It's not always easy to define what a digital transformation is. The Enterprisers Project defines digital transformation as:
“The integration of digital technology into all areas of business, resulting in fundamental changes in the way businesses operate and how they deliver value to customers”.
Beyond that, it's a cultural shift that will force your business to continually re-emphasize the status quo, experiment often, and feel comfortable with failure. The digital transformation thus represents a performance, a commercial, a notoriety and a customer experience
challenge.
So, what do you have to do to successfully digitalize your business?
1- Establish a strategy adapted to your business
It's primordial. Indeed, each business meets a specific need, so you have to find what works best for you, without following the trend.
Find an original approach that works for your business
According to Ionology, entering a digital transformation process generates challenges on five organizational pillars: (i) the company's digital strategy and culture (ii) team and consumer engagement (iii) process and innovation (iv) technology and (v) data and analysis.
The digital strategy is the starting point in all cases. Without a strategy, the company's culture becomes reactive rather than proactive, which leads to the digitalization of services rather than a complete digital transformation.
Don't be afraid to innovate
Innovation involves the creation of a new product, the improvement of an existing product or new prospecting strategies. This pillar can allow your company to be present in the market in a sustainable way. To succeed in innovation, you need to focus on the best operating strategies. Whether it’s in the marketing department or overall creativity. Do not hesitate to analyze the trends and the need of your target market in order to know how to bring it back.
Transform your workspace into a virtual workspace
Digital transformation assumes a connected space or interconnected spaces. It’s important for your business to create a virtual workspace for your activities. This virtual space allows your employees to work from home and be productive. The adoption of this way of working removes the geographical and time limits. It gives your companies a flexible workspace; so you can work from anywhere and at any time.
Select the virtual tools that suit your team
In the process of setting up your virtual workspace, several tools are available for you. You need to choose the one that best suits your team. You must take into account the size of your structure, the needs of your teams, the price and the ease of handling.
Set a realistic timeline
Planning your activities on a timeline is the best way to achieve your goals. This reveals an operating strategy that is intended to be effective. Indeed, defining in advance the tasks for the month, quarter, or year testifies to the good organization within your company. This organization facilitates the review at the end of the year.
2- Put your customers at the heart of the changes
Your customers are an important element in the implementation of a digital transformation strategy. Because they are ready to buy your services, they know what they want.
Determine the needs of your customers
Try sending out questionnaires to your customers to collect their impressions of your services or to take their opinions after a purchase. It is often very productive to analyze the information received from customers to improve your services.
Put yourself in your customers' shoes
Putting yourself in someone's shoes is the best way to know what to work on as a business. Indeed, putting yourself in your customers' shoes allows you to identify the shortcomings of your services and the various solutions to improve them. Determine what you would like to have as a customer of your business.
Be available to answer your customers' questions and guide them towards this transformation
You should not neglect after-sales service. Indeed, your transformation will lead you to the use of new tools to communicate with your customers. For example the use of a chatbot which is an excellent communication tool.
3- Make sure you have quality internal and external communication
It is important to have good communication between the members of your teams. It makes it possible to harmonize tasks and to save time.
Set up training for your employees
It is necessary to communicate to your employees the new strategies of your digital transformation. In the event that some measures may be difficult to put in place, it is therefore up to you to work on infusing them with the attitudes to adopt. Support them to provide them with the necessary tools to be comfortable in their work.
Install internal communication software
The use of communication software saves time and allows for better organization. To know which one to choose, you must take into account the accessibility of the tool to everyone. There are several on the market at the moment, like Slack, Microsoft Team or Zoom, etc ...
Be open to your employees' questions and concerns
Make yourself accessible to your work staff. For example, you can set up periodic discussion sessions to talk about the new digital culture. This will be beneficial to the evolution of your business.
Keep your customers informed of changes
The transformation your business is about to bring up concerns for your employees as well as your customers. Inform them of what’s coming so they know what to expect. This is again a way to strengthen your proximity to them and therefore keep them engaged.
Make sure to keep human contacts with your customers
The digitization of your activities should not affect human relations with your customers. Getting in touch with them shows that they are important to you. You need to create an atmosphere of trust and a personalized bond with each of your clients. Hence the need to make customer support responsive and be understanding of the unique requests of each customer.
In summary,
Digital transformation is not to be avoided if you want your business to serve customers who are present on the web. The main points to be observed for this transformation to be effective are: establishing a strategy suited to your business, involving your customers in the changes and ensuring the quality of the internal and external communication.
Applying these points will allow you to lead your business towards greater growth and better performance.
To better understand how your business could benefit from a web presence, you can request a web analysis and audit from our teams. We are here for you !