Consumers and clients alike are looking for companies that provide great customer experiences, comprehensive security, and efficient use of their data —they want companies that are digitally mature.
To learn what makes an organization digitally mature, we surveyed 2,000 U.S. workers as part of our 2022 State of Digital Maturity: Advancing Workflow Automation report. From the results, we discovered not only the software practices, processes, and team alignments that contribute to digital maturity, but how far organizations have progressed in their digital maturity. More surprising, we found that those who have reached digital maturity reap many unforeseen benefits, several of which we outline below.
Improved Customer Satisfaction
Being digitally mature means making your customers’ time and needs a priority. It involves analyzing every touch point and interaction on your customer journey to ensure it’s as easy and on-demand as possible. And when done right, it’s not hard. In fact, 80% of digitally mature organizations don’t find it very challenging to meet customer needs because they’re equipped to anticipate and adapt solutions as new situations and opportunities arise.
By implementing workflow automations, ending data silos, and making better use of the data you have, digitally mature organizations are able to quickly meet—and exceed—customer needs. No more making customers, clients, or patients fill out the same forms over and over again. No more making them print, sign, scan, and email back documents.
Overall, implementing workflow automation tools and processes results in clients who feel valued, are able to interact with you on their schedule, and who are more likely to recommend you or work with you again in the future.
Listen Now: Discover CX strategies that deliver higher ROI, improve employee retention, and minimize customer churn by listening to the Future of Work podcast episode Staying Ahead of Customer Expectations.
Increased Time Savings
It’s important not only to save time for your customers, but also for your employees. 80% of digitally mature companies track which manual processes need to be automated—like paperwork.
When asked about their least favorite work task, over 300 respondents noted paper or paperwork. Far too often employees have to spend time deciphering and manually entering information someone else already wrote down. This is a giant time suck that often slows down forward progress, creates data silos, and opens the door for error-prone data to make it into your systems.
Not to mention 50% of respondents at companies with limited digital maturity report spending two or more hours each day on inefficient tasks. That’s time they could be finding more leads, closing more accounts, serving more clients or patients, or improving your customer experience.
For a company where 100 employees each spend 2 hours a day on inefficient tasks, that adds up to 52,000 wasted hours a year. Imagine what else could get done with all those extra hours. By adding workflow automation to become digitally mature, you won’t have to imagine. Instead, you’ll see employees doing their jobs better, meeting their goals faster, and positively impacting your bottom line.
Better Sustainability
The more digitally mature your organization is, the more cost efficient it is likely to be because employees are freed up to spend time on essential, profit-producing tasks. And the more cost efficient you are, the more likely you are to be both profitable and still in business in the future.
For an organization of 100 people making the annual average wage in the U.S., each employee wasting just two hours a day results in a yearly loss of $1.3 million. That’s a bottom line hit that can be avoided with continued technology improvements—like automated workflows. And that’s why 79% of digitally mature companies have completely automated their workflows and 100% look for ways to improve workflows.
But the sustainability benefits don’t just pertain to business longevity; they also impact environmental issues, like going paperless. 36% of those surveyed said paper makes them less efficient and less productive. Paperwork consistently came up in answers as a major frustration for workers because paper-based processes make their work cumbersome, repetitive, and error-prone.
More than two-thirds of organizations in our survey have an initiative to eliminate paper, with 86% of respondents saying they prefer digital forms to paper ones. With so many employees and customers clamoring for digital forms, documents, and processes, it’s surprising more organizations haven’t abandoned paper in favor of more environmentally friendly solutions.
Learn more about Formstack Forest’s initiative to plant 15,000 trees in 2022.
Expanded Employee Empowerment
To reach optimal digital maturity, your organization must embrace change and create a culture that empowers employees to innovate and move beyond the way things have always been done.
72% of employees think inefficient processes impact their job. They end up devoting time to mindless, repetitive tasks instead of more strategic and impactful work. And when organizations lack investment in digitization and automation, employees report higher levels of frustration.
To address this, digitally mature companies use technology to eliminate repetitive tasks. 89% of them track which systems require the most time from employees in order to implement more efficient solutions. Not only does this help employees become more productive and satisfied, but it increases their feelings of autonomy, innovation, and collaboration. As a result, turnover rates decrease while company morale increases.
Elevated Futures
By creating an environment where new technologies are welcomed and embraced, you’re positioning yourself as a forward-thinking organization who wants their employees to do meaningful work—not busy work. You’re starting down a path to digital maturity that ends with happier employees, more efficient processes, and better customer experiences.
Ready to see how your digital maturity stacks up to others? Read our 2022 State of Digital Maturity: Advancing Workflow Automation report now.
