Digital Transformation: Finding Joy in Continuous Change

Digital transformation – the phrase on the tip of every tongue.

It is a term to describe the massive shift in business activities caused by adopting digital technologies. A popular buzzword since 2014, the phrase “digital transformation” itself is confusing. Let us start by clearing misinformation.

Digital transformation is more easily understood as a passive phenomenon. It happens around you every day. As such, the goal of most businesses is not to digitally transform, per se, because that would suggest a single process with a beginning and end. Instead, digital transformation is occurring everywhere constantly, and businesses must make small and continuous changes in order to survive.

Are you with me so far?

Agility Required

Most industries were founded at a time when technology was welcomed slowly and methodically. A company’s business model and core processes remained largely intact, even as technology colored them in new shades.

This is no longer true. We are now faced with the massive challenge of continuous adaptation. Customers expect constant innovation; new hires demand it from employers; and competitors surprise us with it. Technology still inspires us. Yet it also makes us feel behind the times, always.

Business leaders see the need to create systems that are equipped to handle quick change. So naturally, we make plans to respond to the need for agility. Real world problems hit immediately:

• Employees refuse to accept change
• Financial teams balk at the risks
• Customers provide conflicting evidence of digital needs

Many companies waste time and money, simply trying to adapt technologies aimed to increase ease and efficiency! Does this sound familiar?

Focus on Customer Happiness

If you face challenges from every cubicle, Upright can help you to focus. We are experts in change management and we were built on that premise. Upright founder Greg Frye’s print advertising clients needed websites, so in 1996 he gathered a fresh team to launch the first generation online.

From our 20 years of experience, the best way to manage change is by focusing on customer needs first. When customers are happy, the rest falls into place.

Here are three key steps to success:

• Create a digital experience that converts leads into customers. We help you to identify the channels that your customers already use every day (ie. Google, Facebook, industry news outlets) and how to most effectively convert leads within those channels. In other words, Upright helps you to both maximize your audience size, and to improve your close rate.
• Use your website and digital properties more dynamically. Your website can solve internal efficiency problems, run a survey, even house password protected content. It can service prospects and customers in unique ways. It can drive your expansion into new markets. And it can produce shareable content like eBooks and video.

• Improve how customers interact digitally with your business, step by step. Have you ever visually mapped your customer interaction, to see how technology can improve it? Technology is designed to save your team time and improve customer experience simultaneously. An automated email or a personalized coupon…might, well…make someone happy too.

Digital transformation is changing everything — how we view a company as its customer; how we view customers as a supplier; and even how we view each other, as mere humans in this tech-driven world!  It can be overwhelming.

Resist the temptation to equate continuous change with life on a hamster wheel. Re-frame change as momentum. And focus on making customers happy each new day.

You are now in the business of producing happiness through technology. And it all starts with you finding joy in continuous change.