The digital economy is the application of information technology onto the market or consumer services. The accessibility of the digital economy allows customers to connect to businesses from anywhere in the world. The digital economy allows consumers to make the right decisions based on their needs by easily accessing necessary information about the product or assistance directly from customer service channels provided by the digital platform. For existing businesses, it is important to always be improving and producing new products to keep up with consumer expectations while always finding new ways to attract other groups of customers; becoming “both consuming and more consumable”. The business needs to always assure the best quality service for its consumers and always satisfy their every concern. This blog will discuss proposals to improve existing business competition in a digital setting.
Important Qualities of Continuously Successful Business
- The business approach is centralized around the targeted consumers.
- Traditional functions of the business with customer service and efficient direct purchasing.
- Taking collected data from customers, reflecting, and improving products and marketing strategies
- Straight-through processing through the simplicity of products
Method #1: Engaging in Customer Interaction
It is important to have not just individuals working in the sales department of a business communicate with customers but also remove existing barriers between developers of business software and the customers to create a closer connection between the two groups. Workers in the company need to understand the intentions and purposes the software serves while learning from the customer's advice to deliver better experiences. By being customer-centric, businesses are able to focus on their primary target, the customers that help them gain profit. This includes adapting new features to meet consumer needs and efficiency. Thus, it is important to always have a builder’s mindset and think from the perspective of the customer, to improve their experience in an effort for the business to essentially thrive.
Method #2: Crossing Industry Boundaries and Enhance Existing Products
While it is great for starting companies to consider setting a target group, existing companies are unable to grow once the requirement to attain engagement from the said group is complete. In an effort to continuously grow business influence, it is possible to integrate similar products and services into solutions crossing into other industries. A product is not limited to just one function, it should be able to adapt for efficiency in ways more than one. It is important to have a company mindset to think outside of the box. For example, companies may consider expanding their service limits to similar fields based on existing business motives. A company selling transportation products such as elevators may expand into health care, hotels, malls, and other fields that may benefit from similar products. Similarly, it is possible for clothing companies to produce similar products that may attract consumers not intended for the initial purpose of the company but may grow a developing interest through the growing reliability of the company.
Method #3: Engaging in Cross-Company Collaboration
Competition between companies in similar fields is a great way to push both businesses to think of improved innovations to gain a better advantage over competitors. In a similar way, when companies collaborate to create new products, both companies are able to appeal to audiences from partnering companies to expand the potential limits of exposure. Companies working together are pressured to think of new and innovative methods to not only satisfy the other party but also be able to appeal to loyal customers with something completely different. In addition, when collaborating with companies from other fields, the business is intentionally spreading the influence of a certain technology through a different field to attract another range of customers.
Method #4: Making Fast and Bold Business Decisions
With technology constantly changing and improving, businesses need to make sure they keep up with the change. To do so, speed is essential. Successful businesses that rise above others in the digital community operate at a faster pace and are constantly updating their strategies and resources to always improve their momentum. While making smart and quick choices, they are willing to step out of their comfort zone, to reinvent themselves through something new. This will help them gain a better advantage over competitors as consumers are likely attracted to newer and more unique innovations. There are too many similar companies in the same industry serving the same goals and purpose. In order to stand out, the business would need to think of something new and inventive to grasp the attention for themselves.
Method #5: Relying on Data-Driven Decisions
Modern technology is helping to easily collect any necessary data without any human error. As a result, a lot of data can be collected and manipulated for businesses to focus on the trends and problems without much effort. Being able to reflect on data allows for better and faster decisions. Business owners are capable of using the data to make necessary decisions and changes that would help benefit the company. Looking at the flaws and always finding ways to improve the company is the best way to improve the reliability of the business. Businesses with higher performance are more reliant on data and analytics to decide on their next moves, proving the effectiveness of this method.
Sources
https://www.santander.com/en/stories/digital-economy
https://hbr.org/2021/01/in-the-digital-economy-your-software-is-your-competitive-advantage
https://hbr.org/2016/03/the-4-things-it-takes-to-succeed-in-the-digital-economy
