5 Steps for A Customer-Centric Digital Transformation

Technological advancements, competitive pressures and customer expectations have made digital transformation a business imperative. Enterprises are reorienting their approach as well as processes to ensure that they are leveraging technology to deliver the best customer experience.

The Hackett Group , a leading research firm, recently pointed out that companies can no longer depend on the traditional "people/process/technology" frameworks but need to adopt a fundamentally different model to remain successful in the current digitally-connected world. Having a non-linear customer-centric value network is key and companies must have systems to respond quickly to customer feedback or market trends in order to retain their competitive edge.

Digital Transformation That Delivers Value Across The Organization

Creating a digital strategy with the customer at the heart of it requires enterprises to develop a multipronged approach. Digital transformation is not the sole prerogative of the IT department- it requires the collaboration between all key stakeholders and must be driven by the executive leadership.

While initial attempts at digitalization may well be disparate and isolated, organizations need to work towards developing a comprehensive roadmap that will result in a new ecosystem based on business goals and customer-centricity.

The following 5 steps are the central pillars for driving a customer-centric digital transformation:

1. Lead with customer: Aligning the internal teams across departments with customer expectations is the first step toward building a robust blueprint for a customer-centric digital transformation that spans process capabilities and technology. Enterprises must gain understanding of the customers’ journey and the customer experience map to develop processes and systems that focus on customer

2. Develop multi-platform converged approach: The SMAC revolution has made it essential for companies to implement an omni-channel strategy so that customers and business partners have flexibility to reach out in whatever form is convenient to them. This is today becoming non-negotiable for delivering seamless and uniform experience at every touchpoint

3. Build A Insights-driven Culture: Data plays a vital role in the digital economy. Developing systems and processes that are geared to gather, track and measure customer intelligence as well as internal processes KPIs on a continuous basis can result in insights that can drive better performance. Tapping into the power of Big Data analytics helps enterprises develop a deep understanding of customer needs and expectations

4. Focus on Agile And Flexibility: Enterprises need to be innately agile to respond to market demands. For this to happen consistently companies must embed innovation and speed of response in the culture. Having the right technological frameworks and business processes is pivotal to achieving this

5. Install Integrated Operating Models: By deploying technological solutions and platforms that remove operational silos and facilitate quick decision making and time-to-market, companies can ensure that their managers are equipped to develop applications and services according to market demands

Going digital is not a panacea for all organizational issues but it can act as a critical enabler for organizational growth. Businesses must keep the customer at the centre of this transformation to get gain maximum value from it.