As the aging decision makers of yesterday retire and younger counter parts step in to take their place, interactions between customers and suppliers are changing.
Gone are the days of keeping it local, wanting a visit and picking up the telephone. I don’t know about you, but it drives me mad if I can’t login using my mobile phone in a mobile friendly secure environment and review my bills, update my details and manage my services with my suppliers.
It maybe I’m sitting on the train and I have an hour to kill where I can take care of minor tasks, it might be I’m awake at 3am and feel like reviewing my phone contract who knows. The ability to self service via a mobile phone is becoming an increasing imperative in today’s world for everything.
There is an upside to this growing mobilisation and self-servicing, in that if your product or services are compatible you could now be a global player offering your wares far and wide, delivering content or services electronically or shipping products around the world. Self-servicing eases the issues around time-zones allowing you to service your clients 24-7-365.
As we have seen on our high-streets the old models adopted by major brands are gradually collapsing against sustained pressure from the online new comers and savvy shoppers.
So firstly look at your current arrangements, review your products/services and see how they might fit within a self-servicing mobilised environment? If they don’t fit, are there alternative products/services you could offer that might fit this model? Is your website/backend solution built for this purpose? If not, could these be improved or redeveloped to make them work.
Secondly, once you have restructured your product/services and ensured your website/backend solutions are fit for purpose, you should then be redrawing your marketing model. Traditionally, you might have sold local, but your product/services are now available globally and can sell to anyone, anywhere so what now defines your target audience? And is your marketing proposition setup to address your new target audience.
Finally, you are ready to sell. I want to give you a Matrix, Morpheus Style “Welcome to the real world” once you have completed the steps above, you should have a product/service range that suits self-serviced, mobilised sales process, an optimised website and backend enabling people to easily buy and manage their own accounts and you have restructured your marketing to suite your new target audience.
You are now a GLOBAL automated business, servicing clients how they want to engage with you 24-7. Your sales and marketing approach is optimised to ensure you are getting the best return on investment for their time, allowing you to focus on the product itself and customer service.
If you would like our help reviewing your existing arrangements and how your business might benefit from a future in self-servicing mobilisation then please book a free consultancy
