“Digital transformation” has become a bit of a buzzword recently among the business community. It is the process of using digital technologies to improve or enhance your business. What this looks like can mean many different things depending on the industry. It can mean any sort of changes needed to meet market requirements, including customer experiences, website design, business processes, and more.
A digital transformation doesn’t just mean traditional roles such as marketing, sales, and customer service. Instead, digital transformation is about how a company thinks about and engages with customers. As a company moves from paper to smartphone applications, they can change how customers are engaged with technology on their side.
For small businesses just starting out, it is much easier to set up a business process that is future-proof. Thinking about building digitally can set them up to be flexible and ready to grow.
From Analog to Digital
It wasn’t long ago that businesses kept records on paper. But since computers have gone mainstream, most companies have started converting all of those ink paper records to digital computer files. This is called digitalization: the process of converting information from analog to digital. This process has helped to show that sharing information is much easier once it has been digitized.
In terms of customer service, digitalization has forever changed service by making customer records easily and quickly retrievable. This process just goes to show that with new technologies, new things and new ways of doing them are suddenly possible.
Creating a New Class of Business
Digital transformation is creating entirely new classes of business. Companies of all sorts are coming up with practical, clever, and new ways of leveraging technology. It all begins with understanding the potential of technology and how it can work to your favour in your business. The question is how you can adapt your business and process to make the most out of technology investments.
Technology in Customer Service
Digital transformations have reshaped how businesses approach customer service. The old models were to wait for customers to find you, but with the rise of social media advertising, marketing, sales and customer service have changed. Most companies now embrace social media and use it as a chance to extend their service or products by meeting customers on the platforms of their choice. As you can see, adapting your offerings on social media is another excellent example of digital transformation.
But don’t stop there. As mentioned earlier, digital transformation encourages companies to reconsider everything, and this can even mean knocking down walls between your internal departments. Your digital presence can encompass service and marketing, tied together with a digital platform that can capture customer information, send customer questions to your service agents, and create personalized journeys for your customers.
Does Your Business Need a Digital Transformation?
Signs may start appearing across different parts of your organization when your business is in need of a digital transformation. Signs to watch out for include not getting the referrals you used to, repeat business isn’t repeating as it did before, your promotions are no longer generating leads or a lack of collaboration and information sharing among your team members.
Companies should start with an internal assessment to identify any problems or gaps where they may be experiencing difficulties. This should help make the path to digital transformation clear while remembering that you’re building for the future. Depending on the business, that could mean more employees, more revenue, or both.
Working with experienced partners can help companies in situations where they need a digital transformation. At Unwired Web Solutions, our team can help with various services such as website design, content marketing, and more. By partnering with our experts, you can ensure that experience and industry expertise across many different fields will be provided along with best practices. Contact us to get started today!