It’s one thing to have something but to actually use it, properly — well, that’s a whole different story.

As the world has developed, major economies have become dominated by service-focused businesses. In the United States, two-thirds of GDP is accounted for by the services sector, a broad category of the economy that now includes financial services, media, transportation, and technology. In countries like this, the figure is 80% or more. A major headache is that many of the tools and techniques that service managers use were designed to tackle the challenges of product companies.

The difference between providing goods and services

When you take a product to market it needs to be enticing but this is just one element. Companies need to field a team capable of producing, marketing, selling, and servicing it. None of these roles are easy to fulfill but delivering a service requires something extra: the management of customers.

Often today, they are not just consumers of the service but can also be integral to its production. Take social media. We are the product/service. It is data derived from our own behavior/interactions with the channels that are being monetized.

Any service business cannot last long if the offering itself is seriously flawed. It must effectively meet the aspirations and needs of an attractive group of customers. But this is where a shift in perspective is crucial.

In the product world, companies tend to focus on the characteristics buyers value but in services, the focus absolutely needs to be on the experiences customers want to have. There is increasingly a case for saying that the product world is heading in the same direction as services, particularly where luxury brands are concerned. Here it becomes far more than just the product itself. Aspiration and the experience surrounding the purchase and post-sales support is woven inextricably into the brand’s perception.

Effective and successful customer acquisition and retention mechanisms are a ‘must-have’ irrespective of the type of business you run. So many of the opportunities for brands to touch people directly via a physical presence have been removed in the past year, even if temporarily. The problem is that weeks have turned to months and nobody knows the long-term impact the pandemic will have on consumer behavior across the board.

How companies are leveraging CPaaS to replace traditional engagement

Digital transformation is real and Mitto is helping brands globally get to grips with this using our comprehensive suite of CPaaS and omnichannel mobile engagement solutions. Mitto makes conversing with their customers so easy using a host of channels – Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS and OTT chat apps such as WhatsApp, Messenger, Line, Viber. And more.

Through years of enterprise experience across multiple industry verticals, we have built up an impressive knowledge bank of how best to deploy the various digital channels we offer, expertise we can share with our customers.

Knowledge and access to an excellent suite of mobile engagement solutions alone do not always translate into the best customer service: without service flows and processes put in place (and enforced) that cover all possible eventualities, everything can unravel. And then there’s the human element which can be a little less predictable. We have unfortunately seen time and again examples of enterprises not having all their bases covered, the result is poor customer experience, particularly when things go wrong. Even super-luxury brands are not immune to this.

Given an astounding 95% of all purchases are set to be conducted via e-commerce by 2040 (source: 99 Firms’ Ecommerce Statistics for 2020), all brands need to learn what great service looks like and do everything they can in their power to implement it.

Mobile commerce already accounts for two-thirds of all e-commerce transactions and with half of the online stores having omnichannel capabilities already as well, embracing mobile and all it has to offer is a must. But having and embracing it is not enough.

Using it smartly in a structured manner, all whilst demonstrating genuine empathy by the brand for their customers, is what is required. This is exactly Mitto’s approach to customer service with our clients. Leading by example is what we do.