Being an inclusive company simply means not discriminating against a customer, vendor, employee or potential hire based on their gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religion or nationality. More so, it means that you support all your employees in whichever way they live their lives, and make sure your entire team does as well. When companies aren’t inclusive, it shows, and can easily be weaponized against them.
Do you know the cost of intolerance? It’s a high price.
Let’s look at the newspaper industry as an example. Since the first American newspaper was printed in 1690, the process was basically the same: it was all done by hand and simple machines. The writing and typing, the literal gluing together of a page layout, the printing press, were all basic standards of the creation of a paper.
Cue the age of the computer, and people began trading in their typewriters and glue for a monitor and keyboard and using programs to create layouts. When the internet began to standardize the way all businesses operated, the industry kept up nicely and adapted to using fax machines, sending emails and doing online research. But then came the birth of social media and the era of the citizen journalist, and information was being presented to the world before journalists could formally do so. And here’s the kicker: the information was free.
The industry began to see a collapse that hadn’t been seen since the fallout of railroads. Because the industry was still paper first, digital second and took much too long to adapt, some of the biggest and oldest newspapers in the country were closing their doors. The ramifications are still being felt today as papers finally have begrudgingly agreed to change their business model to digital first, paper second.
The moral of the story? You have to meet your customers where they are in order to succeed. The newspaper industry’s stubborn inability to meet their customers needs almost sent one of our nation’s most treasured traditions down the drain. If your business isn’t using modern technology to operate, like telecommunications and advanced connectivity, you will begin to lose customers. If it can happen to one of the largest and most profitable industries in history, it can definitely happen to you.
There’s a standard to which our modern society holds everything: they need to be dealt with in the quickest, most efficient way possible in order to be a happy customer. If they call your business and get a busy signal, they’ll likely not call back. If they are on the phone with an employee while they both wait for an online program to finally load, the customer will begin to doubt your abilities. One seed of doubt is all it takes to turn a satisfied customer into a nonexistent one.
There are benefits to adapting to modern technology, even beyond customer retention and growth. It’ll create an easier workflow, making for happier and more productive employees. This will positively impact the company culture, and soon you’ll be known for it. This will attract higher quality talent who will help bring your business even further into the cutting-edge future.
By now, you know you need to evolve and change. But how? Give 10X Consulting Group a call and we’ll pair you with a Business Transformation Specialist who will guide you to your next phase of success.