Your Business is About to Change: Are You Ready?

There have been few true paradyme shifts in recent history but we are currently in the sway of such an event and it’s going to change the way you do business.

The marketplace, your business and even your household have gradually adapted evolving technology, such as the I- Phone or Blackberry on one end and the net book or lap top on the other. Enter the Dragon, the Tablet - a technology that offers the best of both worlds, great interactive experience and flexibility to do both personal and business anywhere anytime.

The growth of this new product means were headed for a free-for-all – as the burgeoning tablet market really started to take shape in 2010. According to a new report from eMarketer, tablet sales are expected to increase more than 400% by 2012.

Tablets have far outstripped successful technology launches in the recent past such as —personal computers, video-game consoles, DVD and MP3 players, smart phones -led by the Apple iPad, Motorola – Xoom and soon to come, RIM – Playbook. The success of tablets stands out for their instant popularity and steep adoption curve.



Online sales in my opinion have reached tipping point and they are about to go through the roof. A tablet now boasts high speed web access, they are light and portable, they can run office applications and access e-mail from anywhere, anytime.

How will that change my business … you say. Well...millions of web sites that have served as simple qualifiers to products or services will now become accessible and the monetization of those adorable little information web sites will now make or break your business. Whether its customer service, content management, online payment, order-reordering, retail couponing, product knowledge, etc. – it will al be manageable – anywhere, anytime.

Think about it…an aging baby boomer generation, who will have to work longer - will now adapt easily to using this friendlier technology that will accommodate their lifestyle.

If you are going to be successful in adapting you need to start re-thinking your business process to take advantage of the coming boom in your customer demand, i.e., to order product online, to pay for your products or services in a safe secure environment. You will need to re-think your customer service, return policies, warrantees and customer loyalty programs and plan to integrate them into this new technology.

Re-thinking your business process and shaping your online presence to respond to customer demand will allow you to build an enterprise level solution that is scalable and can take advantage of this paradyme shift.

Marketing: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I received a direct mail piece recently that I thought was funny, effective and evil …all at the same time. It illustrated for me the power of marketing, harnessed effectively. I wonder how you might perceive it?

Many people over the years have complained about the lack of customer support from companies like Rogers. These providers made it difficult to reach a live person, they offered only web pages, frequently asked questions, chat and e-mail functions to respond to problem inquiries; and when you finally found a number that you could actually use you found yourself in an unending loop of automated voice customer service hell.

After having experienced this process on many occasions I perceived the tactic to be a short sighted cost cutting measure, although I must admit that it seemed like every company was taking that approach. In my opinion, it was not a very smart approach to marketing, branding or customer service.

Finally they have seen the light and they have decided to buck the trend with the launch of Live Agent, in May, 2010 - and use a person-to-person customer service approach, to differentiate themselves from their competitors and leverage it to spearhead a massive new marketing campaign. The direct mail piece proudly titles the cover with “WHEN YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS IMMEDIATE ATTENTION…” and then when you open up the direct mail piece and we hear a typical nasal voice message on a customer service telephone line, that could have come out of a Roger’s telephone response script from just a few months ago. A quick listen will bring back all those memories of telephone hell.


This is designed to be humorous and poke fun at competitors who are still using automated customer service and promote the idea of speaking to a person rather than a machine.

On one hand it’s good because it is an improvement to their existing service, on the other its bad since we all had to experience years of frustration while they toyed with connecting us to different flavours of automated machine responses. The ugly is the fact that our own worst fears, which they prorogated, are being used against us to help promote their superior service.

Having said all that, it is still is an effective campaign because it uses clever humour, a little technology and a standard predictable medium to tap into our revulsion of automated responses and leverage a long overdue response to customers unhappiness with their service to position themselves as a cut above the competition. It’s truly amazing that good marketing ideas can change opinions and fortunes so readily!

Re-engineering Business Processes

Existing Business Process

We are often asked to layer on unique web-based toolsets to an existing business model. Such initiatives can include a combination of: database management, e-commerce, e-marketing, product knowledge and content management systems. Because of the complexity, demand on resources and the cost, clients may also want to implement such initiatives over time; and customers assume that these initiatives can be added easily, like the layers of a cake. Now just because you can do something (and someone will always tell you they can) …does not mean that you should.

What is really required is a business process assessment where the company can work with a web development partner to carefully consider the short and long term goals while mapping out the existing business process model for the organization. Once the existing model is defined we can then layer on a secondary map showing how the business process will change with the addition of new layered web initiatives. The unseen effects on an organization can be significant and the more we understand the objectives of such initiatives the better we can recommend streamlined solutions that consider unique business propositions that may not have been considered in the original plan.

New Business Process

Monetizing the business processes in an online environment is the one of the most attractive initiatives in this process and should be considered an enterprise level enhancement of the business model. With the advent of tablets such as the I-Pad and Playbook as well as a host of others, coupled with a do anything anywhere attitude that is beginning to grip the marketplace, companies are beginning to realize that if they embrace online sales initiatives through a well thought out initiatives they will reap the benefits for years to come.

As in any well designed growth initiatives, companies and organizations have to consider the many effects of changing the business model. Businesses have to ask themselves: How will we support online customer service in areas such as: returns or exchange policy, warrantees, product knowledge, delivery times, packaging, postage, etc. These are just a few examples that affect only one part of the business; many others parts are affected, such as: banking & currency exchange, company culture, human resources, accounting, product knowledge, marketing and sales, franchising and distribution; all with significant impact on the existing business model.

Taking the time to consider the broad ranging impact in planning an online implementation will ensure that the money you do choose to spend is well suited for your goals and objectives and generates results that will benefit any company or organization.

Making a Mountain out of Mole Hill

When you consider the relentless march of technology, the skittish state of the economy, proliferating media channels and the competition …organizations and companies are beginning to realize that they need better and more comprehensive solutions.

Certainly our experience has taught us that when customers are seeking solutions from us, we often need to combine business process planning, marketing consulting, interactive programming, e-commerce integration, dynamic creative and effective project management to deliver useful solutions on-time and on-budget. No longer can you sit back and wait for customers bring work to you... you have to research your customers, understand their needs and come up with innovative ideas/solutions to problems they may no yet know they have. You can demonstrate that innovative thinking by starting a dialogue with your customers by making recommendations that can help add additional revenue streams, leverage new technology, streamline their business or develop complementary partnerships.

This means that you as a business have to prepare and present concrete, innovative solutions when you make that first call to your current or potential customers. You need to better understand your customer segment by offering them something they just can’t get elsewhere. Customers today have less time and capacity to consider their situation carefully and often times overlook unique and beneficial opportunities that can change their fortunes. Below are some examples of how we have worked with our clients in just such a way.

Description: an existing business that has used traditional revenue stream from bricks and mortar operations. They also have a web presence with some limited capacity but primarily the web site is a qualifying site rather than sales oriented. Solution: calling a client, with ideas on how they can either partner, develop or create new products that complement their existing business model will be considered at the very least by the client.

Description: an association exists on a fixed budget, so they have a great deal of difficulty in leveraging their knowledge base or serving their members more effectively. Solution: recommend and source third party partner that may be willing to fund an initiative in exchange for access to your client s database, awareness on your web site or a stack in your initiative.

Description: A professional or group of associates is generating sales though his/her hourly wage and/or any ancillary sales or service opportunity they generate. Solution: Creating web based tools that automate parts of the process can helps free up valuable time for additional growth or just for more personal goals. Monetize the web based system to derive new and complementary product sales.

Description: a not-for-profit organization is under pressure to do more with less: Solution: recommending the creation of a combination of signature events that create profile and awareness in a community. Also develop web based tools that allow you to track participants ay events cross reference databases from each event to create ancillary and cross-sell opportunities.

The above examples come out of our experience but there are similar ideas that relate to every kind business. The result of this is that you have to consider your existing clients, past clients and potential clients and approach them with well researched and well thought out creative solutions to problems they may not even know they have.