3 Characteristics of Digitally Mature Companies

Julian Johns

Digitally mature companies win more customers. Not because winning customers is their focus, but because they operate in a manner that is attractive to the customer. For me, there are three easy steps to becoming a digitally mature company:

1. Use digital technologies to transform your customer experience. Ian Cox of the business leader summed this up when he said “An organisation is considered to be digitally mature if it uses sophisticated tools to drive performance and demonstrates an on-going commitment to technology, technology-led initiatives and digitally managed processes.”(LinkedIn Blog: Digital maturity starts at the top)
   
2. Digitally mature companies must quickly exploit the value of unstructured data, specifically new data that comes from Social Media, as the Gartner CIO Agenda 2015 confirmed
   
3. Lastly, focus monomaniacally on improving Service Levels, based on the insights from Social Media data.

Adopting a Social First strategy when delivering Customer Care, can move your business onto the fast-track to Digital maturity. You will need:

• A dedicated Social Customer Service platform – that transforms your customer experience & service over social media.
  
• A Social Command Centre – based on intelligent social insight, analysis, reporting and a live ‘in-the-moment’ feed from your dedicated social customer service platform.
  
• A commitment  to improve Service Levels based on this data. Invest knowing that your social customer channel needs the right technology to enable you to serve your social customers.

The need for your company to mature digitally is urgent and based on fact, not just opinion. Ian Cox, refers to The MIT Sloan Management Review and Capgemini Consulting (The Advantages of Digital Maturity; November 20, 2012, George Westerman, Didier Bonnet and Andrew McAfee / http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-advantages-of-digital-maturity/) which found that companies recognised as digital leaders generated:

• 9% more revenue
  
• 26% more profit than their industry average
  
• and achieve a 12% higher market valuation

Your company might already be delivering customer care but using traditional channels and technologies. With a Social First strategy you can modernize and deliver a new level of service to your current and future digitally savvy and socially active customers.

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