That business transactions are veering towards the digital is borne out in another survey. This one looks at digital business transactions. The survey comes from the company Moxo, and it relates to the digital-first nature of businesses.
The report’s findings reveal the digital-first nature of today’s world, especially for client-facing businesses. To better understand how businesses are addressing these challenges and the opportunities for improvement, Moxo surveyed 1,500 clients and 1,500 internal- and external-facing employees across three high-touch industries: finance, real estate and legal.
Key findings around employees and client expectations showed that 90 percent of clients said their preferred method of communication when asking questions about business transactions is digital.
The digital option was ranked superior to scheduling an in-person appointment or a telephone call. This trend is consistent with a similar survey run in 2021, where a similar percentage (89 percent) also showed a preference for digital media.
However, too much digital and too many competing platforms simply serves to obfuscate the advantages that digital technologies can bring to the virtual business table.
In relation to this, over two-thirds of employees (67 percent) together with 72 percent of clients indicated that their company uses too many different digital tools and technologies that it makes certain tasks more complex.
In addition, the plethora of new platforms that have emerged during the intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic has meant the technology chocolate box challenge has only worsened. This is borne out by the 2022 results being up on 2021, where 63 percent of employees and 64 percent of clients expressed these views a year ago.
There are technologies that employees feel they would benefit from if they were readily available. As to what these are, it was found that less than half of employees (45 percent) say their organizations offer a mobile app (meaning that the majority of firms do not have this offering).
Furthermore, just 36 percent say their organization offers automation tools or workflow software. This is surprising, considering more than half of employees (60 percent) said their organizations have accelerated their technology investments over the past 12 months. This investment does not appear to have been directed into the advantages that automation presents.
With geography, digital technology has broken down national lines. This is shown with 85 percent of clients expressing how they would consider using a service provider outside their geographic area. In addition, 90 percent of employees indicated that it would be beneficial to engage with clients outside their region. Despite this, 74 percent of service providers are located in the regional vicinity of the firm.
