Let's face it, the dance between technology and the human element is delicate, but who said it can't be fun?

We laugh at our own quirks when dealing with AI assistants and share anecdotes that reveal the emotional connections we're forming with them.

The episode strikes a perfect balance between embracing the efficiency of automation and the irreplaceable warmth of human engagement, offering up a blend of productivity tips and insights into maintaining those crucial customer relationships.

By the end of our journey, you'll be primed to mix tech and touch with the finesse of a digital artist, all while learning how to stay connected with Chris Hood and his treasure trove of resources for your own digital journey.

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Read the Blog Post: The Digital Strategy to Blending Tech and Human Touch

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital strategy, I think, is an interesting term within itself.

I just wrote on LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago that digital strategy is not marketing strategy and digital marketing strategy is redundant.

I think a lot of times people think, "well, I have to put that digital marketing and connect them together."

If you're not marketing today in a digital format, then you're missing a good majority of your audience.

I always look at digital marketing as one in the same as marketing, because marketing should include digital, no matter what you're doing that's because consumers are on digital channels and on platforms and you've got to be able to connect with them. So, digital marketing is all marketing.

What is Digital Strategy?

Digital strategy, however, is the concept of how your business evolves, grows, meet the needs of consumers through digital channels.

It really doesn't have anything to do with marketing, right? It's more about your product, your services, your business strategy, your platforms that you are adopting.

For example, I'm sure we can talk a little bit about artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a part of your digital strategy.

Now, you might use AI for marketing, but it's really more the decision that we are going to adopt AI into our practice in some way.

We might apply that to customer service, customer support, building out customer experiences, further enhancing our overall product roadmap.

Yes, we might leverage it for marketing, but the decision, that process, is the digital strategy part.

Know Your Audience

What really makes good digital strategy, and this is going to be a repetitive theme, is understanding who your customer is first.

You don't make digital decisions without understanding if there is a customer value proposition in the approach and if you can directly say, "here is our value proposition, here's what the customer is asking for, here's what they're going to get out of it."

Now you can start to think about well, what technology can we bring in to support that?

You're not doing it in reverse. You're not saying "hey, look again, artificial intelligence, it's out there, everybody's using it. We got to get on the bandwagon, let's bring it in now."

What are we going to do with it? Right, how are we going to use it? And you're not even asking the question do your customers even care?

Yes, you going to use it, and you're not even asking the question do your customers even care.

Start with your customers, then figure out what digital trends, technologies, enhancements to your organization do you want to bring in to meet those customer needs.

Human Touch is Valuable and Becoming Rare

You can't have a human connection with your customer if you're replacing it with some sort of artificial intelligence or entity to manage that relationship.

The AI cannot manage a relationship. Only you can do that.

Yet we are seeing not just from AI. We're seeing a complete and total disconnect from connecting with the consumer.

You could say, "well, social media is helping that because now we can access people more easily."

Yes, I would agree to some level on that, but even that is becoming a lot of automation in the process.

If you post something on Twitter and tag somebody, there's an automatic response saying "oh, how can I help you?" Rarely is that a real person behind there.

So we as humans expect that human relationship and connection with the businesses we engage with.

It's no different than we're seeing things pop up like robotic self-served smoothie locations. You walk into the store, you place your order, a robot makes the smoothie for you and hands it off. Well, that place closed down.

Why did it close down? Because we don't want to walk into a smoothie shop and just pick up an order from a robot, right, exactly.

Even some of the robotic deliveries are having challenges with this concept. There's this convenience element to it. There is obviously an automation and there's a certain level of expectation in that process of getting my order delivered to me successfully and quickly.

But we are human, so we need some level of connection with people. This is why some organizations right now are creating a business differentiation about that human connection.

What Does Alexa Say About It?

If you have Alexa in your house or a Google Home, like I do, if you ask a question like "okay, google, what's the weather today?" It comes back with the weather.

How often are you responding with "thank you?"

You have this emotional connection with the entity that you are having the conversation with.

Now, I had this conversation with one other person and they said "well, I say thank you because I don't know if they're eventually going to take over the world and I want to be on the good side of AI, just in case."

So, you know, there is some mindsets that are going on in here.

The AI is going to help you automate and build better efficiencies, but at the loss of the human connection.

And then if you add the human connection, then it's at risk of automation and efficiencies, right? Because obviously we can't do it as fast.

So you've got to figure out what that balance is for you. At what point in time is it the right balance of human connection and automation and efficiency?

About Chris Hood

Chris Hood is a keynote speaker and thought leader in digital strategy, with over three decades of experience in online development. He's the author of Customer Transformation. Chris provides a roadmap to customers' alignment and business value, articulating a transformative seven-stage strategy. Currently, Chris shares his insights on the Chris Hood Digital Show, helping businesses worldwide accelerate their digital potential. Beyond consulting, Chris imparts his knowledge to Southern New Hampshire University students, bridging the gap between business and technology through courses like business system analysis.

• Visit Chris Hood's Website, Chris Hood.

• Listen to Chris Hood's podcast, The Chris Hood Digital Show

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