5 Reasons Digital Signs are the Future

When it comes to how we communicate, things have gone pretty digital. Letters replaced by email, phone calls replaced by messaging apps and of course, paper notices and displays replaced by digital signs.

At ScreenCloud we’ve seen firsthand the power of digital signs and why they’re so incredibly effective at communicating and sharing content. Of course, we don’t just want to keep this knowledge all for ourselves. We want the world to be armed with a factfile of reasons why digital signs are the future and why they should be adopted as soon as possible in schools, retail, healthcare units and convenience stores.

Here are five of the best reasons why digital signs are the future.

Going digital

Customers and employees both like companies who invest back into their company. Digital signs are a great way to show you care. Continuing to use paper notices which look tatty, or are left up long past their sell-by date, shows a distinct lack of interest.

Whether you’re a digital company or a bricks-and-mortar one, you need to be shown to be connecting what you do at work with how you look and feel to customers and employees. Digital signs are a great big beacon that says “we care about how we talk to people”. Given how simple digital signs are to set up, it’s kind of a no brainer that you should be using them.

A seamless journey

Think of all the pain points in your current customer journey. It could be long waiting times, product feature delays, lack of staff members, lack of service. Do you know that digital signs can solve every one of them?

Digital signage is proven to reduce perceived waiting times. In some hospitals, it’s even used to improve patient welfare by calming and relaxing patients while in waiting rooms. Or perhaps you’re a technology company and your customers are always clamouring for the next product feature on the roadmap. By adding your roadmap or sprint data through an app like Trello, you can be completely transparent using your digital signs. Even if your customers never come to your office, having a staff member who can say “I’ve got the roadmap right in front of me and this is where we’re up to” makes the customer journey better by default.

Within stores, restaurants and other hospitality set ups, digital signs take the jobs of multiple staff members. Providing wayfinding, check-in information, digital menu items and even wait times.

All in all, creating a much smoother, more informed customer journey.

In the moment communication

The problem with paper notices and printed brochures is that one, they’re expensive and two, because they’re expensive they rarely get changed. Showing customers out of date information that stopped being relevant two months ago, only leads one way. Before you know it, employees and customers stop reading your notices altogether. They think “what’s the point?”, when there’s nothing new to discover.

With digital signs there’s no excuse for communications not to be in-the-moment relevant. If a presentation slide gets out of date, you can change it from your computer without being any where near the screen.

You also have the power of using real time content that updates itself, news feeds, social media and the like which keep things always fresh, always relevant.

Information that actually gets read

Digital displays capture 400% more views than static displays. Truth is, we’re all more entranced with a digital sign than we are a paper notice. It’s why newspaper and magazine reach has sharply declined, while blogs and videos have been on the up for a while.

Digital signs are a great way to share information that actually gets read. To communicate your most important news, updates, sales figures and product promos, knowing that the people most important to your business are going to see them.

A community engaged with

There’s a reason why influencers are so popular right now. You see, they do something that many brands have let slip by the wayside. They build community. How do they do that? By communicating each and every day with an audience of followers.

Many influencers even treat their followers like friends, filling them in on minor details from their day, “behind the scenes” gossip and information on all of their latest greatest things.

If your business is the influencer, then digital signs are your Twitter, Facebook and YouTube channels and your personal blog. They’re a really strong yet intimate way of communicating better with your customers, or your employees.

One-to-one conversations are great, but when you don’t have time or are short-staffed your digital signs are there in the background. Sharing news, company communications, live feeds and all of your social media channels. Building community, talking to your audience and letting them know they’re important.

As we’ve discovered, digital signs are incredibly valuable. They’re also incredibly easy to set up. With a tool like ScreenCloud, a simple TV screen and a media device, your digital signs could be ready to go in seconds. Get started today with our 14-day free trial.