Business

Magnifying the problem of smartphone internet access

The rise of the smartphone is posing a problem for marketers
The rise of the smartphone is posing a problem for marketers The rise of the smartphone is posing a problem for marketers

LAST month Ofcom reported that smartphones edged ahead of laptops for the first time as the preferred devices for connecting online in the UK, calling this a “landmark moment”.

The communications watchdog said 33 per cent of people opted for smartphones as the device of choice in 2014 for connecting to the internet, ahead of 30 per cent who preferred laptops.

Mobile smart phones and other devices offer intriguing opportunities to marketers who wish to communicate with their customers. It’s easy to become enthused and confused in equal measure, but what action should businesses take?

Philip Graves, author of Consumerology and associate of Frontier Economics, noted that in our digital age the shopping experience determines whether a customer returns to us and that even more worrying “nothing has made the myth of customer loyalty more apparent than the digital revolution”.

Perhaps so but there are many considerations. In my spare time unwinding away from work I wind myself up hacking around a golf course. My golf club, like many others, has an excellent online booking facility where I can go online and reserve a tee time; this works very well on IPad or PC, but the booking facility is not designed for smartphones.

So in order to view available tee times and select from carefully crafted online lists of options I have to be able to read text so small that I have taken to carrying a magnifying glass as an accessory to my smart phone. So, a great idea and offering by the club to members of the golf club to help them book their round, but a facility which has not been optimised for the many of us who access the internet via smartphone.

Now, I find this poor online booking facility via my smartphone a little annoying, but it has not stopped me handing over my annual subscription. So at what point does a minor frustration with the technology become a danger to business with customers leaving us for our competitors?

My point is that there is more to winning and keeping custom than the online experience for many businesses and organisations. Undoubtedly online presence and its usability is important, and it can be frustrating to customers if it is not right. However, there is a bigger picture which is shaped by the larger product offering, the tangibles and non-tangibles associated with what we buy.

When marketers are faced with quantum shifts in consumer behaviour and introductions of new technologies urgent decisions on how we should adapt our approach must be well considered and made in a strategic way. We need to ensure we focus resource and money on how we can create the best experience for the customer and, ultimately, give the best return for the business.

In the case of my golf club I would rather effort and resource be put into the golfing experience such as course improvements and maintenance than their mobile website. The frustration of a non-optimised online booking system has proved, for me, to be a minor annoyance and I am delighted (at least sometimes) that the effort and resource has gone into the building of extra bunkers around the course rather than the booking system.

So wisdom has it that online customer experience is important, but is it a deal breaker? Where can you focus your efforts to make an experience which is truly important to your customers?

:: Nick Read is chairman of the Ireland board of the CIM