An inconvenient truth: AU businesses struggle to deliver digital services

Australian businesses that fail to digitise are inconveniencing their customers, according to new research from DocuSign.

As a result, they're risking significant damage to their brand reputation, lead generation and customer loyalty – all of which will ultimately lead to loss of revenue.

The eSignature and Digital Transaction Management (DTM) organisation released the report, entitled 'Digitise or die: Australia's digital expectations', today, which found that 80% of Australian consumers view a company as outdated or worse, an inconvenience if they don't offer digital ways of doing business.

Almost three-quarters (72%) of individuals reported that they have experienced problems in completing a transaction during the last 12 months due to paper and manual processes being in place instead of digital processes.

"A customer-centric mindset today isn't just about being close to the customer, it's about fitting in with their lifestyles and serving them in the way in which they want to be served," says Brad Newton, vice president APAC at DocuSign.

"Businesses need to take the vital step of embedding digital convenience into their products and services, or risk losing out to their more customer centric competition.

While 85% of Australian consumers are demanding that organisations offer digital methods, businesses are failing to do so, despite the fact that 90% of businesses rank digitisation as one of their top priorities.

Newton says that it is evident that businesses are aware of the importance of digitisation, yet there is a disconnect, with many still asking their customers to do business with paper.

"This disconnect needs to be resolved if Australian businesses want to be considered customer-centric.

While some businesses are struggling to put their digital strategies into action, DocuSign's research claims that decision makers fully understand the consequences to brand reputation and revenue.

According to the report, the top three areas of business they aim to improve with digital tools are customer and lead generation focused:

• 47% aim to improve client satisfaction/their client experience with digital technologies
• 46% aim to convert new business leads
• 43% are looking to digital to improve their Customer Relationship Management (CRM)