Comments Mobile experiences unlock customer value
We are at a crossroads as mobile devices continue to proliferate and attract users of all types, both consumer and enterprise. I’ve spoken with a number of enterprise customers in the past few months to hear how mobile platforms and applications can add speed, accuracy, and efficiency to existing business processes – extending their reach to customers. The use cases are more varied and interesting than I might have imagined…
In the medical device field, salespeople want mobile devices with visibility into real time part inventories to assist the field selling cycle inside a hospital. In some cases, the medical device on site sales process includes a short window of opportunity in a doctor’s prep area. (Imagine them scrubbing up before a procedure.) This particular example may be somewhat unique, but the point is in medical device sales, time spent with a doctor is a very valuable commodity. Nurturing this sales process in real time by offering a view into new product offerings and their associated availability could be the difference between a win or a loss versus a competitive manufacturer. More importantly perhaps from a customer experience perspective, this increased visibility could mean the difference between a patient getting the right device for the right medical application. There is no longer a lead time to find out whether the particular device in question is in stock should a procedure need to happen within hours or days. In the end, with the right technology at your fingertips, an impromptu 3 minute conversation between a salesperson and a doctor on site could help create both a competitive advantage and optimize a patient experience simultaneously.
Another compelling mobile example is the need for insurance sales and service personnel in the field to input information at the point of contact in the field. This might mean pulling up the right set of forms or contracts on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet, at the scene of an accident. Today, this is often a very laborious, manual, and error prone process by which the field sales person takes down personal and accident scene information and then has to rekey that information into a system later. This presents challenges in a number of areas. First, this is a painstaking process as most sales managers want their people to be selling rather than reentering information into enterprise applications hours after a meeting. In this case, if the appropriate forms were able to be produced and the data entered on site, there is no need to duplicate these efforts back in the office. By the way, the delay often ends up being days rather than hours as other activities take the salesperson’s attention. This ultimately affects the customer experience as payments may be delayed. Second, once the person is ready to enter the information they took down at the scene, the data is often rekeyed incorrectly into the system, which can cause delays and frustration downstream. By delivering mobile applications that can offer online and offline data entry, along with pre-populated forms, and even a preselected set of documents based on a particular customer or use case, these workflows can be improved from both an accuracy and timing perspective. This leads to an optimal customer experience, designed from the customer back to the system rather than vice versa.
These are just a few examples, but the possibilities are endless in both a B2B and B2C context as our workforce and our consumers become increasingly mobile in how they work and live. Adobe is investing in these types of solutions as they complement and in some cases help drive customer experience.
John Landwehr
Director, Product Management