5min
The continuous advancement of digitalisation is changing the game for businesses - in a good way. A whopping 70% of businesses have found digital transformation to be worth the investment.
However, the mere presence of a website and online platforms will not suffice to maintain a competitive edge in the market by 2023. To stay afloat amongst other businesses, companies must know how to make use of digital tools and technologies efficiently to drive growth and transformation.
This can only be done by having a comprehensive digital strategy that contains objectives, key performance indicators, as well as an execution plan. Furthermore, since the digital world is always growing and changing, those involved must also be willing to learn new things and experiment often to stay ahead of the curve.
There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is the range of benefits that digital transformation brings. For example, risk & compliance companies are finding specific benefits from implementing digital transformation that is helping them move away from spreadsheets and towards automation. This shift is making things easier and more efficient for these businesses, and that's why they're finding it to be so worth it.
We've identified five benefits of digital transformation that will help you build a business case:
1 Better data
Digital transformation can help your business in many ways, one of which is by improving the quality of your customer data. By using a CRM (customer relationship management) system to collect information from users, you can get a more complete and accurate picture of your customer base. This can help you make better decisions about your marketing and sales strategies, and ultimately boost your bottom line.
For example, let's say you're a digital marketer for a tech company. As a platform owner, you want to create customised content to sell your platform to customers, but you are not sure what topics or angles will be most appealing to them. By transforming your business digitally, you can gain insight into:
- How users' traffic is generated.
- Blogging or article click-throughs.
- Click-through rate and lead qualification.
By leveraging these insights, you can create more customised campaigns that address buyer journey gaps.
There are many ways to use data in business, and each has its own benefits. For example, if you collect data on your customers, you can use it to segment them into groups and target your marketing efforts more effectively. Or if you track data on your sales, you can identify trends and patterns that can help you boost your sales.
Data can also be used to improve your business operations. For example, if you track data on your inventory, you can identify areas where you need to improve your stock management. Or if you track data on your employee productivity, you can identify ways to improve your workflow.
Ultimately, the benefits of data depending on how you use it. By understanding the different ways you can use data, you can leverage it to improve your business in a variety of ways.
2 Providing A Better Customer Experience
Consider how the best brands that you like to work with operate, and reflect that in the experience you offer your own customers. Your target market is used to being able to find and connect with brands through multiple channels online, so make sure your business is accessible across various platforms.
Your customers have come to expect businesses to be available and engaging across a variety of channels - so it's important to make sure you are providing a consistent, positive experience no matter how or where they reach out to you.
Depending on your customer's needs, you may need to provide them with resources such as:
- Emails, social media, and other online engagements.
- Online portals and account management.
- A live chat with either a bot or a real person.
- Self-service, FAQs, and blogs so that they can find the information they need.
Making it easy for your customers to get the information they need when they want will help keep them engaged. If they do need to call or email you, having all the information they've already consumed at their fingertips will make conversations more productive and targeted. Imagine not having to explain your issue multiple times when speaking to different businesses!
The risks and compliance industry is especially vulnerable to the impacts of digital transformation. This is because customers in this industry have to renew certifications and regulatory obligations regularly. If you want your business to grow, it's critical to have tools in place that will support the renewal process and help you identify opportunities where you could provide other services.
- Online appointments and self-service - allow customers to schedule appointments online.
- Reminders sent internally and externally when certificates are due to expire
3 Remove Friction
Digital transformation is all about improving the customer experience. Every business must make it easy for customers to buy from them and communicate with them. The goal is to create a seamless, intuitive experience that meets the customer’s needs and exceeds their expectations.
To do this, businesses need to rethink every touchpoint along the customer journey. They need to ask themselves how they can make each interaction more convenient, more personalised, and more satisfying. They also need to invest in the latest technologies that will enable them to deliver a superior experience.
By making the customer experience the focus of their digital transformation, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and win the loyalty of their customers. Many businesses struggle with this issue.
Data is the key ingredient to a successful customer experience strategy - without it, you might as well not bother trying. The fact that most B2B businesses struggle with data integrity is a huge problem, especially when you consider that most organisations use multiple software programs and digital tools. This lack of unity makes it very difficult to get a clear picture of what's going on.
Having a unified approach to data management is possible, but it requires an integrated platform that sales, marketing, customer service, and operations can all use. This kind of platform makes it easier to collect and analyse data so you can make informed decisions about your customer experience strategy. Migrating to a digital way of working requires the transfer of data across departments.
4 Potential for Sell-Ups and Cross-Sells
Digital transformation can be a huge benefit for your customer-facing team, making it easier to grow existing accounts. Industry sectors such as technology may need this for upgrading existing services. You may not have insight into what your sales team should be promoted based on the behavior of your customers. The digital transformation here can facilitate the easy segmentation and breakdown of customer data, highlighting:
- Your clients' packages.
- Their past conversations.
- Services you may provide that can support their business.
- The interest expressed outside the existing service contract in other products or services.
- Intent to renew or upgrade a service package, based on previous customer data and behavioral insights.
By utilising this information, we will be able to automate marketing to existing customers, and identify which customers are ready to upgrade.
5 Straightforward Processes
Digital transformation can help businesses get the right information at the right time by creating a central hub of information. This central hub can be used to track and manage data, as well as to provide insights and analytics. By having all of this information in one place, businesses can make more informed decisions and take action more quickly. Additionally, digital transformation can help businesses improve communication and collaboration, as well as automate tasks and processes.
Transforming your processes might involve a combination of the following:
- Onboarding, lead scoring and lead management workflows to streamline your sales process
- Reporting and pipeline management, tracking key conversion KPIs that inform your future marketing and sales efforts as well as where all your new and existing business opportunities stand.
- Centralising customer information for all your team members. Many B2B companies struggle to find the power of centralised customer information, service details, and communications.
Automating time-consuming processes can make your business more efficient and increase revenue. By automating processes, you can free up employees' time to focus on more productive tasks, and you can improve your bottom line by reducing labor costs. In addition, automating processes can help you improve customer service and satisfaction by providing faster and more consistent service.
Digitising Your Organisation
Once you understand the benefits of digital transformation, you need to decide whether you will outsource or do the work in-house.
Choosing to outsource digital transformation can be challenging, but weighing the pros and cons is important. Doing it in-house may seem like the more appealing option at first, but it's important to consider whether you have the resources and expertise available to make it successful. If not, outsourcing may be the better option.
