Nearly two thirds of senior execs believe that evolving customer preferences as the primary driver of their digital transformation efforts, according to a study released today by Usabilla, the global “Voice of Customer (VoC) technology provider”.
In its “Digital Transformation: Age of The Digital Customer” report, Usabilla found that while many brands are still immature when it comes to executing on digital experience strategies, they understand the importance of delivering next-generation to drive business growth and remain competitive.
Beyond evolving customer preferences, over half of the senior leaders reported threats from increased competition (58 per cent) and a decline in business performance (51 per cent) as top reasons for pursuing digital transformation.
The report uncovered some common challenges facing senior leaders and decision-makers looking to improve their organisation’s current digital experience programs. When asked about common points of frustration, 78 percent of senior leaders overall cited a lack of cross-departmental collaboration for digital experience programs as their number one pain point, while 54 percent pointed to incompatible current organisational structure and 50 percent blamed limited budget and resources.
“Customer expectations are evolving as customers increasingly shift their activities online”, said Katie Hickey, marketing manager at Usabilla. “To keep up, organisations must prioritise their digital transformation strategies to improve the overall customer experience and support broader sales and marketing initiatives, such as increasing revenue and reducing churn.”
Overall, 82 percent of respondents agreed that if improving digital experience programs were an executive priority in 2019, it would advance the digital maturity of their organisation. When compared across industries and company size, however, the report revealed some critical differences in confidence in regards to digital maturity:
- 63 percent of respondents who answered “not at all confident” in the digital maturity of their organisation worked within companies that had over 5,000 employees.
- Travel and hospitality brands were the most confident in their digital maturity, with 54 percent of respondents in this industry expressing confidence.
- Banking, financial services and insurance institutions were the least confident in their digital maturity, with 60 percent of respondents in this industry expressing a lack of confidence.
