Customer Success – A win win story

In our pursuit to help startup and SMEs in their digital transformation journey, we often come across with very generic sales problems, and most of the problems are due to lack of basic understanding of customer engagement and pitching the solution or product poorly. In this post we have listed some of the points which we practice to overcome these problems –

Understanding the customer –

When you try to help the customer even before tagging them as customers, You should really understand them. That means you need to study the their environment and how they operate in their business ecosystem, their geographical situations and their pain points. We had our success rate increased multifold just by practicing this. To understand this better let’s get into what it means on the ground. One of our client who is an independent career counselor, a typical sales package looks like “A Promotional Website, Mobile Application and a lot of social marketing” at first glance. On a careful consideration it was realised that only doing this will not help them instead might increase operational overhead, hear us out how and why –

A Promotional website need to be targeted to audience and the place this client of our operates from, the audience are still not tech savvy which means their reach to technology is limited to Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram at most and not even to twitter, hence a promotional website is going to be a dead investment for a long time. Same time an app may solve a lot of problem but is costly due to the fee they charge to their customers is very nominal and the profit is not enough to cover the investment. People who know about career counseling will agree that this job is difficult to manage remotely and therefor social marketing through electronic media will attract the leads which will be difficult to convert into sales.

Solving the real problem –

Now once we understood the customer portfolio, it is important to solve the real problem and one should identify it before that. The pain point is, it is not going to be obvious and customer wouldn’t be able to tell you the exact problem. If we rely on customer, almost all the time, all the customers have one single generic problem and that is “Sales not happening or Sales is not increasing as expected” that is it. If you take that problem and try to solve it, you will not succeed because that is never ending pursuit, it is a symptom not a problem. The actual problem may be wrong market segment, non-scalable business model, a generic product or non innovative solution, hence it is important to understand client really have sales not happening is a by product symptom of it.

Keeping the business always in context –

You understood your customers, you identified the problem too, you have a solution just right, however have you consider that make sense for business or not? For example there are all the great equipments and machines to do the farming, you get that to the farmers with subsidised rate all set to work and plow the field, but if the most fertile land and farms have water logging problem all your investment will sink into it and for sure that wouldn’t grow into any kind of corps, what could have been a better solution is to create a sustainable ecosystem of animal husbandry keeping livestock such as cattle, poultry and fish will yield better result and can be utilised in the fertile farms to do farming for double profit and that is what it means to keep the business always in context.

Offering real value –

Work towards the common goals and don’t promise unrealistic non-practical benefits. A website in any forms only has certain goals to achieve, it is not a silver bullet and can not make the business succeed overnight. As we always say “Technology is a business enabler” , it can only enable business to grow and sustain, for example, without proper research on main objective and content of a website,  which is to have engaging content and services to offer. it doesn’t make any sense to throw out a lot of add-ons like SEO, SSL mailbox and other because these doesn’t have any individual value of its own. The point is don’t sell technology in the name of solution. Offer them real solution which adds value to their business and let the technology facilitate and help achieving that.

Train them to utilise it for maximum gain –

Offering technology solution is just not enough. It is important to train the customer to use it. Not always your customers are going to be tech savvy and technology might be only solution in such case it is better to teach them how to use it effectivity. For example which phone would you suggest to a 60 + years of indian customer ? The answer is there is no phone which target this segment specially and this segment have their own challenges i.e touch screen phones doesn’t give them taptic feedback out of the box so they don’t know the action they took happened or not, on the other hand phone which gives taptic feedback i.e the phone with keyboards have really small display and due to their poor eyesight that means by the time they realise who is calling the call would be dropped. In this case the only solution is to teach them enabling taptic feedback present in the touchscreen phone with vibration and key tone and help them to adopt it.

Technology as Business Enabler

We strongly believe that technology is an enabler for business Here is how we think technology can help to gain momentum for the business –

Real life implementation Challenge

An ordinary artist with extraordinary craftsmanship, a living embodiment of the miraculous fine portfolio of paintings, pottery and jewellery, yet sadly have painful need to knock each door, just to sell his valuable, handmade articles. Imagine how far can his feet can walk, each step forward results into loss of energy and his most valuable possession i.e “Time”.

Just then he learns startups also shares the same passion of serving customers, but ofcourse, in a much better way. The nerves of technology powers the machinery of supply chain. With these startups at his disposal and great technology as a leverage, success comes by design not by luck. Selling products online and meeting the demand of customers becomes a super sustained, self managed affair.

 

Plan to make the business always ready for market ?

Shopping Cart for MarketTechnology today is the foundation for all success. Falling behind the Technology Curve, that compares the linear growth of technology and the rate of change is simply not possible. Today industries have become obsessed to achieve maximum efficiency at minimal cost. Modern businesses can’t afford to be technology laggards. Bridging the gap between today’s technology and tomorrow’s innovations is essential to transitioning seamlessly.

 

 

Keep a track of latest technology trends?

Tracking Device Improving ROI by infusing technology has always been a primary purpose for any business. Starting with the goals we want to achieve, and then plan backwards, finding a suitable technology that supports and improve performance to expected benchmark. This is what makes business and technology work hand in hand. After all “Technology doesn’t drive success: people using technology do”. Staying abreast of the latest trends allows a business to pivot before competitors can react.

 

 

Strategy Shifts and plan to adapt changes

Change by wrench Today Enterprises can no longer afford to think only in terms of efficiency and the 10-year plan. The new business model relies on fluidity: a company poised to pivot is one that’s best prepared for the future. We need to focus less on tomorrow and live in the present as that would make an impact.

The technical shifts today can no longer be limited to upgradation of system being done once. Trend says this era “Change is the only constant”. Oracle which was once known for its database models is towards being outdated, as today the cloud is becoming the core paradigm for delivering business technology, with an aspirational promise of “zero infrastructure which says anything-as-a-service”. Since the workers and management in the zone of business become more dependent on tech, they are increasingly able to help out with the process of digital change and transformation. So for business the digital transformation is required, however, it may be complex, time consuming, and expensive, and it affects every aspect of the enterprise.

 

Correct Go To Market Strategy?

Head thinking about go to market strategyA careful crafted plan on approach of marketing product and services, is the need. Do we need a website and if yes what kind of website? Is having mobile application at this time is right thing or should we wait? Worry not we would soon cover this topic in detail about what needs to be done and exactly in what order ?  Since the commercialisation and use of technology became more widespread throughout the world, the adoption of advanced products can generate new business opportunities and various benefits.

 

Pricing and decision before choosing a technology

The market today stands long-term visible capability of the decision makers.The wise ones choose a developed product with considering below points –

  • Should encourage designers to explore Creative Routines and apply them in work.
  • Should encourage developers to explore Understanding Routines and apply them in work.
  • Should encourage parents to study Visible Thinking and encourage their children to try them.
  • Should not only develops solution for SME’s but also provide a supportive system for their backup.

 

Checkpoints for latest technology trends

Remember CheckpointsFew Instances of technological boost is once there was an era where it was all cash, then it was credit cards, and now it’s time to start to accept mobile payments. These make daily transactions much simpler. Similarly today current tech can help business keep track of all the necessary documents, invoices, deductions, and expenditures and made that all a little less painful by generating and tracking invoices way more better than manual work. Hence the best business growth is with trending techs, you need it you get it.

To help progress and success thrive, the first step is research to check whether there is a more recent, advanced program, app, or tech development that can aggregate multiple needs into one process. Thus the latest technology trends can make your job easier and will also show the customers that business is modern and evolving. What’s needed is to keep up with what’s hot in the industry and make the effort to integrate the technology that’s best for your business.

 

Here in AppsWise we try to solve a business scenario in most optimised and efficient technical way, by keeping all the edge cases in mind for any SME’s to grow. Get in touch with us for any challenges you deal with in technology scope or even if you just want to optimize your technology operations.

Design your web presence Its Now or Never !!

Internet era has opened many channels for customers to connect with businesses signaling opportunities to engage large customer base. With the advent of new technologies, the list of platforms and devices supporting the online business channels is growing and expected to grow in future. An interesting yet useful survey conducted by The Economics Times (India’s leading business news paper) uncovers online presence of small businesses and the factors that contribute to the reluctance of small and medium startup to come online and be a part of larger e-commerce marketplace. With this article we are trying to focus on the problems that small startups face, in order to get into the e-commerce domain and potentials that it can unleash if done effectively.

Most of the startup feel that they are too small to be on online platform. This is myth, rather a mistake to be precise. Many things like marketing, social connection and communication are very important and crucial to the success of any small business. One thing that every business owner would agree with is – No small business is started with the aim of being small. With right strategy in place all small businesses are aimed towards becoming big, so it is safe to say that it is a transition phase, a change in progress, only question is how fast is this progress.

It is the faith, vision and mission of owners to expand their business. So, transition is the key. With that point of view, it becomes clear that no matter whether you are a small or big business, you need to have an online presence. It is not a supporting function nor a fad, rather it’s an integral part of your business and perhaps will become the most preferred channel for your customers. If your website is not part of the foundation, the whole fort that you build is incomplete.

It is extremely important to pay attention to how technology works in general and what you need to make it work for your business. Small businesses are usually not armed with tools, technologies and skill set to produce and support such online infrastructure. As a matter of fact, more often than not, technical capacity is the dragging factor. The science of website development simply seems out of scope for them. Due to this problem many of them keep themselves out of the online domain boundary or have poor presence with some workaround.

A fair argument presented by business owners is that their customers are not tech savvy and generally don’t use computers and mobiles to connect with them. It is true at certain extent and no one can deny, however without shifting the focus from the other business drivers, small businesses have to place a serious thought process for online tech savvy customer’s inclusion, as they are the future. Real estate available in the physical world cannot house all your offerings but the real estate in the web can certainly host all of them resulting in a self-service mechanism where customers comes, analyses and makes an informed decision. This kind of customer experience if rendered will become a favorite online spot where customer tend to frequent. One can argue that strong online business presence might not guarantee high speed progress but non-availability does guarantee slow progress for sure.

When it comes to healthy competitive Eco system, Business is all about being ahead, just keeping a forward thinking approach can take your business to the next level. Website and your online portal gives you that extra edge over your competitors and helps you to stay ahead in competition and also in business.

50% of the consumers use Google search to buy commodity or to utilize the services they go and do google search. This number is more in the developed nations such as American and European countries and fast growing developing nation. When your information is not available on the web it clearly corners you from the large pool of potential customers. Even if you have a website and it doesn’t appear in the search result serves no purpose, it is another issue that we will address. Basic information of the business and contacts helps customers to locate your business and connects you with them. Online order processing is not the only reason of coming online it is equally important to help your customers to locate and connect with you.

Your website facilitates the collaboration among your customers and business where they can talk about the quality of product and services. Rapid feedback cycle emerges out of this collaboration. This gives you a predictable measure with fair amount of certainty that you should make radical improvements about how you sell your product and deliver your services. This is possible only if you are open for the feedback 24*7 around the clock.

That being said poor online presence is as good as no presence. We have subscribed to the view that website is the gateway and front door of your online shop, it is imperative to build elegant design and pump valuable content for the portal. It reinforces your brand and identity. Content quality, visual aspects and how frequently it appears in the result of various search engines is the crucial factor. While many of the things can be covered by the amateur web designer quite a lot of hidden parts which governs the Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O) and visual appeal can only be enabled by professionals who can share your vision and your passion.

Hence, if you are not engaged with professional who can give you an outstanding online portal design and consulting experience you are missing something. Operational cost for website maintenance is nominal and negligible if you compare it with the benefits it brings to the table.

Your website is your space in the web. It is a marketing tool, sign of your business availability and much more. Make it your style statement!