Why do you have to accelerate the digitization of your company?

I think we will not be too surprised that the term "digitize" has become the new term "marketing" that is on the lips of all the experts who proclaim their advice there in the innumerable company forums. And surely they are all right in the world and I share the same idea: companies must accelerate their digitization because users ask for it. What could be criticized is that only a few tell us what it means and how to do it and tell us what our are priorities. It is a bit the same process that we have already lived through on multiple occasions with various concepts for the change of the company that we were sold as essential in all forums and that not everyone was clear on how to do it. And many companies have not yet put into practice several truths that have remained in mere theory.

I will give some concrete examples. In online sales, for some, it was essential to adapt the business and for others, acceptance by the consumer would take many years to reach the online purchase. But they were absolutely right since pioneering companies such as Amazon have launched 20 years ago, today capable of delivering daily purchases in 24 hours, or Vente-Privée or Zalando, and they have established themselves as the companies that have opened the way for buying online to be something simple, comfortable and almost essential for many consumers. Since then there are hundreds of thousands of large, medium, and small companies in the world have followed in his footsteps. Some are still considering it for various reasons that may sound more like excuses from their owners or executives than for reasons of feasibility. It must be remembered that in Spain a leader like Mercadona still a few months ago maintained an outdated website more due to lack of will than due to lack of resources to launch the company to the new multi-channel model. A few days ago we learned that they are going to take the step to compete with Amazon with their new "mercadonatech" website.

Another example of current trends in marketing could be the customer experience that has been talked about so much and seems to have somewhat deflated a bit due to having theorized too much about the concept. On the other hand, I believe that it is still very valid for large companies that need to restructure their discourse both internally and at the image level for their consumers, although they do not really live with the need to always please their customers (airline companies from which we will also buy their routes out of necessity or the service providers that in the end provide our homes with water, gas or electricity every day).

And to give one last example of the marketing or business verbiage of which we are constantly bombarded by all the experts and on all digital channels via LinkedIn, Twitter, forums, and blogs, is the phrase that always works in any meeting: "you have to put the customer at the center of every business decision ". Is this really the case when we go to our bank, or if we go to an administration or when we go to the supermarket, if we hire a trip, or want to buy a motorcycle or a car? I believe that due to our mentality of Latin countries, today it cannot be affirmed that most companies really put the customer at the center of their activity because it is only necessary to contact some of them at the points of sale, online or by phone to see the reality.

Today it cannot be said that most companies really put the customer at the center of their activity

One way to really start practicing it is sure to accelerate the digitization of our company. And why? In a very simple way, I think so that the client is the center of the company, it is necessary that the contact experience inevitably goes through these steps:

Getting to know you better: Big Data will allow us to collect and process the information of each of the consumers who contact the company that has to search for and implement digital instruments to collect this information. Knowing how to listen to you: we still see cardboard boxes in some branches to collect handwritten notes from customers. Does someone then pass them on to a file that could be useful for improving the service? I am not so sure that its content does not end up in the hands of the cleaning staff who are responsible for making our life in the office more orderly and clean. That the company anticipates and above all that it has the will to take the step towards the client not only to sell them but also to make their life easier, retain them and thus increase their spending on our products or services.
Watch Article related videos at kissnaime