Why go digital?
Embrace the new paradigm.
Today a new generation of empowered customers are driving how you do business. With easy access to information, customers are impacting and changing your marketing in a whole new way. Consumers today are becoming more demanding. They expect consistent, reliable, and meaningful interactions with your brand across all channels – at every individual, physical, and digital touchpoint, and they want it to be seamless throughout. Your customers are not concerned with the back-office architecture needed to get the job done, they want to experience your brand on their terms. If you don’t deliver, they will go elsewhere.
With consumers driving the current wave of business innovation, companies today can’t afford to sit idle. To survive, indeed to thrive in this environment, companies must have a digital strategy in place. Successful companies in this new Age of the Customer are going to embrace digital transformation to ensure that they deliver what their customers want across platforms. The customer experience is at the core of this seismic shift in thinking. Is your business embracing digital transformation? Does it have a digital strategy in place? If not, your focus needs to be on creating a roadmap to lead your business down the right path in this customer-centric age, engaging with your customers on their terms, wherever they are.
Most C-level executives understand the upside potential with digital transformation. CEOs who invest in digital transformation are looking to increase their company’s agility, efficiency, and ability to deliver their products through multiple channels.[1] According to Forrester research, key drivers of digital transformation are profitability (and not just top line revenues), customer satisfaction, and increased speed-to-market.[2] Companies use digital innovation (think advanced analytics and digital marketing) to deliver superior customer experiences and increase profitability, by offering the right product in the right place at the right time. When your customers find what they need, when and where they need it, your customer has a positive interaction with your brand. You create inherent value for your customers. Companies use technology to drive these positive connections with their brands, a cornerstone of today’s engagement marketing. But beyond selling smarter, companies are keen to reduce costs through digital innovation. It’s easy to see how using third party cloud technology, data analytics software, or reporting solutions providers can decrease your need for massive investment in these areas, while ensuring better quality service. Reducing capital expenditures and the burdens placed on internal resources are obvious perks to leveraging (third party) technology as you implement a digital transformation. Fortunately, digital business models likewise shorten the time required for innovation, creation and time to market, so even mature companies can compete more effectively, meeting new customer expectations for fast delivery.
Corporate officers know that digital innovation is a game changer. The capabilities you need to deliver what your customers are looking for rely not only on sophisticated IT, but they also depend on a deep understanding of sales and marketing and the customer experience. Communicating a coherent and consistent strategy to meet your customer needs is essential. Your digital strategy must come from the top of the organization, but it also needs to have buy-in from the entire company. “Yet getting everyone within your organization on the same page isn’t so simple. It requires common insights so that various functions see the customer, the market dynamic, and their overall response through a similar lens. Strong alignment accelerates success. Poor alignment creates confusion, delays, and competitive risk.”[3]
In essence, your whole organization must come together to pave your collective future, to ensure the company identifies and implements the changes that its customers are demanding, the changes they are expecting. Every organization must identify exactly what its customers truly want, what their desired customer experience is, and how they will leverage technology to deliver it. The benefits to doing so are immense. Not having a concrete digital strategy can cripple you. If you don’t have all the capabilities in house or systems in place, look to service providers and consultants to help plug any gaps. Digital transformation is a quantum leap, but one you must make.
[3] https://go.forrester.com/age-of-the-customer/