Digital Transformation and its Impact on your Customer

“46% of organisations have confirmed that increased use of automation is one of the most important drivers shaping overall IT strategy from its very inception and will continue till 2020” – a survey by IDC Enterprise Cloud and DevOps Management Survey.

The above statistics clearly states that in the near future, automation and digital transformation will not be a choice, but a necessity for all companies. With newer technologies such as RPA working to reduce the redundancies of your knowledge worker, disruption is imminent and its best to embrace digital transformation to sustain your global business.

In our previous article, we emphasised on the need for transformation and how it will benefit your organisation. If you interview CIOs from across the world on what digital transformation means to them, you are likely to get all different answers, due to the business models they work with. From a personal experience, the thought across the board for most CIOs is that digital transformation represents a fundamental change in thinking and ideating on how an enterprise can use technology to enhance performance.

Organisations need to approach digital transformation in a phase wise manner, with a solid business strategy to harness its strengths and mitigate its challenges. While transformation has its benefits across many business areas, in this article, we will keep our focus on the Customer. Read on to know the impact of transformation on your sales and marketing operations and how it ultimately impacts your Customer.

Impact of digital transformation on marketing

Marketing is a key department where transformation has made its impact. While traditional marketing was more gut-driven, today marketers can actually measure and gain insights due to automation that was not available before. And we value our marketers who are our core revenue generation planners as they constantly work towards newer methods, conduct studies and strive towards enhancing the customer experience.

With data insights, marketers are tweaking the way promotional activities are being conducted. They are using multiple social channels to grab attention of the targeted audiences and engage them with the brand. Digital transformation has certainly improved the scope and importance of geographically targeted marketing. Increasing awareness amongst the consumers is also keeping marketing professionals on their toes. Marketers are always striving to produce qualitative and quantitative data which will eventually lead to better decision making and increased revenues. It ultimately impacts how the organisation services a customer and hence the customer experience as a whole.

Impact of digital transformation on sales

Your customer today is savvy and not very receptive to traditional sales techniques. We have already seen how social selling has gained attention and altered the selling scene. Sales processes in most organisations have embraced the benefits of automation, CRM, online presentations, digital documentation, collaboration and much more. Data is generated in huge amounts and the insights gained from them have become valuable to enhance the customer experience. Whether it’s buyer interest or purchasing intent, all can be gauged and influenced to convert sales.

Access to better data and more information has never been easier with digitisation. Transformation has drastically improved the ability to access information, enhanced decision making and has allowed sales people to be more productive. Using technology, companies are able to look at sales strategies that yield real results and tweak future sales plans. It is enabling dispersed sales teams to collaborate effectively, helping them to brainstorm ideas and eventually increase revenue. With proper insights of the buying patterns, sales teams are creating bundles of services or products and increasing revenue generation opportunities.

Impact of digital transformation on customer experience

With digitisation, the customer experience is rapidly changing. Businesses now, readily recognise the need to be customer centric to excel and stay afloat. Yesterday was just about the sale; today is all about the customer’s journey with your product or service. And digital transformation has been at the forefront in enhancing customer experience along with product optimisations and service deliveries.

Transformation has affected business workflows, data management, organisation agility, application integration, eventually leading to conditions for better customer experiences. With judicious use of technology, enterprises are easily gaining insights of available assets and customer data. Using this data companies are forming strategies to tailor targeted marketing campaigns, formulate new products/services and find ways to generate revenue. To succeed at the objective of creating a personalised experience for every customer, your efforts need to go towards data management, the insights gained from it and then hauling it all the way back to your process improvements and innovation.

Closing thoughts

Digital transformation is a journey – a journey that begins from within, dependent on your people and extends all the way to the customer. Businesses today are availing extended benefits of improved agility and collaboration amongst employees with transformation. All businesses have to look at customer experience as a process and not a one-time event. Weave digital into the fabric of your organisation and configure best practices that will give your brand the insight to delight your customers.

At Exigo Tech, we understand that new digital economy goes beyond technology and that our clients need a new type of consulting that is relevant along with solutions that are customised to their business.