Recent studies show that mobile expansion remains a high-to-critical priority for more than 60% of today's leading organizations. Enterprises are leveraging cross-channel communications such as SMS, MMS, push notifications, email, and voice to better engage with their customers throughout the entire customer lifecycle pre- and post-acquisition. Yet while enterprises recognize the need for a mobile strategy, many are struggling to capitalize on the opportunities.
During Wednesday’s webinar, “How Enterprises are Improving Customer Engagement via the Mobile Channel,” which was presented by OpenMarket, an attendee poll question revealed the main obstacles and challenges to implementing mobile strategies.
Attendees cited the top two challenges as integration with business systems (63%) and determining business outcomes with reporting and analytics (63%). These were followed by lack of skilled staff/mobile expertise (43%), regulatory compliance (40%), and budget constraints (23%).
Steve French, Global Vice President of Product Management and Marketing, OpenMarket, said during the webinar that a lack of understanding is one of the main barriers to mobile strategy implementation on a broader scale.
“With a lack of understanding, evolving technologies, regulatory compliance, integration and management complexities, resources, time and focus, and unique business needs, how do you manage mobile and have time to focus on our core business?” he said.
But if done well, mobile can provide a competitive differentiation, French said.
“Finding the right partner is critical,” he said.
French said companies have to figure out how mobile fits into long-term business strategies.
“Identify critical success factors and ask the right questions to evaluate how mobile will affect your company, and how it will improve communications with customers and employees,” he said. “Choose an experienced mobile solutions partner with industry experience, proven reliability, and customer maturity. Enterprises are integrating mobile into their systems to better engage with customers. Mobile engagement isn’t just about marketing, but about the entire customer lifecycle.”
Sheryl Kingstone, Director, Enterprise Research, Yankee Group, said during the webinar that 64% of people want to be connected all the time. She said that between 30%-50% of businesses are looking to engage in mobile processes in the next two years.
A poll question revealed the top mobile channels being used for mobile engagement strategies: Email (71%), push notifications (61%), SMS (61%), voice (57%), and MMS (26%).
Mobile engagement experience isn’t just about voice and email, Kingstone said.
“Make sure it’s integrated across channels because it’s about customer preferences,” she said. “SMS is a great way to achieve mobile engagement. It’s important to understand individual behaviors and preferences. Make sure you’re not overcommunicating because overcommunicating can be just as bad as under-communicating.”
Kingstone said engaging at the right time with the right message can improve results by 40%.
“Companies have to think more holistically and use more of a platform approach,” she said. “A lot of industries have different needs and requirements across the customer lifecycle. It’s absolutely about the speed and lowering costs.”
Another poll question asked: What departments in your organization are leveraging mobile engagement today?
Sales and marketing came out on top (76%); customer service (55%), corporate communications (30%); IT/security (30%); S 55%; operations and logistics (30%); HR and workforce management (15%).
Mobile engagement is used to improve communications; to differentiate the customer experience; to increase customer loyalty; raise employee productivity; lower costs; and generate new revenue.