Digital Customers Drive Digital Transformation

How Digitally Engaged Customers Are Driving Digital Transformation Strategy?

Digital transformation is pushing business leaders to reevaluate their strategies and stand in the market today. It is not a matter of if these leaders will lean towards digital transformation of their business. It is a matter of when.

In fact, a report released by Progress on State of Digital Business revealed some interesting metrics. It stated that 59% of the respondents were worried that they had missed the opportunity of digital transformation. But what was more striking is the fact that 55% respondents believed that they would start losing market share within less than a year because they were not digital.

Similarly, an IDC research involving CEOs of Global 2,000 companies revealed that two-thirds of these business leaders would move from traditional to digital business models in 2019. 34% of the leaders agreed to fully adopt digital transformation in 2019.

So, what is driving this almost frantic rush to embrace digital transformation? Is it a rush for survival or is it about competitive edge? We would say both!

The modern-day customers have moved on to the digital technologies. They are engaging digitally with businesses. So, what does this mean? It means a whole new gamut of opportunities for the enterprise. Why? Because recent research on digitally engaged customers has revealed that they are:

• Two times more likely to purchase from the brand that they engage with despite competition offering better product and price


• 6 times more like to be the early adopters of a new product or service launched by their brand


• 4 times more likely to be acute brand loyalists making recommendations to friends and families


 

A digitally engaged customer is more likely to contribute to the growth of the business by spending more and making more frequent purchases.

All of this puts digital customer at the center of any organization’s digital transformation strategy.

What is a Digitally Transformed Business?

So, if it all boils down to a customer’s perception of a digital organization, does adding new technologies to the existing milieu make sense? Not really! Here is what a customer’s perception of digitally transformed business looks like.

If you are a B2B company, your customers would rate social selling higher than the traditional cold calling. Sending out an email is a plan B that you should always have. But try to engage with them on social media and you will have their attention.

If you invest in marketing, make sure you are spending higher on personalized and targeted marketing. Your customers would pay attention to you, if you sound relevant and personal. A message created to appeal the mass may miss the mark and you may just get brand awareness instead of potential business opportunity.

If you are a B2C company, get your customer service teams to be proactive. Don’t wait for a customer to call you. Instead, seek feedback and reviews from them, make relevant recommendations, and even get them engaged with your brand community.

How to Start with Digital Transformation Strategy?

While most of the business leaders agree that they need to start their digital transformation journey, many of them don’t know where to start. When we work with our clients on their digital transformation needs, the first thing we do is conduct a digital audit. This helps us understand the real state of digital adoption. Based on that we make a customized roadmap for them.

But some of the most common starting points for a business looking to undergo digital transformation are:

• Start with Cloud Adoption


 

A flexible IT environment is core to digital adoption. Cloud can help support complex yet agile systems that may be needed by the business. Cloud can further reduce the cost of IT maintenance which can be quite huge in a traditional set up.

The flexible and dynamic nature of cloud will help you launch new digital initiatives in a cost effective and low risk manner.

• Automate Repeat Tasks


 

Customers do not have the patience to wait for you to complete your internal processes. Instead, you should automate your internal processes to accelerate the service delivery.

We usually help our clients identify the processes that should be redesigned and automated. We help them design the automation by implementing machine learning algorithms and RPA wherever applicable.

Automated processes will reduce the human errors and help improve the overall quality of service delivered to the customers in faster time.

• Leverage Data for Decision Making


 

Your digital customers are leaving bread crumbs everywhere for you to latch onto. Their digital footprint is an indicator of their journey. But can you read them? That’s where big data and analytics come into picture.

We help our clients implement big data solutions to make meaning out of all the data that their business captures. We help them identify customer preferences, billing anomalies, fraudulent transactions, possible growth opportunities, etc. Our analytics can also help them plan their inventory better, make better procurement decisions, design better marketing outreach programs, and more.

• Integrated Customer Care


 

Many B2C companies are invested heavily in customer care. But what they lack is an integrated care system where a single view of their customers is created and interactions from different channels are stored against this single view. Popularly known as omni-channel care, there are not many companies who have successfully done this. They are finding it hard to tie the different customer interaction channels like email, chat, voice, social, etc. together to build singular customer profile.

This is where a mature digital transformation partner can make all the difference.

• Innovate Continuously


 

Digitally transformed organizations will always foster a culture of innovation. This innovation need not be just in terms of tools and software. It should also be at process level where you redesign things and make them better. It should also be at cultural level, where your employees start thinking differently. It should also be at strategy level, where you explore different approaches.

We have worked with clients and helped them embrace innovation as a new way of existence. We have created internal programs that have empowered them teams to come up with innovative ideas and suggestions.

Conclusion

Digital transformation is not just one-time initiative that you invest in today and get it done tomorrow. It is a lifestyle change for a business. It is redefining the DNA of your enterprise and sustaining the new identify in the future. It is going to take dedicated efforts and resources. But that should not be a deterrent to your transformation goal because if you do not invest today, you may lose out tomorrow. Digital transformation is the only way of surviving and competing in the future.
To put together your own digital transformation strategy, you can get in touch with our strategists.
To know more about digital transformation within your industry, talk to our domain experts today.