The Emotional Side of Digital Transformation: Why Success Starts with Recognition

Digital transformation, the idea of transforming your business from the inside out through new technology, is one of the most talked-about and exciting ideas in business today. This first guide in a series on digital transformation will cover one of the most overlooked aspects of digital transformation: the emotional side of the process. Keep reading to learn how to recognise and harness the emotional aspect of digital transformation so that you can successfully transform your organisation from top to bottom, inside out, and outside in—and stay on track every step of the way. However, if you’re not careful, it can also be one of the most overwhelming topics you come across as well. The reason? Digital transformation isn’t just about information technology or increasing sales; it’s about creating an entirely new organisation that will thrive and succeed in the future. That’s a lot to chew on!

Customer-Centricity requires recognition

The central theme in Digital Transformation: A New Roadmap for Success is that every business should adopt a customer-centric culture, as defined by Harte Hanks. That means companies must constantly reassess their goals and objectives to align them with their customers’ ever-changing needs. As a company develops its strategy to win over new customers and retain existing ones, employees must remain aware of their emotional connection to digital transformation. If they don’t recognise how it impacts their personal lives, they won’t be able to accurately assess what drives customers. This realisation leads us to our first guiding principle: recognising how your own emotions affect your perception of digital transformation. It’s not easy, but understanding how you feel about changes in technology can help you better empathise with your customers. When you develop an intimate understanding of both yourself and your target audience, you’ll find it easier to communicate a clear value proposition that speaks directly to people’s concerns. Customers need validation before they trust a company enough to buy into its vision for future growth—so keep an eye on your emotional state when strategising about digital transformation initiatives. What does success look like? How will you measure it? How will you know if it’s working or not? These are questions everyone at your organisation should be asking themselves regularly. And once you have answers, make sure those around you do too. Creating a culture where there’s constant communication and collaboration among teams is crucial to making sure everyone understands how their role fits into your overall business model. By getting everyone on board from day one, you increase your chances of achieving long-term growth through effective digital transformation strategies.

Recognising every touchpoint as an opportunity

It’s no longer good enough to be known for your product or service—consumers expect more, and brands need to provide it. That’s where emotional intelligence (EQ) comes in. By recognising every touchpoint as an opportunity, you can create meaningful experiences that benefit your brand and exceed your customers’ expectations. This is true whether you’re selling a physical product or a digital one. Take a look at these four ways EQ is essential to successful digital transformation. 1. A human voice 2. Caring about how people feel 3. Showing emotion. 4. Taking responsibility. 5. Competence 6. Fairness 7. Loyalty

Digital Transformation Isn’t Just About Tech Either: According to Global Web Index, 69% of consumers believe personalisation has a positive impact on their purchasing decisions – yet only 39% say they get personalisation from companies they deal with on regular basis. Clearly, there’s room for improvement! In order to close that gap, you need to understand what your customers want and give it to them. The good news is that digital transformation isn’t just about technology; it also requires a cultural shift in how people interact with each other and process information. You can make these changes by putting these ten guiding principles into action. 1. Be empathetic 2. Be transparent 3. Be honest 4. Be inclusive 5. Listen 6. Make change happen 7. Drive alignment 8. Deliver results 9. Use data 10. Learn continuously.?

Creating a narrative around digital transformation

The customer-centric narrative defines what digital transformation means and why it’s important for your business. A customer-centric narrative also helps you create a strong sense of purpose around digital transformation; all employees need to understand that they are part of a shared and lofty goal. If you want to succeed, there must be an emotional element behind digital transformation—the importance of its success should go beyond just creating new ways to make money or improving efficiency. You must help people see how their work is helping others and making them better at their jobs. Without a strong sense of purpose, no amount of data will convince employees to adopt new technologies or processes. Data-Informed Culture: Data is crucial to digital transformation. But if you don’t have a culture that values data and information, then it won’t be used in meaningful ways. Instead, companies end up relying on gut instinct when decisions are made—which can lead to wasted time and resources. Data should flow freely throughout your organisation so everyone has access to relevant information when needed. This requires not only hiring people who value data but also training those who aren’t as familiar with using it effectively. Up-Skilling Talent: No matter where you are in your journey toward digital transformation, you need talent that understands technology and can use it effectively. This may require training existing staff members or hiring workers who already have experience working within a digital environment. It might even mean outsourcing some of your IT needs to keep pace with competitors who already have skilled tech workers on staff.

A data-driven approach will lead to better results.

When it comes to applying data and digital tools to business problems, there’s one factor that matters above all else—the people on your team. Data doesn’t matter if your data isn’t correct or valuable in some way. And it won’t be unless you have a culture where all employees take ownership of their own performance and understand how they can contribute to making your business more successful. At its core, digital transformation is about changing your company from within. It’s about creating an environment where everyone is empowered to make smart decisions for themselves and for their customers. The best results will come when everyone understands data and how it applies to them as individuals (and as part of a larger team). With that understanding, each employee can make better decisions based on facts rather than intuition alone. In turn, these smarter decisions will create positive changes in everything from customer satisfaction scores to revenue generation. For example, imagine you work at a retail store and are tasked with improving sales by 10 percent over three months. You might notice high numbers of customers leaving without purchasing anything. So instead of sending out flyers offering 20 percent off certain items, which may not even apply to those who left without buying anything, you could send out targeted promotions via email encouraging customers to buy specific products that would appeal to those who left without spending money. This type of promotion, which includes specific details such as what type of product to purchase and when it expires, is called micro-segmentation. By using data to inform your decision-making process, you’re able to reach customers who need help while also reducing costs associated with printing materials and postage. This type of personalised approach builds loyalty among existing customers while also increasing brand awareness among potential new ones.

Developing qualified talent for emerging technologies

When it comes to developing talent, modern organisations need to make investments in areas such as customer experience, artificial intelligence and analytics. If you’re in a position where you’re hiring for digital transformation teams, then ensuring that people have a basic level of knowledge about emerging technologies is important. For example, if your organisation is planning on using AI or machine learning technology to drive sales growth, then your team should know what these terms mean and be able to explain how they work. Knowledgeable employees are more likely to develop innovative solutions and drive value from emerging technologies. It also allows them to better communicate with clients who may have questions about new products and services. The same goes for any other technical jargon used by your company; making sure that everyone understands it is crucial. By investing in up-skilling staff members, you can ensure that their productivity remains high and engagement remains positive. That’s especially true when staff members are actively involved in decision-making processes. And one final reason why it pays to invest in up-skilling? Because there’s no guarantee that even the most promising young talent will stay at your company forever. Upgrading skillsets ensures that you retain talent and makes it easier to attract top candidates from outside your organisation.

Proactive governance & compliance to safeguard ethics

When embarking on digital transformation, ensure that your company has a positive and ethical culture. One in five people surveyed by Infosys was not at all confident about their company’s commitment to ethics and compliance. To build trust, establish an ethical foundation that consistently adheres to key principles, including accountability, transparency and integrity. Embark on digital transformation with a long-term mindset: Evolving your business over time is as critical as getting it right in terms of strategy. A successful enterprise will be one that constantly learns from its customers and adapts to meet their needs. This requires companies to evolve processes, technology platforms, and even organisational structures for agility and flexibility. For example, organisations can outsource certain activities such as HR or IT services or implement more agile practices such as DevOps for quicker delivery of value. An organisation must also be ready for change by empowering employees across functions to take ownership of innovation projects—and giving them freedom from bureaucracy so they can experiment freely without fear of failure. Adopt a learn-by-doing approach: Digital leaders recognise that failing fast is part of success; they don’t shy away from making mistakes but instead look at each failure as an opportunity to learn and improve.

Focus on ecosystem collaboration from the outside-in

Without a focus on customer-centricity, your digital transformation is bound to fail. But what does "customer-centricity" really mean? At first glance, it appears to be all about listening to your customers and reacting to their needs—an approach that may seem difficult for large companies accustomed to keeping tight control over everything they do. After all, how can an enterprise possibly make everything customer-centric? It’s simply not possible to have every person in every department thinking like a customer. It’s also important to note that being truly customer-centric means more than just having happy customers; it means identifying new opportunities based on what you learn from them. Customer-centricity isn’t just about making money; it’s also about creating value for others and expanding your business into new areas. It’s not enough to listen; you must also act on what you hear. To succeed at customer-centricity, organisations need to adopt a mindset that allows them to embrace change and accept feedback as part of their daily operations. With such a mindset, teams will be able to collaborate across departments and keep an open mind when faced with criticism or negative feedback. In addition, leaders must set clear expectations around customer-centric culture and reward employees who follow through on those expectations. For example, if you want your company to be collaborative but don’t give employees time to work together regularly, you won’t see much progress toward becoming a collaborative organisation. As with any cultural shift, you should start by encouraging collaboration among small groups of people working on projects that are already inherently collaborative. The easiest way to encourage collaboration is by setting up regular meetings where team members can talk freely without fear of reprimand. It’s also helpful to provide some training so team members understand why collaboration is important and how they can use it to solve problems faster. Over time, these small steps will help your entire organisation move toward a more collaborative environment.

Conclusions

Leaders must recognise that digital transformation is not a sprint, but a marathon. It takes time to build trust and win over customers’ confidence in your new brand. However, once you have made it through all seven stages, you will achieve your goal of building a high-performing organisation that can fully harness its digital potential. In conclusion, leaders should be mindful of their employees and stakeholders during every stage. If they do so, they are sure to find success!