The focus of this paper is to highlight all of the potential ways that a business could interact with their customers/leads using mobile phones. The methods below are available from some mobiles and not others. This is part of the challenge for businesses when attempting to exploit mobile phones.

 

Not all of the methods below are exclusive to mobile phones, such as social networking and email. However often these technologies have a mobile, location, and time based elements to add into the mix. If businesses could reach and interact with customers on their own terms, their own device, in their chosen format, at a time that suits them, with an exchange of relevant content, this would result in richer customer engagement.    

 

From a Business-to-Consumer perspective, just like Friend-to-Friend communications, which is the best method to use for your communications. As a consumer, when you communicate with your friends and colleagues, you use a combination of technologies to reach different people ( phone, voice mail, email, sms, twitter, facebook or other social networks, Instant Messengers such as MSN, gTalk, Skype, Yahoo, etc ), so how can a business do this effectively? 

 

If you are considering to use one of the myriad of mobile technologies to interact with your customers, read on. This paper discusses the advantages and challenges of many options available. It is not an exhaustive list.  

 

Sometimes mobile technologies can be technical, so instead, this paper is focused on cutting through the technicalities and focusing on what each method is useful for. There are even some ideas listed to get you thinking. 

 

The paper concludes with an innovative approach to resolving many of the challenges raised.

 

 

Everyone has a mobile phone. Your customers will have at least one. However there is a very wide range of phone capabilities and new technologies are being rolled out into new phones all the time. 

 



Just because your customers carry a phone doesn’t mean you have the right to contact them whenever it suits you. 

 

  

Mobility is the often forgotten aspect when considering how to interact with your customers. Consumers are typically ‘mobile’ when using their phones. They are on the train, in the park, at a concert, commuting on the bus, at the game, walking to work, lunching with friends, dining with colleagues, on holiday, traveling and so on. 

 

While they are out and about, traditional forms of advertising & media dominate, not online content. They see billboards, vehicle advertising, bus stop/tube advertising, listening to the radio, reading magazines, newspapers, books and flyers. They see in-store merchandising promotions, window displays, restaurant windows, take-away menus, on-street sign boards, for-sale signs and posters. These traditional media campaigns are the comfort zone for  many businesses still today. It’s these traditional media types that are losing connection with consumers.

 

This is the ideal time to leverage the mobile phones everyone carries. Enhance the traditional forms of business promotion to include mobile phone connectivity. Allow consumers to reach out to you and respond immediately with content they anticipate. This is called ‘Hyper-Relevancy’. This is what you should be aiming for. Satisfy your customers curiosity immediately with content they request, expect and find valuable. 

 

Ok great. So you agree that using mobiles to connect with your customers while they are mobile is a good idea. Take this a step further and engage when your business is local and relevant at the time, this is called ‘Hyper-Local & Hyper-Relevant’ interaction.

 

The next challenge is to decide which mobile technology should you support to connect with your customers. 

 

Below is a comprehensive list of different technologies currently available on many mobile phones. Each, is briefly described.  The advantages and disadvantages are listed and some examples of good uses for that technology are offered.