Every CEO and business owner today will say that of course their company uses digital technology. They’re using email and mobile daily; they keep the books digitally; they have a website. In those senses, they are walking the walk of the IT age. The trouble is that moving at a walk won’t ever put you at the front of the pack. You are in fact at risk of being left behind. The key question is: Are you deploying IT in ways that will differentiate you, and help you win business from the competition? Even more, are you able to expand the market you are in, or create blue oceans?

Recently my wife and I needed HVAC work done at our home. We invited three residential contractors to bid. All were small outfits, under 10 employees, with years of experience and good references. What made the difference, in terms of getting our business, was how fully and well they used digital technology to serve us.

We chose the third company. Their approach made us feel we were in the driver’s seat, which indeed we were. Along with providing a transparent, notification-intensive view of the service process, they’d given us choices and control of the transaction. Based on how well the initial relationship was built, we felt confident that if any issues arose they would be resolved to our satisfaction. This eight-person local contracting firm won the job by delivering customer service equal to Amazon’s.

Every sector of every industry has its versions of the three HVAC contractors. In order to survive and thrive you’ll need to be like the one using digital tech to the max. And that may require a mental paradigm shift.

For years, business IT has been viewed as a way to gain efficiency and immediacy, and to scale up if so desired. Those advantages still pertain but are more like a baseline entry ticket. The real digital frontier today is in creating and enhancing the customer experience. It’s the ability to grow both the top line and bottom line by achieving “mass customization.”

This entails treating each prospect as a valued new acquaintance. It includes onboarding customers in a manner that gives each one the means to be in charge. And it optimizes customer retention by following through with service that’s perceived to be personal and individualized — even though it is enabled by digital automation

The technology that can give you the edge is affordable. The little crew we hired at our home has it. Why not you?