By Dave Crowley
Yes. The Internet is changing everything. From the way we buy our books, get our news, do our banking, communicate with business associates, and plan our vacations, the Internet has eliminated traditional boundaries of space and time.
How fast is the change coming? Fast. Very fast.
In their recent ground breaking book, Blur Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer note that connectivity is casting traditional business models on their heads. They see a new paradigm based on 'The Trinity of Blur'. Consider their message:
- Speed... Every aspect of business and the connected organization happens in real time.
- Connectivity... Everything is becoming electronically connected to everything else: products, people, companies, countries, everything.
- Intangibles... Every offer has both tangible and intangible economic value. The intangible is growing faster.
Equals...
- Blur... The ' New World ' in which you live and work.
Worldwide telecom deregulation, satellite miniaturization and mobile devices have made connectivity available to just about anyone, anywhere, anytime.
The result has been accelerated product life cycles, from years and months to weeks and, now days. Likewise, the connected economy has increasingly 'plugged-in' into our personal lives. We order groceries from work, shop for a car at midnight , and configure and buy a new PC anytime. Soon, we'll likely be able to trade stocks around the clock.
What's more, the speed of blur is accelerating.
So what are you doing about it?
I recently met with a prospective client who told me his company was really up-to-date and 'into the Internet'. In fact, he told me, with great relief, how pleased he was that his company had 'just finished' its new corporate website. It was an enormous undertaking, he said, and he was relieved it was over.
Just finished? Over? Poor soul, I thought. As we continued I told him that it's far from over. In fact, his real work has just begun!
Winning in the brave new world of Blur means constant change and renewal. It means quickly adapting how you do business to take full advantage of the equally rapid changes wrought by 24/7 communications. Most of all, it means crafting the right offer to a new breed of customer, based on a new business model, which combines product and service into one simultaneous offer.
When we think of companies succeeding in the Blur economy we naturally conjure up hot new Internet companies like Yahoo or Amazon.com. True, they don't have the history, factories, or mindset of traditional companies. What's more, they've used their nimbleness to achieve spectacular results.
But they're not alone. Today many industrial-age companies are successfully building e-commerce businesses. They're succeeding through a single-minded focus on the 'connected customer'.
In her latest book, customers.com, 'High Priestess of the Net', Patty Seybold, provides a road map to e-commerce success. She details how companies large and small have reorganized their business processes to seamlessly blend e-commerce initiatives with broader, corporate strategies.
Seybold outlines eight critical success factors required to win the business of the connected customer:
- Target the right customer
- Own the customer total experience
- Streamline business processes that impact the customer
- Provide a 360-degree view of the customer relationship
- Let customers help themselves
- Help customers do their jobs
- Deliver personalized service
- Foster community
Notice that none of these points define success in the established business terms of 'features', 'cost', 'distribution', or even, 'profit'. The eight points could be applied to virtually any organization, from cutting edge Internet start-up to widget manufacturer. The Internet is truly the great equalizer.
Seybold details many established companies, including Hertz, Wells Fargo, and American Airlines who have blurred their business forward satisfying the requirements of the connected customer.
Take Hertz, for example. To the casual observer, Hertz is a leading car rental company. But because the connected customer requires so much more, Hertz has re-invented itself.
Today the company provides a total, round the clock service experience to high value connected customers including preference profiles, navigation systems, automated billing, self-service Web offerings, traditional agent-based systems and much, much more. And yes, they'll even rent you a car.
The result? Hertz is now a recognized e-commerce leader winning the connected customer's travel and leisure transportation business by seamlessly blurring product and service into one solid value proposition.
Clearly some companies are well ahead of the curve and are already winning the hearts, minds, and wallets of the connected customer. Some haven't yet started to play while others, like my Internet friend, think the game is over and they've already won.
Truth is, the connected economy is just warming up. There's plenty of opportunity for success or failure. How well you know your customers and how relentless you are in satisfying their total requirements will go a long way to determining your ultimate success.
Clearly the lines have been blurred; it's now up to you. Go. Master the speed of change of the connected economy.
Customer.com is waiting.
Dave Crowley is president of net.Publishing, a Boston-based consulting firm specializing in e-commerce opportunities for small-to-medium size business. You can reach Dave at dfc@ix.netcom.com
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