Dealing with the ‘Expectation Economy’
Just as the internet blew apart the traditional salesperson/customer route to market for many resellers, the rise of the smartphone and the mobile app marketplace is forcing all industry sectors to pay attention.
iPads, iPhones and Tablets along with Android and Windows 7 mobile systems are becoming part of our everyday life. They are bringing with them a new level of price transparency, availability and convenience, which is raising the buying experience expectations of customers.
Customers want to do business “their way”, on the move and both inside and outside of office hours. They also want to be sure they are getting the best prices available before they commit to buying. Groupon and Living Social are leading the trend, driving millions of people to coupon based offers, ‘buy it now’ offers (BINs) and line end clearances.
Google’s recent introduction of its Shopper app is a great example of where this is all heading - enabling customers to snap a barcode with a camera phone, the app then identifies and prices it in real time from online vendors.
This new era of immediacy and transparency is set to give the industry a firm shove in the back to reshape its future sales model.
Resellers need to be asking themselves whether they are prepared for these changes. If not, they’ll lose out.
With a bit of careful planning, savvy resellers can turn the changes to their advantage and use the expectation economy to actually engage with their customers and stop them turning elsewhere for a 'better deal'.
Here are a few tips for resellers on simple steps they can take:
Location, location, location – It’s important that your business is as visible online as it is offline. This means ensuring you are registered with online tools like Google Shopper, Google Maps and Foursquare. These are all now commonly used by people to search for local outlets.
Price points – Customers are bombarded with vouchers and daily deals offering them the “best” deals on products and services. Make sure your customers are reassured they are getting good value from your store by offering exclusive deals. You could also consider creating your own vouchers and launching one-off ‘buy it now’ incentives such as discounts for the first ten customers on a particular day.
Engaging online – once you’ve attracted customers into your store, it’s important to engage and interact with them as much as possible in order to retain their custom and build up loyalty. Facebook and Twitter provide brilliant channels for sparking interesting conversations and debates with customers. Additionally they can help you provide an excellent resource for educating customers about key issues that may influence or affect their technology purchases. This may sound time-consuming but with some planning, half-an-hour a day of checking and responding to comments can help foster great relationships.
The changing customer market may feel threatening to begin with, but it’s actually a great opportunity to strengthen relationships. Your customer knowledge will always set you apart from competitors and the rise in social media now means you have so many more opportunities to engage with customers. It’s well worth spending time getting to know your way around the various channels as it could be a powerful source of new sales opportunities for your business.
