The modern customer is more demanding than ever. They expect their needs to always be at the centre of your organisation’s orbit, they expect personalised products and services and they expect a range of convenient payment options that take their personal needs into account.
Customer behaviour has changed and the business world’s approach to serving those customers has changed. When it comes to responding to your customers’ evolving needs, changing your business model is a good thing. Observing the changes happening around you should be a compelling enough reason for you to update your organisation’s business model – but if not, our expert’s reasons below should convince you.
Your competitors are doing it
Technologies such as cloud computing and mobile connectivity are creating new and exciting opportunities for businesses to innovate. More and more organisations are using modern technologies to reduce the cost of doing business – for example, by downgrading their need for expensive overheads such as rent and full-time staff by employing a scalable mobile workforce. Businesses that have adapted with the times to use technology as a means of reducing their operating costs can in turn offer their products and services for a lower fee to their customers and increase their competitiveness. How is your business model evolving to take advantage of these modern developments in the business world? If you’re not looking for ways to use technology to create a leaner operating model you’ll be left footing the bill twice – once in the form of the overheads themselves and again in the form of the customers you’ll lose as a result of your failure to compete.
Not doing it is costing you profits and market share
As an experienced businessperson you have probably heard the old adage that if your business isn’t growing, it’s actually shrinking. In the same vein, if your business model isn’t evolving with the new world order, chances are it’s actually taking your business backwards. These statements are true because of your position in relation to your savviest competitors – if your competitors are growing and operating up-to-the-minute business models, your failure to do so is probably already costing you profits and market share.
Your customers expect you to do it
It seems like every business commentator these days is raving on about operating a ‘customer-centric business’. Whilst many business owners and senior managers probably like to think they put their customers first, a true customer-centric organisation is in fact quite rare. Amazon.com is one of those organisations.
Amazon is a world leader in online retail because it has perfected the art of delivering exceptional customer service – without ever looking a customer in the eye at all. The smart people at Amazon have put the entire purchasing journey in their customers’ hands. Then, they use targeted email marketing to suggest products that their customers can purchase on the spot online using their credit card or BPay. And, Amazon doesn’t suggest the same products to all customers. An expertly crafted algorithm ensures that customers only receive recommendations that are relevant to their interests based on their previous purchases from Amazon.
Amazon is delivering exceptional customer service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When it comes to customer-centricity, how does your business model compare to Amazon?
