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Is your approach to digital strategy holding you back?

Leighton logo
July 8, 2015
5 min read
Two Leighton colleagues stood in a hallway chatting. One is holding a laptop and a coffee mug, the other has her back to the camera.

Developing a digital strategy is a crucial step for organisations looking to leverage technology and digital tools to achieve their business objectives.

A well-defined digital strategy helps align technology initiatives with overall business goals, enhances customer experiences, and ensures adaptability to the rapidly evolving digital landscape. But, once a business has made the decision to fully embrace digital technology to improve their offering, output and processes, how do they go about achieving that longterm goal?

Finding the right partner

Firstly, businesses need to establish how they are going to adopt a more digital centric approach. Some businesses manage this internally, but in many cases, they need to look externally to companies likeLeighton, to help them achieve their goals and thus begin the process of tendering for the right digital partner.

Onboarding a partner is usually a long process for both parties. There are often several layers including the submission of proposals and concepts, pitching and then additional rounds of interviews so that the client can be sure they select the right partner to achieve their objectives.

Once a decision has been made and a contract awarded, it is essential that a strong bond is established between the client and partner quickly, to build trust and to enable the partner to understand how the business operates and what makes it tick. Once this is in place the partner can successfully investigate exactly how to deliver the client’s long-term goals and aspirations.

Going beyond your technology comfort zone

Technology has played a part in business for a long time, as a tool to communicate, to assist operations and as a means to store data and information, but digital transformation is different.

Digital transformation is less about emails, PowerPoint and large server rooms and more about digital products - both internal and external - and how they can completely revolutionise your business. There are the four major areas where it can have a profound effect on your business:

Commercial value

In today’s digital world embracing technology and taking your business to customers in an online world can have a profound impact on your commercial performance. From impulse purchase decisions to the immediate global market access offered by the online world, digital technology can have a lasting impact on your commercial performance.

Customer service

Customer service in the traditional sense is all about how well you speak with your customer, how empathetic you are to their needs or how good the journey around your store is. Whilst at heart customer service now is actually no different to how it’s always been digital has enabled a shift in how customer service works in practice.

The digital age gives you the ability to provide the very best level of customer service, far surpassing what you could do in the past.

When customers visit your site, you should know who they are, what they’ve done with you in the past and what they like and dislike. We know much more about customers as individuals now than we have ever done and that information can be used effectively to improve their experience with you.

Brands now routinely connect with customers across multiple devices and platforms, meaning shared data and opportunities for outstanding customer service across all touch points.

Personalisation it is something customers now expect. They understand that their buying or browsing history is now being utilised for their benefit and convenience. To companies that data has great value as it allows for intelligent audience segmentation -to understand customers and their preferences more deeply - and therefore target campaigns more effectively as a consequence.

In addition, personalisation also allows the brand to take a more customer-centric approach, with the customer often valuing the ‘little touches’ personalisation can offer, such as remembering their favourite products.

Brand perception

This is one thing that is often overlooked, but every touch point an individual has with a brand affects their perception of it. If a brand isn’t moving with the times -simple mistakes like failing to have a mobile responsive website - then consumers quickly lose faith.

Of course, the key to this is working out how to effectively replicate your management of customers in both the positive and negative scenarios. Customers are individuals and as such what represents good service for one person might be completely different for someone else (which is where user personas really come into their own). Strong brand values, sensible customer service and online personalisation are all vital to achieving this.

Efficiency, automation and progression

Businesses often only consider digital as being part of the consumer facing aspect of their operation. However, some of the most forward-thinking businesses of today rely on vastly improved internal systems as a result of digital transformation.

Internal business applications can dramatically increase efficiency, with the simplest example being the transition from traditional, often manual methods to digital solutions.

Automation, efficiency and modern communication systems mean employees can do their jobs better which in turn leads to improved employee satisfaction.

The adoption of a high-quality digital strategy for your business has so many positive implications from increased revenue and new sales opportunities to significant efficiency savings and a happier, more motivated workforce.

By partnering with experts, like Leighton, on digital software development projects and pushing your boundaries you can achieve great outcomes for your business.  

Share this post
Leighton logo
July 8, 2015
5 min read
All posts
Two Leighton colleagues stood in a hallway chatting. One is holding a laptop and a coffee mug, the other has her back to the camera.

Is your approach to digital strategy holding you back?

Developing a digital strategy is a crucial step for organisations looking to leverage technology and digital tools to achieve their business objectives.

A well-defined digital strategy helps align technology initiatives with overall business goals, enhances customer experiences, and ensures adaptability to the rapidly evolving digital landscape. But, once a business has made the decision to fully embrace digital technology to improve their offering, output and processes, how do they go about achieving that longterm goal?

Finding the right partner

Firstly, businesses need to establish how they are going to adopt a more digital centric approach. Some businesses manage this internally, but in many cases, they need to look externally to companies likeLeighton, to help them achieve their goals and thus begin the process of tendering for the right digital partner.

Onboarding a partner is usually a long process for both parties. There are often several layers including the submission of proposals and concepts, pitching and then additional rounds of interviews so that the client can be sure they select the right partner to achieve their objectives.

Once a decision has been made and a contract awarded, it is essential that a strong bond is established between the client and partner quickly, to build trust and to enable the partner to understand how the business operates and what makes it tick. Once this is in place the partner can successfully investigate exactly how to deliver the client’s long-term goals and aspirations.

Going beyond your technology comfort zone

Technology has played a part in business for a long time, as a tool to communicate, to assist operations and as a means to store data and information, but digital transformation is different.

Digital transformation is less about emails, PowerPoint and large server rooms and more about digital products - both internal and external - and how they can completely revolutionise your business. There are the four major areas where it can have a profound effect on your business:

Commercial value

In today’s digital world embracing technology and taking your business to customers in an online world can have a profound impact on your commercial performance. From impulse purchase decisions to the immediate global market access offered by the online world, digital technology can have a lasting impact on your commercial performance.

Customer service

Customer service in the traditional sense is all about how well you speak with your customer, how empathetic you are to their needs or how good the journey around your store is. Whilst at heart customer service now is actually no different to how it’s always been digital has enabled a shift in how customer service works in practice.

The digital age gives you the ability to provide the very best level of customer service, far surpassing what you could do in the past.

When customers visit your site, you should know who they are, what they’ve done with you in the past and what they like and dislike. We know much more about customers as individuals now than we have ever done and that information can be used effectively to improve their experience with you.

Brands now routinely connect with customers across multiple devices and platforms, meaning shared data and opportunities for outstanding customer service across all touch points.

Personalisation it is something customers now expect. They understand that their buying or browsing history is now being utilised for their benefit and convenience. To companies that data has great value as it allows for intelligent audience segmentation -to understand customers and their preferences more deeply - and therefore target campaigns more effectively as a consequence.

In addition, personalisation also allows the brand to take a more customer-centric approach, with the customer often valuing the ‘little touches’ personalisation can offer, such as remembering their favourite products.

Brand perception

This is one thing that is often overlooked, but every touch point an individual has with a brand affects their perception of it. If a brand isn’t moving with the times -simple mistakes like failing to have a mobile responsive website - then consumers quickly lose faith.

Of course, the key to this is working out how to effectively replicate your management of customers in both the positive and negative scenarios. Customers are individuals and as such what represents good service for one person might be completely different for someone else (which is where user personas really come into their own). Strong brand values, sensible customer service and online personalisation are all vital to achieving this.

Efficiency, automation and progression

Businesses often only consider digital as being part of the consumer facing aspect of their operation. However, some of the most forward-thinking businesses of today rely on vastly improved internal systems as a result of digital transformation.

Internal business applications can dramatically increase efficiency, with the simplest example being the transition from traditional, often manual methods to digital solutions.

Automation, efficiency and modern communication systems mean employees can do their jobs better which in turn leads to improved employee satisfaction.

The adoption of a high-quality digital strategy for your business has so many positive implications from increased revenue and new sales opportunities to significant efficiency savings and a happier, more motivated workforce.

By partnering with experts, like Leighton, on digital software development projects and pushing your boundaries you can achieve great outcomes for your business.  

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