Innovation and creativity

Innovation and creativity

Introduction

Creativity involves coming up with new ideas to resolve a problem or enhance an existing design. On the other hand, innovation consists of the implementation of newly generated ideas. Innovation could be on a product, process or a business model. Therefore, as creativity comes up with new plans, innovation initiates the latest ideas in the market. Innovation looks at the work required to make an idea viable under the already established systems. It enables a business has a competitive edge in the market.

Business challenge

Based on the emerging trends in the global market, Customer experience has become significant in the success of any business. Excellent customer experience has enabled a company to create brand loyalty and grow customer base. Customers are more aware of the market with the existence of firms offering similar products. They, therefore, prefer the seller who offers guaranteed and dependable service with after-sales service. The challenge most businesses face is to provide seamless services to their clients.

Businesses have shifted to customer focus approach due to various reasons. For instance, it’s cheaper to retain existing customers than to recruit new ones. Focus on customer experience enhances customer satisfaction. According to the McKinsey survey, excellent customer service improved the overall customer satisfaction by 20%. Also, satisfied customers advocate the brand and refer another customer’s thus growing the customer base. Studies show that by 2020, customer experience will take over as the differentiator among similar products. It will, therefore, determine the competitiveness of a business.

However, as more digital platforms emerge, customers prefer to keep in touch with their suppliers any time of the day. As such, business people require resources to queries and clarifications sought digitally, especially during closing hours of the business. Therefore Chatbot comes in handy as the innovative solution. A Chatbot is a designed computer program that communicates with end-users through the internet. It works independently without the intervention of a human being. Communication through the Chatbot is either through a voice command or a message, to offer real-time solutions to clients. Therefore, a business person requires the installation of the software to keep customer conversation going.

Potential conditions that may influence the innovation

 Design thinking and open innovation

The ideas to enhance customer experience could be through the vision of the organisation or external networks. Therefore, the leadership needs to listen to the customers, and the frontline staff on the feedback gathered. Secondly, find out the need that has not been met by the organisation’s customers. The organisation then organised the resources needed to innovate a new service that would fill the customer service gap. The information technology team could come up with innovation. Organisations such as Amazon have deployed the use of Alexa. The first Chatbot was Eliza by MIT professor while in 2009; China created a more advanced Chatbot through WeChat.

The organisation can come up with its Chatbot, tailored to the particular needs of the business. By design thinking, the technical team could develop software that interacts with customers, answers frequently asked questions, carries out administrative duties and makes sales on behalf of the business. The organisation through open technology could source externally for the expertise required to make the Chatbot operational. For instance, the technical team in the company could collaborate with experts from China to design and operationalise the Chatbot. The external experts would assist in designing and continuous maintenance of the software.

Sustaining the innovation

Sustaining innovation in the organisation, such as the Chatbot would require seamless and well-structured management. Sustaining innovation is a journey. The entire organisation starting from the Board and the CEO level of the leadership to the bottom of the ladder should fully collaborate in the process. After the successful implementation of the Chatbot, the business would continue to reinvent and discover better ways of enhancing the customer experience. The company would appoint change champions to oversee the continuous adoption of innovative solutions in the organisation. Besides, the change champions ensure sustenance of a culture that embraces innovative solutions to better the business performance. The implementation of Chatbot in the organisation would help the business achieve its strategic goal, which mainly includes offering stellar customer experience and maximising shareholders wealth.

The organisation, therefore, ought to train all the employees, including the leadership on the importance of embracing innovation. The employees need to understand that the deployment of the Chatbot is not to render them jobless rather complement them in their daily duties. The organisation should also continually train the employees on the innovation to feed the Chatbot with the right information aimed at disseminating to its customers. A culture that entails embracing innovation and instilling the same into the organisation. Its embraced among employees and the management of the business.

Source of funding

Implementation innovation into a business is capital intensive. The approximate cost for developing Chatbot amounts to at least $30,000. The cost includes the design of the Chatbot, its development and integration into the organisation’s system. As such, it would require adequate financing. The source of the funding will majorly depend on the size of the organisation and its financial health. For instance, large corporates would utilise retained earnings, accumulated over time fo

The funds would be required to finance research and development of the new technology into the business. The technical team would be necessary to carry out research probably by visiting organisations where the technology has been effective and gather information on how to develop the same. Also, bringing a technical person with the know-how of how to develop a Chatbot will require financing of the fees charged and expenses incurred, such as accommodation during the development stage.

Smaller businesses would source for funding from friends and family would be less costly and ideal. Alternatively, a well-blossoming business could attract investment by Angel financiers. The Angel financiers put in the required budget for development and implementation of the technology after careful analysis of the past performance of the business and d prospects after the innovation of the technology. It’s a cheap way of funding innovation as the Angel funder gets their dues after the successful implementation of the innovation.

Analysis of the implications off the innovation and its potential diffusion

Implementation of Chatbot to enhance customer experience through Artificial Intelligence has positively contributed to the growth of businesses. For instance, Chatbot help in cutting down operational costs. According to Chatbot magazine, globally, 265 billion requests on support by customers get made, costing approximately $1.3 trillion. However, the implementation of Chatbot has aided in reducing the costs by 30%. Chatbot increases the efficiency of business operations by resolving repetitive queries by customers, thus freeing up time for service agents to attend to complex queries by customers, thus enhancing the customer experience. The Artificial Intelligence Chatbot is in touch with customers 24 hours a day; as such, it boosts the overall performance of the business.

The industry research indicates that employment of Chatbot would handle at least 90% of customer queries by 2022, thus increasing the efficiency of business operations.

Implementation of Chatbot in enhancing the customer experience has aided businesses that have adopted the innovation be competitive in the market. In a market where firms offer similar products, a customer would choose the organisation that provides support in terms of providing solutions to any clarification sought. Therefore, such businesses would have a competitive edge in the market. Being competitive in the market translates to high business performance in terms of profitability due to the increased sales and reduced operating costs. The businesses contribute to the growth of Gross Domestic Product through the payment of their taxes to the government.

According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agreed upon by the nations in 2015. The goals include reduction of poverty levels, creation of employment opportunities and alleviate discrimination against girls and women, among others. As such, businesses that have experienced growth as a result of the enhanced customer experience create employment opportunities for the surrounding communities that eradicating poverty. Besides, women and girls get an equal chance of being employed, thus meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.

Employees get motivated in that, most of their duties that include sitting behind a desk and handling all the customer queries get processed by the AI Chatbot. With the increased morale to perform their other responsibilities, efficiency and overall performance of the business improves. Also, the employees feel appreciated by the organisation. As such, employee turnover reduces. The reduction of employees’ turnover enables an entity to retain the most experienced employees, whose input is resourceful to the business.

The expectation of the diffusion of Chatbot innovation is positive in that, from previous studies, the use of Chatbot has shown success in the market. For instance, Chatbot has been used in the health sector to answer patient queries. Eateries such as McDonald has employed the use of the innovation. In meeting its increasing customers demand in terms of replying to their questions on available delicacies. In the transport sector, Chatbot has enabled passengers to’ identify available flights and schedule. Other online businesses such as Amazon have experienced extensive growth in their online business as a result of employing the services of a Chatbot.

The United States of America leads to Chatbot technology. Most of the businesses with employees up to 250 employees have adopted the use of Chatbot. However, most organisations in the global market are yet to utilise the technology. Once the innovation integrates into the system, it’s bound to work. Historical data has shown the success of businesses as a result of the adoption of the technology.

Global trends and analysis

Source: (Convince & Convert study, 2018)

According to the survey, 15% of US residents use Chatbot in their shopping. Most of the US residents own Amazon Alexa and Google Home smart speakers to aid them in their shopping.

Recommendation

The emerging global trends have pointed most businesses into moving from focusing on the products and prices to a customer-centric position. Therefore, to enhance customer experience, organisations should embrace Artificial intelligence technology which acts as a virtual assistant, working throughout the day. According to Gartner, most brands will redesign their websites in a bid to accommodate voice search. Such redesigning will see digital commerce increase by 30% through proactivity of Chatbot by 2023. Assimilation and sustenance of Artificial intelligence as an innovative solution to enhanced customer experience requires intensive research, and therefore businesses should plan an adequate budget for it. Successful implementation and sustenance of Chatbot innovation have seen many companies grow their customer base, thus increasing their sales. Therefore, companies should adopt such technology to remain competitive in the market.

Conclusion

The success of the implementation of Artificial Intelligence in business operation majorly depends on the level of research carried out on customer needs. Besides, the study identifies the gaps available in the quest to enhance the customer experience. Depending on the internal strength of the organisation, the company chooses whether to have the design internally or incorporate outside assistance from experts. In a nutshell, the success of creative ideas being turned and implemented as innovations depends on the organisation’s culture. A culture that is supportive of new ideas has high chances of successfully implementing and the proper functioning of the innovation. Innovation requires discipline. As such, therefore, much of the organisations’ energy gets spent to overcome the inertia forces. Once the innovation picks up, project champions drive the innovation to ensure sustenance and continuous growth of a culture that supports innovative solutions to organisations.