Why mobile?
It goes without saying that the mobile is a powerful device. There are now more than 6 billion mobiles in the world – that’s more than there are computers, cars and even toilets! We look at our mobile on average 84 times a day and with some of us even suffering from Nomophobia (the fear of being without our mobiles) it’s clear they’re fast becoming something we can’t live without.
Far from just using them for personal communication, they’re often our method of choice for purchasing goods, managing our money and co-ordinating our hectic lifestyles. The mobile has never been more essential.
It’s time to benefit
The brands that understand this are taking advantage – this year ½ a billion pounds of eBay’s sales came via the mobile – that’s 22% of their total revenue. eBay’s CEO, John Donahoe recently described these customers as “the users of the future.”
Technology analyst Gartner is also convinced that mobile is key to consumers’ engagement, with its Vice President, Michael Maoz recently stating: “the mobile is emerging as the consumer’s primary choice for all possible service activity.”
Use mobile to enhance the customer experience
Professional services company, PricewaterhouseCoopers is also certain that mobile is the way forward for enhancing customer experience, it states: “mobile allows for a richer, deeper and more personal customer experience.”
Premier Inn, the UK’s biggest hotel chain is already in the game when it comes to mobile. They send their customers booking confirmations, timely reminders, give them directions to their hotel and give them the ability to make dinner reservations all through their mobile phones.
Customers too are behind mobile with 61% saying they have a better opinion of a brand when they have a good mobile experience.
A recent report from the International Customer Management Institute also found that 68% of customer service professionals agree that the mobile presents an opportunity to improve the customer experience.
The perfect device to capture Voice of the Customer at Moments of Truth
The mobile is also the perfect channel through which customer feedback can be gathered at important touch-points along their journey – moments of truth.
A poster advertising a 5 digit short-code asking for feedback lets customers know that you’re always listening and captures important information that you may otherwise never have known. Another advantage to this is that customers will be less likely to turn to social media to get their voice heard, allowing you to resolve customer issues before they are online for the whole world to see.
During a recent chat with Paul Berney (former MD of the Mobile Marketing Association and current CEO of mCordis) he commented:
“The fastest way anyone can react to any call to action is to put their hand in their pocket and text a single keyword to a 5-digit short code.”
East Coast Trains use this method with great results. Brian Elliot, Customer Service Development Manager at East Coast commented:
“Receiving feedback via a short-code has helped us save time, improve our customers’ experiences and has helped us bring customer relations in to the 21st century!”
Then there are those times when you want to proactively ask a customer for their views. Most companies use surveys in this situation however these are often long, laborious and have the potential to damage the customer experience. A simple text message asking the customer for their feedback is quick, easy and captures powerful insight.
A recent government report found that customers are open to this approach with 94% saying they want timely and relevant SMS.
The future is mobile
Mobile will only get bigger and with the emergence of new technologies, apps and software the possibilities are endless. The time is now to use mobile; your customers will be happier, your revenues will increase and your businesses will transform.
About the author
Yiannis is Digital Marketing Manager at Rapide who have just released an Infographic all around the power of mobile for customer experience: http://rantandrave.com/assets/downloads/mobile-customer-experience-infographic.html
To get more information from Yiannis on mobile, customer experience and digital marketing you can:
Follow Yiannis’ tweets: @yiannismaos
Connect on LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/yiannismaos/
About Rapide
Rapide provide customer engagement solutions that drive advocacy to half of the FTSE.
Their proactive communication and fast feedback technology enables their clients to increase revenue and reduce churn by listening and reacting to the voice of their customers in real-time.