Not everything can simply be digital – offline is often indispensable

The world is becoming more digital every day. And in many ways, that’s great. Imagine if, to take out car insurance, you still had to pop into a small office to sort everything out – you don’t have to worry about that anymore. 

But alongside the convenience, rapid digitalisation is also causing problems. It’s creating a digital divide. There are situations where the non-digital world is indispensable – where online simply doesn’t work, or isn’t accessible enough. 

In this article, we’ll take you through that digital divide. We’ll show you where people get stuck. How online and offline need to work together. So that your services remain accessible at all times. So that you don’t exclude anyone or lose any users.

All your users will need offline help at some point

When it comes to accessibility, the instinct is to immediately think of people with a clearly identifiable disability. People with poor eyesight, for example. Or people with low literacy skills. But accessibility is much broader than that. Everyone needs help from time to time. And that help isn’t always available digitally or on the device for which you designed your product.

To illustrate this, here are some figures from Alliantie Digitaal Samenleven:

• 2.5 million Dutch people find it difficult to use digital devices such as computers, smartphones and tablets (Algemene Rekenkamer).
• 50% of people aged 55 and over feel they lack sufficient digital skills (van Deursen).
• 26.6% of Dutch people aged 12 or over do not own a laptop. Among those on low incomes, this figure rises to 37.4%(CBS).
• 5.5% of Dutch people aged 12 or over do not have a mobile phone. Among the low-income group, this figure is 11.3% (CBS).
• 2.6 million people are unable to carry out their (online) banking transactions entirely independently (DNB).

On top of that, there are numerous other situations in which people are unable to cope with a digital solution. This also applies to people who are normally very capable of doing so.

This is best explained by means of an example.

A large group of people were phished by a Dutch bank. Some lost a hundred thousand in savings within five minutes. The bank had a ​‘no-phone policy’, so victims couldn’t ring anyone. They couldn’t get past the online chat and forms. This led to a lot of angry customers. It makes sense: if a hundred thousand has just been stolen from your account, you want to speak to someone straight away, rather than get bogged down in a complaints form that doesn’t quite address your situation, or have to wait a day for a response. The stress is so high that you just want to deal with it in a different way than digitally – you want to speak to someone. A human touch. That lack of human contact severely damaged the bank’s reputation in the media. The reputational damage is enormous and has undoubtedly cost them a fortune. In short: everyone loses out when you cut the human touch from your service provision.

Sometimes a (temporary) disability can be such a hindrance that using the internet is
simply impossible. Some people find digital technology slow to use because of a disability. Operating a device takes them a lot of time and energy. This can mean they are unable to complete a step in a digital process within half an hour. It’s frustrating when you’re then automatically logged out and have to start all over again. And then you just have to hope that the time pressure you subsequently feel doesn’t make it even more difficult. There are also plenty of people with a ​‘temporary disability’ for whom the same applies. Your young children who just need a bit of attention. You can, of course, solve this by allowing for a slightly longer session duration. But that’s often not enough. Take people with low literacy skills: if you struggle to read, digital platforms are, by definition, very difficult because of all the text involved. In that case, you’d much rather speak to someone on the phone with whom you can simply have a conversation. 

So it boils down to this: make your digital product as accessible as possible for people with any kind of (temporary) disability. And always offer an offline alternative, in case the digital option isn’t working for a moment.

That’s how you bridge the gap.

The right balance between online and offline? Listen to your users

When developing a digital solution, you should always ask yourself: in what situations might people struggle to use this? And how are we going to solve that? You can only find that out by listening to your users.

There are all sorts of ways to engage with your users. 
If you still have a physical counter or shop, for example, you could briefly interview the people who visit you: why are you here today? What made you choose this place? You can do the same over the phone: what are you calling about? And why did you choose to call?

It all starts with showing an interest. And then identifying the patterns. What are the main reasons people give for not choosing that digital channel? Are these reasons we’ll never be able to resolve via that digital channel (I’m in the car at the moment and my hands aren’t free), is it down to the quality of the digital channel (I tried it online and got stuck at step 2), or is it down to a lack of awareness (I didn’t know it was also possible online)?

By talking to customers, it very quickly becomes clear where the problem lies and what the solution is. So you don’t need to set up a massive survey. It’s all about making contact and then wanting to learn from it. And then, of course, it’s still important that you’re given the mandate to act on your insights.

A win-win: both morally and commercially

As a company, organisation or institution, you have a moral duty to ensure that you exclude no one – that everyone can make use of your service or product – so that the digital divide is narrowed.

As well as the moral aspect, good accessibility also makes good business sense, as it allows you to serve a larger share of the market. Furthermore, by keeping your offline channels open, you have the opportunity to discover why people sometimes do not use your online channels. This, in turn, helps you to improve your online presence and further refine your services. So: the more accessible you are, the smaller the gap, and the greater the return.

The other side of the coin: if you allow the gap to widen, that entails risks. Take the example of the bank we mentioned earlier: an incident like that causes considerable reputational damage. Simply because there was no telephone number. There’s a good chance that damage will ultimately cost the bank more than keeping a telephone helpline open. 

Furthermore, customers for whom your online channel doesn’t work will be forced to turn to a competitor that still offers offline channels – no matter how good your product or service is. That’s an opportunity: competing on the basis of a good, comprehensive service is a differentiating factor that can help you win over users and retain customers.

Need help making your organisation accessible?

We’d be delighted to help. We’ve been carrying out research and design work for almost 25 years – always with the aim of delivering the best possible online and offline services. 

We can help you learn from your users, and from there work with you to determine what the right balance between digital and non-digital should be. If you just have a question for us, that’s fine too, of course. You’re always welcome to call or email us.