Dear business owner,
Your customers have been spoiled.
Thanks to companies like OLX and Uber, they now expect you to provide seamless user experience throughout the buyer journey.
Of course they won’t tell it to your face, but if a competitor offers round-the-clock customer support, instant product delivery, and personalized treatment, you can bet they will dump you without batting an eye.
To meet these high customer expectations, companies like Safaricom and KCB are reinventing their entire business process, including cutting the number of steps required, developing automated decision-making and reducing paperwork. Needless to say, the benefits are huge.
And don’t think the benefits are only limited to the big players, small business also have much to gain from digitalizing their process. For example, an electronic retailer invested on an ecommerce website that enabled his customers to know instantly whether a particular electronic model was in stock- saving time for both the customer and the sales team. The eCommerce website which also works as a salesman 24/7, allows him to increase sales without increasing overhead or personnel costs.
Clearly, gauging from these case studies, your business stands to gain much from digitalization.
But what is digitalization?
Digitalization is simply the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities. Just think of how Uber doesn’t own any cars yet it is currently the leading taxi company in the world.
5 Signs You Need To Digitalize Your Business
1. Your Business is Not Mobile Friendly
Just look around you, everyone is on their mobile phone. Why isn’t your business there? If your business does not have a mobile strategy to acquire, engage or retain customers then you are losing out on almost 70% of the market. CBA loop has an exemplary sms strategy; this weekend they were enticing me with a Java voucher if I go pick my card…do you think I went?
2. You are Spraying and Praying Instead of Analyzing Data
Your customers want you to know what they want even before they ask. The good news is that you don’t have to be a god, you only need data. If you are not collecting, tracking and using customer data to optimize experience you are well on your way to being dumped because apparently you just never listen.
3. It costs and arm and a leg to reach your customer support
Telcos like Safaricom & the recently rebranded Telkom Kenya have invested in omni-channels that allow customers to reach out via social media, email, SMSs and phone calls. Smaller companies are leveraging social media to keep close to their customers ensuring they have the best customer experience possible for free. Having both social media accounts and a website has proven quite effective for small businesses that do not wish to spend a fortune on customer support.
4. You don’t have an Online Presence
If you Google your business right now and nothing familiar shows up, you are in deep trouble my friend. This is the age of information. Customers are searching for information about products and services before they make a decision, reason why it makes so much sense to have a website where prospects can find credible information about your business and products.
5. There’s Too Much Paper Work
Like I mentioned earlier, you customers are spoiled. None of them expect to be asked the same questions over and over again, instead they expect you to automate access to all their data. Now, if you are still filling out all this data on paper and stuffing them in some dusty cabinet you are going to have a tough time ‘automatically’ recalling all the data. Save yourself some headaches and do away with the paper-work. Invest in a database and thank me later.
Digitalizing your business is not going to be a walk in the park, but failure to do so will have you face even worse consequences. At Legibra, we help businesses-both big and small- digitalize their processes by providing web services, cloud infrastructure, domain and hosting. If you need help going paperless, just talk us 🙂
