Hayden Richards explains why social media and a customer centric strategy is critical for manufacturers in 2015.
The rapid advancement of technology and the positive benefits of how it can streamline businesses, should be present in your strategy.
I think in this new competitive landscape, the winners will be those can master every changing customer expectations and are flexible to implement new technologies.
Just because you may have recently started to get to grips with social media, the new reality that is social media 1.0 is rapidly becoming extinct.
Altimeter’s Principal Analyst Brian Solis takes this idea a step further: “Social media becomes part of a digitally transformed ecosystem. Real-time and content marketing becomes more sophisticated and portable. Social becomes key hub for shaping customer experiences.”
Here is a trending acronym only your IT staff may be privy to: SMAC. It stands for social, mobile, analytics and cloud, and is partly responsible for manufacturing current reinvention which means profitable expansion, personalised customer engagement and tighter workforce connectivity across various platforms. No wonder Google is eyeing the sector.
SMAC technology in 2015 will allow smaller players to penetrate high margin opportunities. On offer are lower operating costs and a global outlook.
Here is the best bit, the sector has been consumerised to the point that the old model of B2B is now defined as B2B2C (business-to-business-to consumer).
Customer Care matters now more than ever and social is indispensable. In fact according to IDC’s Future of Manufacturing report: “By 2020, 40% of Global 2000 companies will use new social media platforms to redefine their marketing and customer services.”
The fact is ever evolving social media technologies are prodding manufacturers to become customer centric, opening the door for world beating business models and products.
Even your indispensable ERP system will evolve socially. IDC whitepaper predicts: “It will be easier for the right information to reach the most appropriate user. Social business capabilities will create a collaborative ‘social ERP’ environment that will foster the creation of self-forming teams.”
All these changes might be appear daunting but at its core it’s all about people and interacting in a familiar but different manner.
