What’s the point of digital technology?

By Leon Calverley, founder and director at Door4

In 1994, the New York Times reported that the first encrypted internet credit card payment of $12.48 had been made.

The NYT explained how secure transactions were necessary to allow people to buy stuff online. The newspaper also obligingly explained, for the layperson, what the internet was. (Coincidentally, this was the year I first used the web. It was a different place back then!)

Fast forward to 2018: the rate of e-commerce growth has slowed but is persistent. Online retail sales in the UK have doubled in the last five years to around £66bn. What happened to boost them? Well, responsive web design and m-commerce have enabled consistent shopping experiences across devices large and small. It’s easier than ever for customers to buy online, undoubtedly more fun and certainly more convenient, with delivery options and flexibility improving every day.

The above is a useful example, although digital technology isn’t exclusively about selling. Its purpose is to make things easier, efficient, accurate … in other words, to improve processes and deliver better outcomes.

Applied to e-commerce, your technology should make it easy and enjoyable for customers to spend money with you. The tools you provide for your teams should enable them to do their jobs to their best abilities, and then some. For the public sector, it should help you save money and improve engagement with citizens.

By its nature, this evolution is about getting to the future faster. It’s about growth and achievement through digital transformation.

Is business doing it properly? Not always. Discovery and research are often overlooked so projects are led by opinion and whim rather than data and empirical insight. Businesses can be distracted by the shiny must-haves sported by their competitors, resulting in a technology solution that’s just not fit for them. Digital projects can flounder, languish unfinished or under-developed and under-used, a permanent reminder of wasted investment.

How can we use digital technology better? We need to fully appreciate how our audience behaviour and expectations have shaped our digital environment - and will continue to do so. People no longer rely on web browsers as their sole source of information - they’ll ask Alexa or tap a quick query to a chatbot.  

We have to follow where they go, whether they are on social media, Google Maps, live chat on our website, on the high street or in our reception area. They expect a smooth, seamless, uninterrupted service, however they want to deal with us. This is the world of omnichannel. And it’s always on. So, the point is, if your digital technology hasn’t made improvements to your business, that’s because it hasn’t made improvements for your customers. Here is the lesson: build services, not websites. Advancement isn’t based on digital technology, it’s built on people.