Since the internet arrived in our lives, a number of changes have been taking place in our personal, social and professional behavior that we weren’t really ready for.
Society has been gradually creating a series of changes that have led to the abrupt and irreversible transformation of business models.
These days, it is no longer change in itself that is important, but rather the speed of change.
This affects everyone, Self-employed, SMEs, Large Companies, etc.
Technology is evolving so quickly and in such a way that organizations accustomed to being prepared to accept progressive change often find themselves overwhelmed and some even collapse, which poses the dilemma of whether to abandon the old business model for the new one and raises the following questions: “Are we prepared for this?”, “If our business model changes, shouldn’t our organization change as well?”
In the face of these issues there is only one change left – to open the minds of the directors of companies, small or large, along with a good dose of humility to learn from the changes and an entrepreneurial spirit because, in many cases, it will be necessary to consider starting practically from scratch.
Therefore, what we have come to know as the Digital Transformation should not be understood as a goal in itself, but rather as a strategy to give added value to our organizations and enhanced productivity to operations, using the technology and digital tools available.
These tools are bringing about the disintermediation of industries, placing the consumer, whatever the sector, in the center of the product experience, since it is the consumer who has the power to speak out and be heard 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, anywhere in the world.
Not all sectors/industries have the same capacity for disintermediation, but they all have a part that we cannot overlook, which forces us to be increasingly transparent and make decisions taking into account our business and the available technology.
We need to move from a “Customer Focus” strategy to a Customer Centric” approach.
What is the difference?
We all want to sell our product/service, this is the objective of our organization, and to do so we must attract customers.
Customer Focus companies always seek to cover the needs of their target public. To achieve this, they spend a lot of money on attracting new customers, but not so much on building up loyalty.
Customer Centric companies listen to the customer and try to build loyalty, giving as much or more value to existing customers as to new ones (who hasn’t seen advertising from their banks or telephone companies with special offers for new customers that are not available to us because we have been loyal to them over the years? That is exactly what Customer Centric companies do not do).
The important thing is to listen, listen and listen, to build the loyalty of our existing customers and to let them, with their opinion, bring in new customers. If they see the employees, who are the brand’s best influencers, speak well of the company and believe in what they “sell”, it will be easier in turn for them to recommend us.
While all of this may be easy to understand, it may not be so easy to put into practice. That goes without question.
We find internal (in ourselves as business entrepreneurs and/or managers) resistance to change.
Profound changes must be made in regard to organization, processes and even the distribution of the company’s physical space, continually questioning ourselves whether what we are doing is right or wrong, in which case we must accept failure and start over again.
Everyone must embark upon a path to the future ahead of time, because when change comes to our sector it will give no warning and by the time we realize it, it may be too late. If we do this, we will be prepared for what’s coming, regardless of whether our product is artisanal or not, or is sold locally or internationally.
And when the time comes, as we mentioned earlier, it will only require from us a little open-mindedness to want to make the changes and being humble enough to recognize that we may also need help to do so. If we have the first thing, we can find the second in the market – there are a lot of very good professionals out there to help us.
