“The best companies will be the most mobile” — Tim Cook
We live in exciting times, technology and mobility is ingrained into all aspects of life. The evolution of mobile devices has come a long way from the quintessential yuppie accessory through to our current, beloved, all encompassing smart phone. Location intelligence, sensors and real-time alerts are positively augmenting our lives.
Mobile phones are smarter and more powerful than ever and Moore’s Law tells us there will be no respite. The majority of mobile devices are loaded with a multitude of sensors. Each opening up an insight into our being. The number of internet searches carried out on mobile are surpassing those on desktop. Your customers are on the go and there’s no stopping them. Each one, with a direct channel to market in their pocket.
[easy-tweet tweet=”What can you do to help your business stay ahead of the curve? The answer is simple: think mobile-first” via=”no” usehashtags=”no”]
Re-define your business vision
Re-imagine on mobile. Re-invent on mobile. Re-architect on mobile. Self-disrupt on mobile.
Include in your vision, delivery of remarkable customers experience. Be big, bold, audacious and be a little crazy. Bravely challenge the status-quo; sticking to your core business and doing it brilliantly. Aim to be the best, not the biggest. The abundance of cutting-edge technology will enable you to achieve your Moonshot quickly and realise a ROI even quicker.
Love CX
[easy-tweet tweet=”Customer Experience (CX) is the magic bullet” via=”no” hashtags=”mobile, business, CX”]
Love your customers. They’ll succumb to your advances. Re-kindle your relationship and revive an old flame by giving them an unbelievable experience. Get into their personal space. Be there all the time. Think the customer. Be the customer. Feel the customer. Get close. Get uncomfortably close. Do it well and it’ll be magic, not awkward at all.
“Technology alone is not enough” — Steve Jobs
Partner up
You’ll have some great people on your team and they’ll do well up to some inflexion point. Here, you’ll need to scale-up, in line with your business vision. Doing it well requires experience made through mistakes, which could limit your time to market. Choose a technology partner by selecting a service provider who is passionate about helping you achieve your Moonshots. They’ll have learned from their mistakes and will be firmly immersed in the holy-trinity of business success: Technology, Design & Agility.
They’ll be conversant in the latest scalable technology and understand the cloud-first, mobile-first vision you’ve set out. They will be able to bring industry best practice to you, supported by business acumen to build success. They’ll have a working domain knowledge to help the conversations be more meaningful.
Their obsession with design will be compulsive. UX will be on their mind 24-7. Be prepared; they’ll know your customer better than you. After muscling in, they’ll come clean and set you two up for a long lasting, contented relationship.
Ensure your service provider is flexible, lean and unashamedly Agile. Mobile metamorphosis can and should be kept simple and you should both learn from mistakes quickly. Tell them it’s not right. Analyse the data. Tell them again. Focus your learnings on a pivotal next step and keep post-mortems brief. Ensure they deliver critical production-ready value every 2 weeks. Real, measurable, valuable functionality every 14 days. Stipulate that. Meet their top team and challenge them in every way. Speak to their Software Engineers and project managers. Question their MO. Rip their code apart. Tear their designs up. Befriend them. Trust them. Learn what they do for fun and how they spend their weekends.
[easy-tweet tweet=”Technology alone is not enough — Steve Jobs” via=”no” hashtags=”CX, Mobility, digital”]
Business leverage
How have businesses leveraged the power in your pocket?
For the love of coffee
In the UK we’ve seen a shift in drinking habits, from the ceremonious tea-loving nation we once were to the laid-back, device-in-hand coffee culture we chill-in today. The thought of waiting for tea to brew is so last century.
Starbucks has a lot to do with that shift. Now, their latest app takes this even further.
Once you’ve registered, the app allows you to manage all aspects of your coffee drinking experience. You can register your loyalty card, top up credits or even send a gift-card to a friend. Starbucks have made it easy to find your closest branch and ensure it’s still open. It’ll give you directions and allow you to smugly jump the queue with a pre-paid mobile order.
Just select, pay and order. Then pick up and enjoy. All that and you can even configure how many shots of espresso you want, along with choice of milk and frothiness!
The app can also sync with Apple Watch to further enhance the experience from your wrist.
In-flight flicks
Once your flight is booked, an air of anxiety sets in; delays, lost luggage, traffic, passport, travel visa. For me, its all about the in-flight films. The films! The difference between a flight and good flight.
United Airlines’ approach to this is simple. On selected flights, you can bring your own device and stream whatever you want to watch from their huge media library. No more twiddling with those 1970’s channel changers or thumbing those frustrating, sub-standard capacitive screens.
They provide free WiFi on those flights and so long as your device is charged you can watch films, TV and listen to music through their Personal Device Entertainment app. Bring your own headphones and you are all set for a very comfortable flight experience. Large G&T please.
For centuries humans and animals have powered logistics right up until the midst of the Industrial Revolution.
Age old logistics
The Fly-esque transportation of matter is still a few decades away. Physical products (still) need to be physically moved. For business, the ideal rests in a cost-effective and reliable logistics solution. Businesses in Delhi are now resolving their logistics woes through the SmartShift app.
The app uses an Uber style on-demand model built on Google Cloud Platform. It’s USP is a competitive market place; bringing together business and delivery drivers — on mobile. A requester posts the job with detail of pick-up and drop-off locations, cargo weight, value etc. along with a photo of the cargo to transport. The delivery drivers in the locality can then tender-bid for that job and once agreed they’ll pick-up and deliver as agreed.
Payments (all electronic) are settled once a photo of the cargo is verified at the end-point. All in all, a perfect marriage of supply and demand, bilaterally bolstered through a game changing experience.
Ignite your moonshot
Mobility is the future for business
Mobility is the future for business. Affordable, new-paradigm technology now lets you provide a constant and remarkable customer experience. A beautifully designed, static touch-point which talks volumes and will be reflected in your top-line.
Stay ahead of the curve, out-smart your competitors and make your business awesome with mobile.
MediaAgility UK Ltd. engineer beautifully designed, intelligent solutions to help clients ignite their moonshots.
Nilesh Chavda, Director of UK & EMEA, MediaAgility
Nilesh is Director of UK & EMEA for MediaAgility. He helps companies to ignite their moonshots using innovative technology, beautiful design and agile processes.