Building a Culture for the Digital Age
The new digital age requires businesses to proactively adapt and evolve. Companies need to utilize advanced technology, analyze online customer behavior, and cultivate a harmonious culture within a more distributed (remote and hybrid) workforce. Many past models and traditional ways of thinking will be obsolete in the digital age. Now is the time to be bold, embrace emerging technology, and move your company toward digital transformation (if you haven’t so already).
As the world goes more digital, your business success will largely be defined on how well you adopt the following key elements into your customer experience.
Digital Marketing
To succeed in today’s business world, you have to have a strong online presence. Your customers are online, your competition is online, and if you want to survive and thrive…your business needs to be online as well. Through digital marketing, you can reach an enormous audience in a way that is cost-effective, measurable, trackable, and easily adaptable.
eCommerce
For your business to provide a more robust customer experience, eCommerce is a golden opportunity. eCommerce in modern business is perfect to get a positive return on investment and will not only help in acquiring local business but also other people around the world. With eCommerce, ease and convenience is the major benefit. Your online business is open 24/7, providing instant information with proper customer service support. At any time, customers can buy your product with just one click from anywhere around the world.
Digital User Experience
Software with poor user experience is either underutilized or not adopted. Consumers have so many choices today, and with just one click, they can leave your site and instantly be on another company’s website. Giving your customers a great user experience can elevate your brand, generate buzz, increase time spent on your site, and boost sales. So make sure your site is fun, engaging, and easy to navigate.
AI
Moving into a digital age, artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to have a transformational impact on business. AI works by combining large amounts of data with fast processing and intelligent algorithms, allowing the software to learn automatically by recognizing patterns in data. Information technology is no longer just about process automation and codifying business logic. Instead, insight is the new currency. In fact, the speed with which we can scale that insight and the knowledge it brings is the basis for value creation and the key to competitive advantage.
Big Data
Big data analyzes and extracts information from data sets that are too complex for traditional data-processing application software. From customer experience to analytics, big data can help you address a range of business activities. Big data can give your business new insights that open up new opportunities and business models.
IoT (Internet of Things)
IoT is a system of computing devices, digital machines, objects, or people that have the ability to transfer data over a network without human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. Organizations use loT to better understand customers to deliver enhanced customer service, improve decision-making, increase the value of the business, and to operate more efficiently.
Automation
Increased automation reduces the time and effort required in delivering communications to optimize campaign performance. In addition, automation allows marketers to leverage customer engagement opportunities with fast, personalized responses at scale. As customers become increasingly digital, the brands that anticipate and meet their high expectations of immediate personalization will create more lasting relationships with their customers and drive more revenue than competitors that are slower to adopt automation technology.
At Cuker, we want our brands to succeed. In today's digital world, we all have the same tools and software available and we're all trying to do the same thing - grow awareness, acquisition, and market share. So how do we compete and win? It often comes down to strategy, investment, and determination
Here are several ways you can shape your culture to prepare for success in the digital era.
Speed
The speed of the world has changed! Here’s an example. After the invention of the telephone, it took almost 75 years for 100 million people to get a hard wired telephone in their homes. In comparison, it took only 1 month for 100 million people to download the Pokémon App. To put it into perspective, you must prepare your organization to adjust to the new speed required. It’s either move with the rapid velocity of digital technology…or be left in the proverbial dust.
Be Customer Centric
To break business success down to a basic fundamental…it’s all about the customer. When planning your digital strategy, always start with the customer and formulate how you can maximize their overall experience. Create a simple, yet unique website that utilizes eCommerce functionality and superb customer service. In the office, create a culture that believes in a ‘customer first’ ethos. From your sales team to Shipping & Receiving, engrain this philosophy into all of your employees. Not only will this make your customers happy, but it can also boost workplace morale.
Risk Tolerance & Failure Acceptance
Don’t be afraid to fail! Being able to adapt and being nimble means taking risks. Some strategies will work, and some might misfire. But if you don't innovate, you stagnate…therefore you'll soon become obsolete. As you develop our strategy, analyze the business landscape, make smart bets, yet be bold. Focus on your successes and learn from the failures.
Collaboration over Process
The speed of information, technology, and the dynamism in the market requires a new business structure. Some of the organized, linear, and 'step-by-step' processes of the past will break down. Collaboration, not process, is how success will be generated in the digital age. Teamwork and collaboration form the fundamentals of any successful business. When employees share a common goal, combine their strengths, and help each other out in times of need, your organization is set to thrive.
To quote Steve Jobs, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of great people.”
Strategy over Software
It's important to have the latest software, but the strategy, implementation, and use of the software is even more important. Strategic planning is the backbone of every business. In collaboration with software and technological utilization, your business needs a well-constructed strategy in place...conducted in a smooth, organized, and proficient manner. Without a thorough strategy, technology can prove to be ineffective (and costly) for an operation. So before you implement a new software program, it’s important to set goals, know what you want to achieve, and understand how software will help you achieve your objectives.
Bold Leadership
Every successful business needs a leader. It takes a person with vision, an appetite for innovation, and one who isn’t afraid to take calculated risks to help a business thrive in the digital age. Leaders have the power to inspire, engage, and empower others with clarity and optimism. Today, it’s important for leaders to focus their communication skills to encourage autonomy among team members, clearly identify business goals, and boost unity among team members.
Exploitation & Exploration
When looking at how your business is using technology, it’s key to address two main factors – exploitation and exploration.
Exploitation - Evaluate current software that's working in your business and see how this can be used in other areas of your business or be extended exploiting existing software.
Exploration – Look for opportunities to replace manual, labor intensive tasks, and disorganized processes with new software and advanced automation.
Digital User Experience
With the world moving at a lightning-fast pace and patience running at an all-time low, customers expect companies to provide easy-to-use products, services, and websites. Since consumer demands are getting higher, companies must put a greater emphasis on user experience. When a website is difficult to navigate or simply unpleasant to use, great content goes to waste. So to ensure your customers are getting the most out of your products and services, it’s crucial to make user experience a top priority at your company.
Digital transformation is inevitable. The ‘business-as-usual’ model is literally on the verge of extinction. For your organization to move successfully into the digital age, you need to instill a collaborative, thriving culture while providing a unique user experience for your customer. As leaders in the digital era, Cuker understands the importance of digital transformation. We hope this article will help shape your culture for success in the digital era.
