How to Tell If You’re Just Dabbling with Digital

Digital transformation is hot — in a new Altimeter Report, “The State of Digital Transformation,” we found that 88% of organizations we surveyed said that they were undergoing a formal digital transformation effort, which Altimeter defines as “the re-alignment of, or new investment in, technology and business models to more effectively engage digital consumers at every touchpoint in the customer experience lifecycle.”

But the research found that only 25% had mapped out the customer journey, while another 12% were in the process of a mapping effort and were awaiting results. What was striking was that 42% of respondents said that while they were not officially researching the digital customer journey, they had made efforts to update those digital touch points with new social and mobile investments and initiatives.

This means that while many organizations believe they are making progress to be more focused on the digital customer, I fear they are merely dabbling in their efforts and not truly undergoing a transformation. One organization I worked with had very advanced social and mobile initiatives and applications — but these two teams operated in silos (marketing and digital, respectively), rarely interacted or coordinated, and competed frequently for limited resources — both investments and people. Without a common understanding of the customer journey and alignment on how the organization would develop digital touch points, such conflict and inconsistency is inevitable.

One other statistic serves as evidence that organizations aren’t truly undergoing transformation — 59% of respondents felt that one of the biggest challenges to digital transformation was “thinking beyond a ‘campaign mentality’ in digital strategy efforts.” If you are jumping from campaign to campaign, your customers will feel it — you aren’t trying to develop a relationship with them, you just want to sell more stuff to them.

There are three ways you can use the data from the report to benchmark your digital transformation efforts — and demonstrate to your organization the need to reconsider whether you are truly transforming or just moving chairs on the deck of a ship that’s adrift in the digital seas.

1. Have you mapped the digital journey of your customers? With data? Until you have this in place, you can’t really align your organization around the journey.
2. Does your leadership have a plan to address cultural issues that arise with digital transformation? True transformation is hard, painful, and challenges the status quo of organizations. Our research found that people are at the core of the transformation, not technology. Do you have a digital Center of Excellence that coordinates all of your digital efforts (social, mobile, digital marketing, etc.) and also an executive committee in place that has governance in place to identify and resolve these inevitable conflicts? You’ll need these structures in place to guide the organization through these tumultuous waters.
3. How widespread is digital engagement amongst employees? A surefire way to tell where you are in your transformation journey is how many employees are able to engage with customers. Is it just a few select people in marketing, communications, and customer service? Or are all employees trained and empowered to engage? That second option requires a clear understanding of how widespread employee engagement with customers is beneficial to both the customer and the organization. It also requires guidelines, training, and ongoing monitoring and education — as well as a change in mindset from authoritarian, hierarchical control to a more open leadership style and approach.

If you don’t have satisfactory answers to the three questions above, then you have to ask yourself if your organization is truly committed to digital transformation or if it’s merely waving the flag. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of advance with a social presence or mobile application — dig deeper and honestly ask yourself if the organization is transforming or just dabbling. If the first step to change is awareness, then it’s time to make sure that you understand where you stand.

Want to learn more? Join Brian Solis, the author of the report, for a webinar on the report findings on September 17, 2014.

Below is a preview of the report. The full report is available for free download as well.