format=webp">But product development is not total chaos, either. While there are things you simply cannot know before bringing a product to market, risk can be reduced by focusing on the right customer problems. Nailing that part of the process is the key to constraining the potential set of solutions, reducing distraction, and ultimately increasing the chances of shipping a successful product.Of course, this is easier said than done. Large companies are typically swimming in data from disparate sources, making it hard to separate signal from noise when analysing the customer journey. Meanwhile, early-stage startups have the opposite problem — very little data to go on — and face pressure to ‘validate’ their ideas quickly, even if they have only interacted with a small sample of users.So, if you are a big company or a small one, how do you know you are solving a worthwhile customer problem?Part of the answer lies in where you look. At Monstarlab, we are often peering into less obvious places to discover unmet customer needs — investigating the end-to-end journey to find problems that are typically neglected. To do so, we draw on a range of methodologies, from human-centred design (HCD) to data science. And we adopt a few key principles along the way:<h3>1. Develop informed hypotheses before exploring solutions</h3>It is natural to begin the product development process with a great idea. And it can be motivating to start the ‘making’ part of the process in earnest. However, if the solution you are excited to test is based only on assumptions — instead of hard-won insights — there is a good chance you will waste effort fixing problems that do not matter. Take the time to first assess what qualitative and quantitative insights you already have, and what knowledge gaps you need to close.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F9fba7a301b8942efb88e1b9d0f40203c?format=webp"><h3>2. Use ethnography and experts to go deeper on the problem-space</h3>Once knowledge gaps are identified, it is easier to plot an effective research plan. User interviews are table stakes for any product development effort, but to truly identify neglected customer problems and challenge the team’s assumptions, it is important to go deeper, particularly for specialised products. Ethnographic methods are critical for understanding the mental model of your users and identifying pain-points that would otherwise remain overlooked. And interviewing experts can shorten the time it takes to get smart on a particular space.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F3893fbc448324800b6e1f42854587e0a?format=webp"><h3>3. Focus on the ‘in-between’ parts of the experience</h3>We are often focused on the core part of the product experience — those key interactions that are essential to delivering customer and business value. But what happens before and after the core journey? And what about those critical ‘in-between’ moments of transition — from digital to physical touchpoint, for example, or from one digital service to another? The promise of frictionless design often breaks down in these areas. Plotting the end-to-end customer journey can help surface customer pain-points that too often slip through the cracks.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/o/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F09b076aa23244e0aa4af227b14321e54%2Fcompressed?apiKey=2d7df8e6524a48bd949e5b99dd082786&amp;token=09b076aa23244e0aa4af227b14321e54&amp;alt=media&amp;optimized=true"><h3>4. Treat employee pain-points like customer pain-points</h3>The customer is always the main protagonist. But they are not the only cast members. In any product experience, crucial supporting roles are played by a host of company employees. That means it is important to understand, and solve for, the employee pain-points that stand in the way of best-in-class service. Applying the same research methods to the operations side of the business can help teams identify the neglected needs of employees.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F6a8503b5ec4444bc9351343f4a5d824b?format=webp"><h3>5. Pressure test solutions before launching them</h3>Prototyping has by now become a core methodology in the product development toolkit. But we predict pressure testing will soon set a new industry standard, particularly for enterprise-level products that marry digital and physical experiences. Pressure testing entails the re-creation of realistic product usage conditions in a lab environment, helping teams identify customer problems in those tricky ‘in-between’ parts of the service journey, including pain-points that arise with technical performance issues — all before bringing a product to market.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/o/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F1963476ead6045208d4edef9dd23353f%2Fcompressed?apiKey=2d7df8e6524a48bd949e5b99dd082786&amp;token=1963476ead6045208d4edef9dd23353f&amp;alt=media&amp;optimized=true"><h3>6. Live the product</h3>Necessity is the mother of invention, and it is no wonder the best solutions are often built by those who experience a problem firsthand. It is therefore critical that product teams not only empathise with users through research but also routinely step into their shoes. This means teams should regularly use the products they have launched where possible, developing a first-person perspective of customer problems and frustrations. This method can be a powerful tool for developing informed hypotheses for optimising the product and solving customer needs.Product development is an inherently risky endeavour. But the chances of success can be increased by focusing on the right customer problems. Identifying unmet needs is often a matter of where to look. By investigating the hidden parts of the customer journey, and adopting the right research methods and principles, companies can more easily discover the problems worth solving.

The Hidden Parts of the Journey: How to Discover Customer Problems Worth Solving

<h2>A framework for deciding when to apply the Design Sprint and when to apply the Discovery Sprint</h2>&nbsp;Over the past years, I-as many other design thinkers have-fallen in love with Five Day Design Sprint. I have flexed and tweaked it to match the challenges at hand. Whilst I don’t plan on abandoning the Design Sprint, there’s definitely a new cool kid in my class, namely the Discovery Sprint, which I have only recently started to bond with.Both are rooted in the core of design thinking and the British Design Council’s Double Diamond. They both work with problem-solving in an agile way, at speed. So how can they play alongside each other and what sets them apart?The key factors in choosing when to use each are concept maturity, the staging of the disciplines and work and the commercial commitment.I’ve seen the design sprint being applied with great success! But I’ve also seen it disappoint in situations where it did not fulfil the team’s need for detail and depth. In this article I suggest a framework to help you decide which sprint to apply in order to reach the desired outcome and progress depending on where you are in your development process.In order to do that here’s a very brief overview of each.&nbsp;The Design Sprint is often thought of&nbsp;as the way to start something brand new, with a big bang. The Discovery Sprint is spun out of the&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/@daviddenham07/dual-track-agile-the-secret-sauce-to-outcome-based-development-601f6003ea73" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dual-track Agile methodology</a>&nbsp;and is the Product Manager’s tool to continuous and incremental improvements through the product life-cycle.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h4>Five Day Design Sprint</h4><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F7cbb0ccf2faa41c2a8b4a676dcfc8c8b?format=webp">See the sprint with all its detail in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thesprintbook.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Sprint bible”</a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/@jakek" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jake Knapp</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h4>Discovery Sprint</h4><img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F280edee9e8f94cd5a8816d88fb271c98?format=webp">With this rough brush up, we have already established several of the key differences. Let’s look more into how they differ and when to use what.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Playful vs tactical – work formats</h3>The Design Sprint relies on a consecutive row of workshops that supports co-creation and empowerment. In the sprint, the facilitator is a key asset to enable User Journeys Mapping, Lightning Demos and sketches. As a facilitator, I love the playfulness, the quick pivoting, the fast decision making and that everybody is in the loop. However, the day-long workshop format is not for everybody. In a provocative way, the Design Sprint is purposefully uncomfortable and brings people out of their comfort zone to reach new standards of collaboration.The Discovery Sprint is framed around a Sprint Goal but more flexible, and there are no defined agendas for a fixed amount of time. The Discovery Sprint is still intense and since it’s less workshop heavy, everyone in the team is committed to deliver, individually. In your frequent check-ins, you can align and set out tracks of research, business modeling and scoping. The benefit of this way of working is that you have experts working efficiently and targeted. This allows each track to progress more at their own pace and deep dive into specific areas. Be aware of maintaining momentum and energy in the team and if possible, bring the team together in informal work blocks to energize and enforce continuous dialogue.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Convergent vs. divergent thinking</h3>&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fb0c176b0e87040bfa8917cd64b11d358?format=webp">Both sprints take their starting point in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/what-framework-innovation-design-councils-evolved-double-diamond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">double diamond methodology</a>&nbsp;and alternate divergent and convergent thinking and methods. In its essence, the double diamond prescribes that the ratio of the two sides in each diamond (divergent efforts and convergent efforts) is one to one. In reality, I will argue that the Design Sprint is more open and explorative (divergent) than the Discovery Sprint. Exploration, ideation and inspiration take up much more time in the Design Sprint. In the Discovery Sprint the end goal is a detailed description and prioritisation of epics, so you have to round the ideation off early and spend more time on deep dive into functionality.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>The application of the sprint: Level of uncertainty vs. willingness to invest</h3>&nbsp;Both sprints are an investment in the future of your product or business and even the ‘let’s not do this’-outcome can save you money, time and energy. But when should you apply the Design Sprint and when to use the Discovery Sprint?&nbsp;The first thing to bear in mind is how mature your idea is. If you are very early in your process, you are most likely facing a problem but you have no clue of the solution. You are working with a high degree of uncertainty. You are not willing to invest a lot of money in this phase – the outcome is not tangible and your ROI is imaginary. However, at this point in time, you can make a huge impact on the solution and the final cost. By investing a small amount of money in a Design Sprint, you can decrease risk significantly.&nbsp;If your idea is more mature already, eg. you know that you are most likely going to build a mobile application with three main areas A, B and C. And you are looking to refine and retain the alignment in your organisation. Then the Discovery Sprint will be a better choice for you. The tangible outcome of the Discovery Sprint will probably feel like a more safe investment and your C-level’s willingness to invest increases. You can start measuring the impact and define KPIs and you will have a safer bet on the actual cost of implementation.&nbsp;The willingness to invest is highest in the development phase. It’s logical that to launch a product you have to build it first, and that costs. If you haven’t worked out all of your uncertainties before starting the building, the development will associate to a very high risk of not getting a good ROI.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F1e2811c9f08940668fad2aff84328b0b?format=webp"><h2>Key Takeaways</h2><ul><li>The two sprints have a lot in common in terms of purpose and origin from Design Thinking&nbsp;</li><li>The work formats in the sprints are different. The Design Sprint is more workshop heavy and playful whereas the Discovery Sprint is more focused on tasks in individual tracks within each profession.&nbsp;</li><li>The Design Sprint focuses a lot on exploration and ideation, whereas the Discovery Sprint focuses more on prioritisation and mapping features.&nbsp;</li><li>Consider if your team is ready to solve your challenge, or if you are still struggling to define your challenge – if that’s the case, start with the Design Sprint.&nbsp;</li><li>Consider the maturity level of your solution idea, if you have one. If it’s a rather mature idea go for the Discovery Sprint. If you are clueless go for the Design Sprint.</li><li>Consider your willingness to invest in reducing the risk of not getting good ROI and that your budget will slip.&nbsp;</li></ul><h2>How to decide if you are going to do a Design Sprint or a Discovery sprint:&nbsp;</h2>&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F5ef28b907b424e5b9b6f73dfc8b0f207?format=webp">

When to Use the Design Sprint (and when not to)

<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F6ba8841259e648d18830d5594ca162ca?format=webp">Discover why employee apps power talent retention, improve job satisfaction and increase productivity within your workforce.<h2>Adapt internal communication to your workforce</h2>From a business perspective, digital tools are a necessity to survive and thrive in today’s market. Employees are constantly becoming more tech-savvy and with the Millennials and Generation Z estimated to make up the majority of the global workforce by 20251, digitalisation is a key driver to meet employees’ expectations.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F6b166d7c972c4fbb9d3990d0280ecd37?format=webp">Yet, the shift in the workforce demographics hasn’t caused businesses to change their employee communication massively, research shows. Despite having a smartphone penetration rate of more than 90 % in developed countries2, Email seems to remain the preferred medium for communicating with employees3.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F8130b719b94e47a982e56915b236daec?format=webp">The gap between employees’ mobile usage and employers’ old ways of communicating spawns new opportunities for businesses to engage even further with their workforce via employee communication apps. And businesses have everything to gain by focusing heavily on creating tighter bonds with their employees.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F48a29bbf420b44c1b47a1bb6088688d0?format=webp">According to a survey from 2020, more than ⅓ of employees are actively looking for a new job and only 19 % consider themselves “very engaged” when working. Moreover, 26 % feel that the lack of recognition and appreciation by management and coworkers are the highest barriers to increased engagement at work4.Recognising these challenges, we explore how employee apps can help businesses to attract talent, improve employee satisfaction and increase productivity within the workforce.Is your internal communication a strength or a weakness to your organisation?<h2>Retain talent through digital recognition</h2>Employee turnover remains one of the biggest challenges facing every company. Statistically, the loss of work, looking for replacement and training courses costs employers ⅓ of the employee’s salary5. And with an average staff turnover rate of 15 % in the UK6, the amount rises to millions of pounds each year.The top reasons for employee turnover can be broken down into three categories:<ul><li>Lack of compensation (52 %)</li><li>Lack of career advancement (34 %)</li><li>Lack of recognition (19 %)</li></ul>While compensation and career advancement are to be expected high up on the list, the lack of recognition is surprisingly high. 19 % of employees decide to leave a company because they don’t feel recognised for their contribution. This is the third most common reason employees decide to leave a company7Employee app with gamification for a global facility service companyFor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.issworld.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ISS,</a>&nbsp;a Danish company with more than 500.000 employees globally, rewarding employees through an employee app with gamification served as the right solution to engage their workforce. By enabling them to register tasks and problems with management through a photo-sharing option, the app rewards employees every time they help the company with internal reporting on service and maintenance issues.<h2>Appraisal is a strong motivator</h2>While face-to-face recognition shouldn’t be replaced, employee apps using push-notifications can quadruple message cut-through and increase reach by over 800 % thereby facilitating communication between colleagues more easily and quickly8. Like ISS, recognizing a job well done doesn’t have to be manifested via pay raises to have a positive effect on employees’ well-being. 90 % say that receiving recognition motivates them to work harder and 91% believe that a recognition culture makes a company more attractive for future employees9.Being recognized as a valuable asset to the company is tied closely to overall job satisfaction. And while job satisfaction often increases with a visible recognition from management and coworkers, other elements play just as an important role in the process.<h2>Collect and catalogue feedback easily via apps</h2>Experiencing some level of friction at work is to be expected by both employer and employee. How businesses approach and handle that friction, however, has a big impact on employee job satisfaction. 90 % report that they are likely to stay at their current company if it acts on employee feedback10.Despite this known factor, only 1 out of 4 employees agrees with the statement: “My company takes my feedback and suggestions seriously and effectively”11. This incoherency indicates that companies are not taking employee feedback seriously or have the setup needed to retrieve and act on valuable critique from the workforce.Customised employee reviews to elevate job satisfaction<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/hunter-warfield/about/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hunter Warfield</a>, a revenue recovery agency in the financial industry, experienced painful performance reviews with their semi-annual review cycles. On off-quarters, the business conducted smaller reviews that were distributed manually. The company discovered that their processes weren’t helping employees and managers to talk openly about career goals, progress or giving or receiving recognition. By implementing an internal app focused on employee feedback, HR and managers were able to customise features such as check-ins, 1-on-1’s and self-reviews and collect and catalogue all types of feedback in a digital system. “My supervisor care about me as a person”: Up 14%“At work, someone encourages my development”: up 9%“Within the last 6 months, someone has talked to me about my progress”: Up 15 %12&nbsp;Company technology is tied closely to high job satisfactionFor companies struggling with poor reviews from its workforce, Hunter Warfield serves as an inspiration as to what businesses can achieve quickly by implementing digital feedback tools in the workplace. In fact, research suggests that just by having a more agile approach to employee feedback, businesses can adapt better to employee needs as more than half of the workforce would like reviews at least once a month instead of the annual or bi-annual performance review system carried out by 70 % of businesses13.Like text-messaging has replaced physical letters, running performance reviews via an employee app could spell a win-win situation for both employer and employees. Studies show that:51 % of employees are more likely to have strong job satisfaction if they work in fully enabled digital workplaces where new technologies are in use14.Despite these numbers, businesses are still struggling to adopt new technology into the hands of their employees. And it’s a costly affair when taking a closer look at how simple technology can lift company performance to new heights.<h2>Increase productivity by offering digital experiences</h2>Whether it be it-infrastructure or digital tools in the workplace, technology has a major impact on company performance. On average, digital leaders are 26% more profitable than their industry competitors15. And for large enterprises, the difference can add up to many millions of pounds on the bottom line.Using e-learning to streamline retailersAs a luxury brand, the Danish mattress giant Tempur was challenged by third party retailers that didn’t deliver the same level of service and expertise as their product and brand promised. With high costs related to training sessions and a more mobile&nbsp;sales team, they were looking for a smarter solution. Through motivating e-learning that leverages gamification dynamics on a device staff were familiar with, Tempur was able to educate retailers in a creative and engaging way. The Tempur app, The Sleep Academy, has increased top-of-class mentality amongst sales personnel with over 93 % in return use and 60.000 screen views per month. It has also provided country managers with valuable statistics and knowledge of their sales team.&nbsp;Read more about the case here.&nbsp;[insert case link]<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F8ec76ed768d142dba015fb53b4a25670?format=webp">Going digital doesn’t mean reinventing the wheelLike Tempur, introducing technology doesn’t have to change workflows dramatically. Gamification and e-learning are powerful tools to engage and educate employees, which in turn have a positive impact on the business as a whole. So do companies with a strong learning culture have up to 50 % higher engagement and retention rates compared to those that don’t16.Utilising technology to train and engage employees also opens up for redistributing resources more effectively. So do the need for physical training programmes and courses diminish with e-learning via mobile devices, while the company can track&nbsp;performance and engagement more effectively.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F5f3ba3451b064e29a05e222f4514d3e0?format=webp">Engagement is one of the most important KPIs for companies to track if they want to increase productivity. According to Gallup, unmotivated employees are a tangible headache as they on average cost companies 3,400 USD for every 10.000 USD they make. And with a regular employee spending approximately 90.000 hours at work in a lifetime, it amounts to millions of pounds17.<h2>Digitising employee communication will future proof your organisation</h2>Old ways of communication internally have lost its business value considerably when comparing it to employee expectations and demands. Yet, the need to communicate to and with your employees is more important than ever to secure talent, improve job happiness and increase productivity within your organization.Deciding on which tools to use for employee communication can be challenging since multiple factors influence how your company should structure your internal communication setup: How digitally mature is your organisation’s workforce? Do you struggle with attracting talented employees? Or is it a challenge to keep them? These are just a few out of many questions impacting your organisation’s choice of technology.Employees want to see employers act on their feedback, recognize their contribution to the business and develop their professional skill sets. No matter the solution, companies failing to embark on improving and digitizing their employee communication will keep fighting an uphill battle to attract talent and build a high-performing business that stays competitive in the years ahead.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fc0dbebd5cc5043738d0e9bf0e829a5c6?format=webp"><h6>Endnotes:</h6><h6>[1] Capital, “Millennials and Generation Z – The New World of Work”,&nbsp;2018.</h6><h6>[2] Deloitte,&nbsp;“Global mobile consumer trends, 2nd edition”,&nbsp;2017.</h6><h6>[3] Kevin Ruck,&nbsp;“Exploring Internal Communication: Towards Informed Employee Voice”, 2018</h6><h6>[4] 2020 Engagement &amp; Retention Report. Failure to Engage.&nbsp;&nbsp;Achievers 2020.</h6><h6>[5] HRDive,&nbsp;“Study: Turnover costs employers $15,000 per worker”, 2017.</h6><h6>[6] Monster,&nbsp;“What is the ideal employee turnover rate?”,&nbsp;2020.</h6><h6>[7] Achievers,&nbsp;“2020 Engagement &amp; Retention Report. Failure to Engage”,&nbsp;2020.</h6><h6>[8] Staffbase,&nbsp;“The return on investment of an employee app.”</h6><h6>[9] Achievers,&nbsp;“2020 Engagement &amp; Retention Report. Failure to Engage”,&nbsp;2020.</h6><h6>[10] Achievers,&nbsp;“2020 Engagement &amp; Retention Report. Failure to Engage”,&nbsp;2020.</h6><h6>[11] TINY Pulse,&nbsp;“The 2019 Employee Engagement Report”, 2019.</h6><h6>[12]&nbsp;Hunter Warfield and 15five.com.</h6><h6>[13] Reflektive, “The Growth Divide Study“,&nbsp;2018</h6><h6>[14] Aruba,&nbsp;“Beyond Productivity. The Human Side of the Digital Workplace Quantified”, 2018.</h6><h6>[15] Capgemini Consulting, “The Digital Advantage”, 2012.</h6><h6>[16]&nbsp;Roberthalf.co.uk&nbsp;2018</h6><h6>[17]&nbsp;Gallup&nbsp;– 2017</h6>

How Employee Apps Are the Backbone of Successful Enterprises

<h6>By Monstarlab</h6>&nbsp;How implementing internal team sprints helped our design team organise and structure internal tasks for better transparency, efficiency and distributed ownership.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F0c6c9004ef8e4dfb945dae997df9da0c?format=webp">The Monstarlab design team is spread across the globe — from Copenhagen to London to Dubai — so our work is decentralised by nature. We implemented this ‘internal team sprint’ approach before the pandemic hit, back when the only thing we associated with the word Corona was a cold beer on a hot summer day (Oh the blissful ignorance!).Nevertheless, with this new reality where our team has been 100% remote, the usefulness of this approach in helping us to work efficiently together apart, while still feeling like one cohesive team, has been put to the test… and it has passed with flying colours!<h2>Our challenge</h2>Working in an agency means that client projects are often prioritised leading internal tasks to be put on the back burner. Designers are assigned to different cross-functional teams for projects, and when our team members finally did have time to work on internal stuff, we had no structured plan that allowed each of us to know what task to take on next, or what other team members were working on.The main reason we choose to try out a sprint-format was to structure our internal tasks, but also to create more transparency around who does what and why. We wanted a smart and easy way to include all team members in that conversation and not only team leads. Furthermore, time restrictions in our schedules meant that we needed a flexible and low-maintenance way to do it.Before our team sprints, our internal tasks were primarily driven by individuals. A big drawback from that was the missing transparency. It was difficult to know what team members were working on because we work from different parts of the world. The sprints have really helped push the internal agenda and keep everyone in the loop.– Søren Clausen, Visual Design Director, Monstarlab<h2>The ‘Internal Team Sprint’</h2>We were inspired by the sprints we often use for our client projects when we created our internal team sprint. However, we needed to adapt this framework to fit our team’s needs.The following section provides a step-by-step account of how we approached this challenge, and what we learned from it.What is a sprint?A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum/sprints" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sprint</a>&nbsp;is a time-boxed period where a team works to complete a specific amount of tasks. Large projects can be broken into smaller pieces, and progress is reviewed along the way. This allows for the plan to be modified to respond to changes.Set your team up for successful sprints<ol><li>Define your sprint timeline</li></ol>As we only work on internal tasks when time allows for it, we have extended the duration of our sprints to be 30-day cycles instead of your typical 2 weeks. This long-term perspective makes it more realistic for us to get tasks done without increasing pressure on each team member. To stay in the running analogy, you can say that the conditions we work under have made it necessary for us to adapt the approach to be more like a marathon than an actual sprint.How you adjust your timeline should be based on a realistic estimation of the time it takes for all team members to complete a given number of tasks while ensuring that cycles are not so long that team members don’t get the support they need from the mid-cycle touchdowns. For us, breaking tasks up into smaller but more achievable components has helped keep motivation high and ensure delivery on tasks.<ol><li>Choose the right organisational tool</li></ol>After agreeing on our timeline, we structured our tasks in&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/blog/how-we-organise-and-empower-our-global-design-team-with-internal-sprints-in-jira/blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jira</a>, which is an awesome digital tool for organising projects. You might already have a tool your team knows and likes, but if you’re in the market for a new organisational tool that is designed to aid you in agile sprint-planning, I can recommend Jira. It has a flexible structure which means it can be customised to your needs, and it has the features needed to facilitate sprints.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fe145e311cd50475fbeb1d037dc62dc83?format=webp"><ol><li>Create your epics and backlog</li></ol>A good framework for sprint tasks is divided into some kind of structure of core categories that define the tasks that live within them. In sprint terminology and Jira, these are called&nbsp;epics. As you can see from the picture of the epics in our roadmap below (how it looks in Jira), we have defined them according to the different types of tasks we work on.The epics are closely related to the goals we have for our team to strengthen it internally and externally. Structuring our tasks within these epics has allowed us to keep track of how much work we actually put into the different areas after each sprint.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F612314e92636481fb95bfc0c2c4f1db9?format=webp">Once these epics were in place, we started creating tasks within each epic. The accumulated list of tasks comprises our backlog, which you can see below. The backlog is a living list that is constantly added to and deducted from when tasks are moved from the backlog into an active sprint phase. One of the perks of having a shared backlog is that ideas are more rarely “lost” as all team members can add ideas at any point in the process. These will then be discussed and prioritized during the sprint kick-off (step 4).<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fc4d2df760cc64538885c2f7c90fec9d9?format=webp">Ready, Set, SPRINTOnce we set up the framework above, it was incredibly easy to work with, maintain and adjust as we gained more experience and reflected on each sprint.<ol><li>Sprint kick-off</li></ol>To kick-off a 30-day sprint, we have a team meeting, also called a sprint planning, where we discuss the tasks in the backlog, prioritize them according to their importance and assign the ones we want to include in the sprint to individual team members.Tasks are assigned based on the time, interest and capabilities of each team member, and we don’t have any fixed number of tasks that each member should take. As most team members often have limited time for internal tasks, and because this does vary a lot from month to month, we’ve made it an opt-in concept to create more flexibility.Not all tasks in the backlog make it into the sprint, but luckily, that’s exactly what the backlog is for. Once a fitting number of tasks are assigned, we officially kick-off the sprint with the sprint-function in Jira that works as a timer.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F9cb54b756cbf4758a9a41ff8c4e7294a?format=webp"><ol><li>Mid-sprint touchdown</li></ol>Midway in our sprint (2 weeks in), we have a touchdown with the team to have an update on the progress that each team member has made on their tasks. Having this collective midway reflection allows us to get feedback, flag challenges and discuss solutions with each other.The agility of this method allows us to adapt our sprint to the changing circumstances we often operate under being consultants. For instance, we can redistribute tasks to avoid bottlenecks or choose to carry the tasks over to the next sprint.Retro and repeat<ol><li>Sprint retrospective and new sprint kick-off</li></ol>Every 30-days when a sprint ends, we have another team meeting with a dual purpose.Firstly, we have a sprint retrospective where we discuss the sprint that has ended and the completed tasks. We discuss how it went, learnings, challenges and successes. We also look at how we’ve spent our time in terms of different epics and discuss if we should shift our focus for the next sprint to make sure we move in the right direction.The second part of the meeting is the kick-off of the next sprint. Here, we repeat the process of step 4 and start all over again with new and carryover tasks we want to put into our next sprint… and the cycle goes on and on.<h2>Outcomes</h2>The transparency we’ve achieved from systematically tracking our internal tasks in Jira and working in sprint cycles has enabled us to break bigger projects down into realistic bites so that we constantly progress. Everyone is contributing, and we have fewer bottlenecks now that tasks are distributed better.Utilizing Jira and sprint ceremonies for our internal tasks has really improved visibility of tasks, ownership and progress in the creative team. Any type of team could benefit from this type of transparency, and we are currently exploring how this could look for other teams in Monstarlab.– Niels Truong, Chief Strategy and Consultancy Officer at MonstarlabIn our team, we’ve been able to identify the epics that need more attention, and the shifts we should make to reach our long-term goals. Examples of this could be:<ul><li>Spend more time on strategy and creative brand to enhance the value-offering of our services towards the market, or</li><li>Spend more time on education to ensure that our team is constantly upskilling and staying inspired by sharing knowledge, taking courses etc.</li></ul>Moreover, even though each of the team members in our team still spends most of their time working on other projects in cross-functional client teams, we’ve found that implementing these internal team sprints has helped us feel more like one team with a common purpose.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F89ea15f776b34e399037bab2363e09ab?format=webp">

How We Organise and Empower Our Global Design Team with Internal Sprints in Jira

<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fce62422656be4941836caa6d2db66a12?format=webp"><h6>By Monstarlab</h6>&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/smart-places/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="font-size: 18px;">Part of our Smart Places thought leadership series</a>&nbsp;Hospitality is a powerful notion that is at the center of creating delightful user experiences. As a designer who’s worked with clients across a range of industries, I know firsthand the value hospitality can unlock on digital, and I’ll explain how to do that below.Before getting started, let me explain what I mean by hospitality. As&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Meyer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Danny Meyer</a>&nbsp;writes in his book “Setting the Table,” there’s a distinction between service and hospitality. Service is simply the act of delivering the product, a monologue of sorts, where we dictate to a customer how to do things. Hospitality, on the other hand, looks at how the delivery of our service or product makes the recipient feel — it’s a dialogue. This thinking is at the center of how we approach design and how we build digital products at Monstarlab, from standalone apps and websites to end-to-end digital ecosystems.One of my focuses at Monstarlab is the application of these philosophies and methodologies to improving the customer experience in digital and physical spaces, including restaurants, retail shops and gyms. There’s a lot that brands can do to create value in this area. And today I want to share what your teams can start doing right now — digital applications of hospitality that everyone who works in the hospitality industry can start adopting.<h3>1. Practice empathy for guests</h3>Thinking of our customers and users as guests are one way to bring hospitality into digital and physical spaces. Hospitality is all about how our guests feel. In digital we express this by constantly doing user research. Getting started with this can appear daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. The trick is to jump in and find ways to make learning from customers a regular part of your process. In product development, we organize what we call “User Fridays”: every Friday we have a customer visit our office to interview them and present one thing we’re working on to get feedback.Every Friday we have a customer visit our office to interview them and present one thing we’re working on. <img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F101eba18a98145039695786c4376ae1d?format=webp">For physical spaces, another quick research tactic is to invite a friend or colleague to visit the store and talk openly about their impressions while you shadow them.Or simply experience the service yourself. Complete an online purchase and document your experience. If the service or products are too expensive, you can always return them and you get to experience that part of the customer journey too!<h3>2. Practice empathy for each other</h3>Danny Meyer defined “enlightened hospitality” as putting hospitality to work to serve employees first, then our guests, and finally the business. With every project at Monstarlab, we examine the perspective of all employees. We do that not just by talking to employees, but by working side by side with them. This takes the form of training as employees and working shifts, whether as cooks and expeditors at Shake Shack, or front-desk attendants at Blink.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F0bb9777b961c4abab966224b6167c481?format=webp">The Monstarlab team took shifts at Shake Shack to empathize with employees and understand their journey.As Meyer explains, by putting the employees and their hospitality first, the business and bottom-line benefits as a result.If you work in physical stores, every day is a good opportunity to examine the steps and tasks you and your colleagues take to deliver service to your guests. This can help you identify the moments of friction and brainstorm how to overcome the challenges that stand in the way of offering better, more hospitable service.<h3>3. Use simple language</h3>Designing for the web has taught me the importance of simple language. How do your guests actually refer to things? Most of us spend a lot of our time crafting transactional copy, and our goal is to make complex tasks feel simple.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F8d60930cd1dd4f67810ec6188d38d3c5?format=webp">To simplify our language, when relaunching a loyalty program we used simple google search for most common tasks on google.In physical spaces, trying to understand branded terms, which are often fancier than necessary, can feel very intimidating. Think about how you can simplify the language so that every client and guest feel welcomed. One way to accomplish this is to do an audit on social media and review sites of the most common requests for your brand. You will uncover user-generated content that can help you empathize with the frustrations of your customers. Do you have an analytics team? You can ask them to provide a report on the most common search words on your website. You can use that to inform any sales agents at your store on how to talk about particular topics.<h3>4. Define the call to action (CTA)</h3>Life is full of choices, and great user experiences help lighten the mental load so that customers don’t have to think so much about what action to take. Every moment in a digital experience needs to have a primary CTA.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/o/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2F84eb3fab6f59440ab73cc83ba5477b3e%2Fcompressed?apiKey=2d7df8e6524a48bd949e5b99dd082786&amp;token=84eb3fab6f59440ab73cc83ba5477b3e&amp;alt=media&amp;optimized=true">Example of a CTA for a situated interface for an entrance in a retail space.This principle isn’t often applied to physical spaces, but it should be. As you think about the experience journey in physical and digital space, it’s important to prioritize the primary CTA at every step of the journey. For example, for a first-time visitor, is the main CTA to explore? Once they try an item, is it to personalize it? There are many actions your guest can take, but you should only offer one primary CTA for every step, otherwise, your customers will be overwhelmed with the number of choices they have to make. When providing your main CTA, it’s important to provide context, too. How long will it take to checkout? What information will you need to personalize an item? This information does a great deal to put customers at ease and feel like they’re being cared for.<h3>5. Remove unnecessary steps</h3>As you empathize with your guests, identify steps you could remove from the journey. Is that greeting moment when a customer enters the store truly adding value? Experiment with removing unnecessary steps, and get feedback on those you remove in your User Friday sessions. Hospitality is a conversation.Bonus: Facilitate self-service options. Many users prefer to do things for themselves rather than have a front-desk person or a cashier do it for them. When was the last time you wanted to call an airline or hotel to make a change? A simple example might be typing the name of your customer. Sometimes sales associates need the customer to repeat their name, or to spell it out loud. Might it be easier for both sides if the customer does this themselves?<h3>6. Do it for the guests</h3>There are moments where hospitality is about taking tasks off the guest’s plate to make an experience easier. In digital, we take the task of identifying which products might be the right match for a guest by organizing pages using dynamic personalized collections, like most popular items, items purchased for gifts, previously viewed, and previously purchased.How does this translate to an in-store experience? First, you could think about how to arrange the store to match some of these online collections. Another example: you could follow up with an email to your client with links to all the products they viewed at the store that day, or items that complement the ones they purchased at the store. On their next visit, you could arrange those items in one space for them to explore. We know so much about our guests, and being remembered — what you like, what you don’t like — is a key part of hospitality.<h3>7. Find new ways to delight.</h3>In digital product design, we find different ways to delight customers, from using a connected communication strategy (getting confirmation email right after a purchase), from using haptic feedback on cell phones to emphasize an important action to using thoughtful transitions animations for, say, a pop-up message, to evoke different feelings at key moments.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/o/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Ff8b9bcf822f64d90aad383b6bbe6c250%2Fcompressed?apiKey=2d7df8e6524a48bd949e5b99dd082786&amp;token=f8b9bcf822f64d90aad383b6bbe6c250&amp;alt=media&amp;optimized=true">In digital product design, we use thoughtful transitions animations to bring delight to users.What are the new ways you can delight your customers? For instance, you could use sound to brand different moments of the store experience, or perhaps identify a space with lighting for great pictures and you offer to take a photo for them.These are just some examples of how we can apply hospitality from digital to physical. As we continue to build digital products, we learn from different industries and sectors, looking to deliver value, and just happiness, to employees, just like we do for guests — this will create value for your business in the long-run. Hospitality is a central consideration for advancing your experiences. It can mean the difference between an experience that’s generic, and one that’s truly differentiated and memorable.&nbsp;<h2>What you can do next.&nbsp;</h2>First and foremost, the priority is to consider the needs of your customers who are using your spaces, whether they are tenants, employees, or consumers. At Monstarlab, we are passionate about working in collaboration with our clients to come up with solutions that meet their business goals while delivering an exceptional experience and adding happiness to their customers’ lives.Talk to us about how we can work in partnership to create truly Smart Places for you and your customers.You can also visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/global/thoughtleadership/smart-places/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smart Places page</a>&nbsp;to learn more and check out some of our projects around this vertical.&nbsp;Meet our Expert: <img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Ffb3ccc876dd442c6ae31d776377e35db%2Fd2937009bfec46b3bea45fcc76cbc94b?format=webp">Max Oglesbee | CEO Monstarlab AmericasConnect on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxoglesbee/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="mailto:max.oglesbee@monstar-lab.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">max.oglesbee@monstar-lab.com</a>&nbsp;In his role as CEO of Monstarlab Americas, Max is responsible for all business operations in the Americas region, leading the team to shape technology to grow our businesses and delight their clients. With digital strategy, design and engineering personnel in cities across the US, Canada, and Colombia.Prior to joining Monstarlab, Max was a Partner in Control Group, a technology consulting firm that was sold in 2015 to a consortium of investors led by Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs to form Intersection, where Max helped to establish the Connected Communities and Retail practices within the firm’s consulting business. Max’s projects range from helping the world’s largest retailer to reinvent the shopping experience using digital tools, to creating a Digital Master Plan for Hudson Yards, the largest privately funded real estate development in US history.Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://monstar-lab.com/americas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Monstarlab Americas</a>.&nbsp;