If you hadn’t already embarked on your journey of digital transformation before 2020, the events of this year would almost certainly have pushed you in that direction.
But interestingly, it’s not a change being pushed out by organizations rejigging their business models; it’s change being driven by the customer as they seek improved experiences like never before. Today’s consumer is a discerning one, expecting relevant content to be delivered at any given time in context to their action, across devices and formats. Keeping pace with this always on customer mindset means businesses must embrace a broad set of philosophies, tools, and techniques to deliver customer experiences in keeping with the demands of the day. We’ve already seen and heard from some companies reaping the rewards of putting the customer first, and it’s no surprise to see many more organizations doing likewise.
According to research from IDC, two-thirds of the CEO’s of Global 2,000 companies will shift their focus from traditional, offline strategies to more modern digital strategies to improve the customer experience before the end of the year – with 34% of companies believing they’ll fully adopt digital transformation within 12 months or less.
What that means is an increase in net global spending on digital transformation, which is expected to surge to more than $2 trillion by 2022, or double that of 2018 levels. IDC’s report bears this out, as 79% of companies polled hinted that rather than putting the brakes on, COVID-19 was a catalyst that saw them increase their digital transformation spends.
The roads ahead is a long one though; Progress’ State of Digital Business Report revealed that 47% of companies haven’t started their digital transformation yet – while 59% are worried that it might already be too late for them. The same study found that 55% of businesses believe they have less than a year before they start to suffer financially and lose market share.
Delivering an improved customer experience has to be every organization’s top priority, and as Adobe highlights, it’s still not too late to hit one out of the park. All one needs is a solid foundation to achieve this experiential-centric success.
