The now economy - the next industrial revolution

The now economy - the next industrial revolution

The way customers are behaving is rapidly evolving. As Brian Kracik, Senior Director, Product Marketing Enterprise and Cloud Solutions, Oracle. Inc admits, ‘From 100 years ago we were concentrating on connecting to a billion different places. 20 years ago we were connecting with billions of different people. In the next 10 years we will be connecting with billions of different things.’

This mindset has changed the ecosystem. We’ve all seen the manner in which companies like Netflix, Uber and Spotify have left traditional industries churned up. Kracik argues that they have empowered their customers by giving them choice. With Spotify, he says they’ve allowed their customers to chose what they listen to, when they listen to it, how they listen to it and they are able to enjoy their music free from ads.

The research Oracle have undertaken support this. In the now economy, buyers want individualised experiences. In a widespread survey across various industries, Oracle discovered, of those surveyed:

  • 100% of organisations say their customers want a more individualised experience
  • 70% organisations saying the shift to individualised experiences is a growing challenge to remaining competitive
  • yet only 33% of organisations feel that their individualised experiences would warrant an ‘A’ grade

The challenge is to ensure these changes are deriving value for money and creating lasting, meaningful change.

Therefore Kracik urges businesses to ask:

  • How can communication enable our services?
  • How can it deliver new customer experiences?
  • How can your business monetise it?

He cited an example of a customer who did just that. BBVA created a way that allowed their customers to open a bank account online and start making transactions in a matter of minutes. BBVA’s Customer experience director Ignacio Teulon Ramírez, said, ‘We live in an age of convenience where people can do everything from their mobile phones, whether it is to open a new account or to pay. We want to provide our customers with services in the way they prefer to consume them, and we want to provide them the best experience possible.’

If businesses want to give their customers the best experiences, Kracik says that they need to adopt Ramirez’s mentality. They need to make digital transformation a priority for their businesses and cloud communications is one of the ways that they are going to make that interaction more satisfying.

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