You need to subject your website and marketing programs to a digital transformation to adapt to a mobile world and increased demands from your customers.
Everyone knows you need to ‘go digital’ to stay competitive, but even after you’ve defined what digital business is, it can still be difficult to know where to start. Whether it’s improving business agility, the integration of legacy systems with digital touch points, a renewed focus on customer experience or an emphasis on mobility, there are many different ways to approach digital transformation.
According to a recent Altimeter Group survey on the topic, a staggering 80% of strategists felt it was important to improve processes that would expedite changes to digital properties. The majority of those surveyed also felt that way about updating mobile efforts, improving social media, developing customer-facing systems and more.
Regardless of where you start, the most important thing is to begin. Here are the top four areas you should focus on to start your digital business plan:
- Updating your applications
You have an existing suite of applications that power your business, and while they might seem to meet your current needs, updating them is essential to fully capture today’s market, not to mention tomorrow’s. Your website and marketing/ecommerce programs need to be adapted for a mobile world and increased demands from your users.
More than just making an update, however, you need to improve the underlying processes that govern change, ensuring that needed updates to digital properties can happen quickly and efficiently.
- Adopting a mobile-first strategy
Redesigning individual components is important, but it’s not enough to simply make your website responsive or create a mobile app. In 2015 people spent more time on the internet through mobile devices than desktops, and if you’re not considering how mobile affects your business on a fundamental level, you’re missing out on the big picture.
Yes, build the mobile app, but also look at social efforts and research the digital journey of your customers to see how you can deliver a frictionless experience.
- Enhancing the customer experience
Today’s customers expect a lot from their digital experiences. They want to be able to do their research ahead of time, without speaking to a sales representative. They want to use the screen of their choice to research and seamlessly move to purchase when they’re ready. Take control of this expectation by delivering the omni-channel digital content your customers are seeking.
Customer support plays a critical role in the customer experience. Robust support over social media and support agents that are accessible, capable and informed are increasingly expected, and facilitate the buying process.
- Creating end-to-end connectivity and integration
There are many moving parts in any organisation’s digital portfolio, from social media to ecommerce to customer support. These pieces need to be connected so that they can talk to each other quickly and easily. This helps you avoid putting obstacles between the customer and their purchase, such as repeatedly filling out forms with the same information.
Evaluate all the digital touch points your customers interact with. Once you learn where and how they engage with you, you can design a holistic system of integration that ensures a smooth experience for your customers and your employees.
‘Going digital’ may seem daunting, but there is a tremendous opportunity if you can be among the first to develop a truly digital business.
Craig Law, Managing Director, Progress
