Digital transformation is your key to success in a competitive market. Think about it. With the pandemic changing the way we internet, not having an online presence can be fatal. It’s no accident online orders are up while America is placed under a slew of restrictions and virus quarantine orders. At this point in time, you’re under extreme scrutiny. Without digital transformation in place, your ability to reach out to your clients and customers can take a dip, if not die a natural death.
But there’s a great danger when mapping out your digital transformation. You might think that digital transformation is a tool to help your business explode. It is. But for it to matter it must first answer not to you but to the customers. In short, your digital transformation should be customer-centered first and foremost.
Gone are the days when all you have to do is hand out a product after the customer pays and leaves. These days you need to do more. Luckily, digital transformation can be just the answer for you. Check out key essentials to do it right.
Customer is Always Right
It’s true. You could put thousands of dollars into your digital transformation. but if you don’t orient it the right way, you can be wasting tons of your money without you knowing it.
The problem is many companies, keen on churning out a better system, follow an old-school approach when transforming into a highly digital system. They may put say it’s for a better customer experience but actually they’re just paying lip service. What drives them to digitally transform is primarily their business needs. They want to save on their resources: time, money, and talent.
In hindsight, such an approach is useful. But if it neglects to put customer experience first, then you’re actually missing the point. You’re putting the horse before the cart.
Thus, you must take a bird’s eye view of the whole customer experience. What are the touchpoints where customers directly interact with your organization? What are the departments that serve these touchpoints? How can digital better these touchpoints?
A classic example of a customer-centric digital transformation is Amazon. If you look at the ordering process, the return policy, the support, it’s all so seamless and driven by technology. Features such as ‘1-click checkout’ and topnotch search engine capabilities are just some customer-driven integration Amazon has been noted for. It’s no surprise the online giant has been on top of the charts, taking the #1 spot in a slew of customer satisfaction indexes.
But customer-centric digital transformation need not be confined to the business space alone. It can affect communities and serve the American public better too. And effect positive change.
For instance, spot-on digital transformation in the field of co-responder programs all over American has helped countless lives all over the land. With smartphone integration, for instance, the responding duo of police and a health worker can book a hospital in a cinch. In the process, providing timely intervention to a patient with mental health issues becomes a lot easier. Best of all, the patient can track his customer journey and be on the path to recovery at a faster rate.
The good news is these co-responder programs have saved tons of money for the government. By giving timely aid to people with mental health issues, incarcerations (which for a long time was the only solution) are down.
A Timely Paradigm Shift
It must be emphasized that any digital transformation takes time. It’s not just an off-the-cuff decision that gets implemented in a rush. For it to be transformative, it has to be decisive. And that means you need to have a road map that’s clearly defined in place.
To this end, you need to do your due diligence. Right from the get-go, you need to take a cold hard look at your organization. You can’t be wishy-washy about it.
First up, know where your organization is right now. What are the things that are working for you? As hard as it may seem, you need to ask yourself in what way are your customers underserve? What are the bottlenecks? You need to ask these hard questions if you want to proceed with your digital transformation right. And last but not least, how can you digital better all these?
That’s why creating a customer journey map would help you here. Think from the viewpoint of a customer. By doing so, you do a paradigm shift. Instead of thinking first of your internal efficiency, you shift your mindset to a better customer-driven experience.
When you plan your digital transformation in the eyes of the customer, you serve your organization right. You’re putting it where it needs to be. To reap the benefits in time. As many have before you.