Adapting to Market Changes

For many companies, speed and agility have been critical components of running a successful business for years. The faster you can adapt, the better you’ll be able to adapt to the needs of your changing audience. However, many experts predict that the rapid digital transformation of the world and the changes brought about by the pandemic will make 2022 the year of agility.

If the last few years have proven anything, it’s that the needs of your business and your target audience can change almost overnight. When that happens, today’s customers expect businesses to be able to respond immediately to their new expectations.

So how can you make sure you respond quickly enough?

Step 1: Pay Attention

The first step to ensuring you can respond to market changes is to make sure you know what matters most to your audience at any given time. Using tools that allow you to listen and respond to your target market will be critical in 2022 and beyond.

Start by evaluating your market on a regular basis. Pay attention to the trends that appear on Google Trends when you research your industry and the ideas your competitors are discussing. You can also keep up with the latest industry news, listen to podcasts and reports from leading publications, and attend seminars, events, and workshops relevant to your industry.

The more you know about your target audience and industry, the faster you can pinpoint areas where your business could improve and evolve.

How Can Telecom Companies Prepare for Transformation?

Step 2: Build Strong Digital Foundations

For years, digital transformation has been a major issue for companies of all sizes. Increasingly, we have learned that we need a strong digital presence to stay ahead of the curve and ahead of the competition. That means looking for ways to “digitize” your operations whenever and wherever possible. Start by looking at your data and communications landscape.

Most data storage solutions, communications tools, and collaboration systems are now in the cloud. If you have not made that transition yet, now is the time to do so. By moving these environments to the cloud, you can ensure that you can adapt to unexpected events and essentially future-proof your business.

The more you can digitize your business, the less you have to rely on static, outdated solutions that can easily become obsolete and inefficient. The cloud also gives you the flexibility to adapt more quickly to the changing needs of your customers. Setting up a new way to serve customers is much easier in a cloud-based contact center than in a traditional call center.

Step 3: Create a Hybrid Environment

Speaking of futureproofing, ask yourself precisely what tools your employees need to be able to access when they cannot be in the office, and move those solutions to the cloud, too. Since the pandemic, 73% of employees believe they want to continue working with hybrid and flexible work methods in the future.

Adopting hybrid work solutions gives you the opportunity to achieve a more productive and efficient workforce thanks to a better work-life balance. Hybrid working has other benefits as well. It reduces the overhead costs associated with running a standard business environment and ensures you can keep your business running even when the office environment is unavailable.

With a hybrid workplace, your employees can work effectively from anywhere and stay productive no matter what changes in your business. You can even use a hybrid workplace to improve your chances of attracting future key talent, as flexible work environments are often more attractive to top talent.

Step 4: Audit your Existing Workflows

To become an agile and fast-moving business in today’s competitive world, brands need to know where their current bottlenecks are. There may be certain aspects of your current business operations that are holding your team back or preventing innovation. By pinpointing these issues now, you can implement solutions that could open the door for better growth in the future.

For example, you may find that you are not performing well in customer satisfaction because your customers are not getting their questions answered quickly enough. If this is the case, you can look for ways to improve the speed of resolution for your employees. One option would be to introduce self-service tools and bots to help your customers resolve their issues themselves if you find that the same questions keep coming to your service desk.

Another option would be to hire more employees who can work remotely to support your existing team during times of high demand. The only way to determine where to start with agile changes is to do an initial assessment of your existing workplace.

Step 5: Embrace Automation

To become a more agile, flexible company, you need to know what tools you can use to improve your business processes. Intelligent automation technologies are among the most powerful business transformation tools today, increasing organizational agility and opening up new opportunities for business outcomes.

For example, automation in a hybrid workplace allows you to automatically route customers who call your cloud contact center to the right agent, based on the customer’s needs and the agent’s experience. Automation can also help you serve a broader range of customers in a more effective way. For example, tools like the Cempresso platform can automatically guide agents through the process of resolving a customer issue or provide self-service options for customers who want to troubleshoot and resolve issues themselves.

With automation, you can create entire workflows that help your agents work more effectively and generate automated reports with AI enhancements that help you find opportunities for innovation and growth. Intelligent automation systems can help you manage digital transformation quickly so you are prepared for new trends as they emerge.

Step 6: Find the Right Support

Digital transformation is currently taking place on a large scale in every business landscape. However, every company is approaching this process from a different angle. For some companies, the only way to stay ahead of the curve and move fast enough in the modern world is to adopt new forms of artificial intelligence, virtual assistants, and bots.

For others, the path to staying competitive may begin with an evaluation of new mobility and connectivity options like 5G. Being “fast enough” in today’s changing ecosystem does not always mean moving at the same pace or in the same direction as your competitors. Fortunately, the right partners and support companies can help you plan your next steps.

Working with the right company can help your team make better, more valuable business decisions. For example, you can work with a service provider to implement analytics tools that will give you the critical business intelligence insights you need when it comes to deciding what type of technology to invest in next.

Your partner can also help you implement the tools that matter most to your business, such as zero-touch provisioning systems or automated troubleshooting services.

Stay Agile, and Stay Ahead of the Competition

Speed will continue to be an important factor in the success of many businesses as we enter a new era of digital transformation. Companies need to ensure they are agile enough to keep up with the competition. However, that does not necessarily mean rushing into business decisions without making the appropriate plans.

At Bulb Tech, we can help you plan your digital transformation strategy based on your unique needs and the expectations of your target audience. Contact us today to find out how we can help you move as fast as, if not faster than, your competition.