Business Technophobia: What’s The Cost?

When culture, society, and a way of life changes, businesses tend to be at the forefront of it.

That’s only natural, of course. Businesses have to ensure they change with the times, so they can be as on-point as their customers are. To be perceived as out-of-date by your customers is to be on the verge of losing a customer; no one wants to hire a company that is lagging behind.

These are established facts, and thousands of companies have gone bust due to their inability to keep up with the way the world is different from what they initially expected. So why do so many businesses still exist in the Dark Ages of the pre-technology world?

You’ll see it again and again; a business trying to continue as if the way we live our lives has not changed rapidly in the last 10 years. They might have a website, but it’s not a particularly useful one. The idea of doing their customer service by email seems to be utterly out of their minds. They’d no more use a cloud storage such as Azure management than they would sprout wings and fly into the sun. And there still exists a number of online stores where you have to call to make an order, rather than being able to checkout online. It’s madness.

Technophobia is nothing new, but it is one thing that can hold a business back. As a business owner, it’s a way of thinking you simply have to consign to the past. Tech is here, the internet is here, and you need to change to keep up with the times. After all, you don’t want anyone having any of the following reactions…

If your customers have the perception that you’re out of date and not utilizing the kind of tech they have become accustomed to with other companies, then they will flee. There might be a few also-technophobic hang-ons, people who still want to conduct their life in the “old ways” – but even these customers will eventually see the tech advancements that can make their life easier.

If you do manage to retain enough “old school” customers to sustain your business, then not moving with innovation is going to have an impact on your employees. For a start, they will see your company as a hole on their resumé. If they have not been learning office management software or processing with new technological advancements, then they’re going to feel the workforce is moving on without them. They may also doubt your ability to listen; after all, if you don’t listen to your customer base that sees technology as a necessity, how good an employer can you be? This kind of thinking from employees will soon mean that you’re losing the brightest minds to other companies, who aren’t afraid to innovate.

So by all means, keep some old school methods of running a company in the way you do things. Treating customers are individuals rather than just numbers, resolving issues at the point of conflict – these are the old methods that have a real place in the new world. However, when it comes to decisions regarding technology, you have one choice: keep up, or the business world is going to move on without you – and it’s going to take your customers and clients with it.