Digitization – This word excites some people and scares others in the same way.
If you have a business, a brand, a network, surely you will have come across several digitization proposals.
And even if you know that digitization is needed to increase productivity and avoid falling behind competitors, you are still likely to have doubts about its effectiveness.
The term digitization indicates a process by which we try to transform interactions, communications, business functions, and business models into (more) digital models.
Enumerated below are advantages of digitization to help you understand why to choose to digitize your company, brand, or network.
1. Digital presence: Online digitization
This is almost certainly an excellent advantage. In fact, the presence on the Internet, through tools such as online stores, social networks, blogs, company pages, etc., multiplies the visibility of the company and sales channels.
Another aspect not to be overlooked when implementing this process is online positioning with the creation of ad hoc content for customers. Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for online marketing: only in this way will your website be found on Google.
2. Digitization: New channels of contact with customers
Likewise, the digital presence not only opens up sales channels but also new ways of communicating with customers.
In fact, companies with a digital presence use e-mail, apps, and social networks to contact and keep customers informed and in the same way, customers have different ways to contact the company.
This is another way to increase sales and customer loyalty. But remember: don’t underestimate the importance of social media marketing. Being known on social networks allows you to have more clicks on the website, to rank among the top search engine results, and do you know what this means? More sales!
3. The customer is the heart of the universe if you digitize your company
Digitization involves putting the customer at the center of the business and, while this involves work and responsibility, it also offers significant advantages.
One of them is to find out their opinions. Contacts, such as those established in social networks or opinion polls and websites, facilitate the always important task of finding out what users think of your products or services.
It is true that sometimes it costs an effort and an economic investment, but acting wisely the result will be the progress of our service and our company.
4. Better decision making
Digitization goes hand in hand with data management. Data is knowledge and knowledge leads to better decisions.
The digitization of the business makes it possible to have continuous contact with the customer, and this allows you to get to know them better.
5. Improve efficiency and productivity with digitization
With digitization, you have more information, which allows you to make better decisions and also technological tools to facilitate your work.
Therefore, if used intelligently, the digitization of the business can lead to a significant increase in productivity and can reduce some costs.
In fact, technology has helped companies improve in these areas over the years
6. Encourage innovation
Digitization forces us to act. And once the movement starts, inertia will make it more difficult to stop.
The digitization of the business usually leads to innovation that allows it to be more aware of new trends and the possibilities offered by new technologies.
7. Digitizing your company will simplify communication and teamwork
Both through the alignment of objectives and the opening of new communication channels, the digitization of the business also improves internal communication.
This can be observed both through teamwork, which will be necessary to implement digitization measures and through basic choices such as the implementation of an internal chat.
8. Improve working conditions
The possibilities offered by digitization in a company cover many areas and one of these is the improvement of working conditions. New job options, such as flexible working hours or telecommuting, require the support of digitization in order to be carried out. Without this, it would be much more difficult, if not impossible.
And improving working conditions offers multiple benefits, not only for employees but also for the company. It helps reduce job turnover and increases talent retention. The new generations of workers (the so-called millennials) are demanding digitization in their work.
How to get started with digitization?
Digitization offers companies the opportunity to understand digital buyers, allowing them to connect with them and meet the expectations of multi-channel customer experience.
Here are three ways to help your business start digitization.
1. A flexible and fast IT environment
Having the right technology to empower digital strategies is critical in today’s business world. Curiously, just a couple of years ago, 45% of executives believed that their companies lacked all the technology needed to meet a successful digitization strategy. And, from what you see around, not much has changed in recent times.
Nonetheless, companies recognize the need to implement agile systems and 86% of organizations believe that cloud technology is critical to digitization.
The cloud allows companies to be fast, dynamic, and flexible – giving the organization the opportunity to test new projects that are inexpensive and low-risk – allowing you to use technology to meet customer demands more quickly.
By connecting cloud applications such as customer databases, CRM, business intelligence for Big Data analysis, web, and mobile apps more easily, it is possible to digitally record all contact points to create a 360-degree representation of the customer.
By using this data to cluster contacts based on personal data and behavior, you can get to know how, when and why customers buy; and you can, of course, use this data to offer an even better customer experience.
2. Personalized customer experiences
Today’s buyers want companies to consider them unique and special individuals, who know their personal preferences and know what they have bought in the past.
According to an Accenture study, 75% of customers admit that they are more likely to buy from a company that:
- Recognizes them by their name
- Knows the history of their purchases
- Recommends the right products, based on their previous purchases or preferences expressed on some occasions
The good news is that consumers are not at all sorry that companies use the data they have to improve the shopping experience or brand relationship. But, to take advantage of this opportunity, you need to invest and dedicate yourself to the implementation of a project that endows the company with a CRM.
If your company doesn’t invest in CRM, then you can’t think of treating your customers as individuals. Without memorizing the history of how your organization (marketing, sales, and service) interacts with them, it is impossible to offer a unique and personalized experience.
3. A seamless multi-channel experience
Technology has enabled customers to get what they want, when they want and how they want it.
Most consumers now expect a response from customer service within one hour of opening a report or first contact. They also expect the same response times on weekends, exactly as on weekdays. This need for an immediate response (gratification) forces companies to remain open or accessible – and on-demand – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
That’s why, companies that can offer immediacy, service personalization, and continuous accessibility to their customers, will win the market challenges in the long run.
Consumers are not tied to a single channel. They shop online, share feedback via mobile app, and ask the support team questions on social networks.
The combination of all these interactions allows you to create a digital profile for each individual customer or potential customer, whenever a customer interacts with your business.
Final thoughts
Digitizing business is not always a simple process, but it can bring great benefits. Furthermore, the market acknowledges this and the company that fails to do so is likely to have problems maintaining its competitiveness.