Win Business By Giving Customers What They Want: Video

Customers have embraced video. It's time for business to catch up.

Customers are using new video tech to form tribes of people speaking a truth that resonates, and in the process, creating record amounts of online traffic. Businesses - who are desperate to create lasting relationships with these customers - have unique staff, each with authentic stories, each with a smartphone capable of making video and they aren't using them.

Your business cannot afford to be out of touch. Here's a simple summary of the situation.

TRAFFIC

Globally, IP video traffic will be 82 per cent of all Internet traffic by 2021 (1)

Have you got team members who are ready to jump online and be the face of your business to customers. You are going to need them.

Keep in mind the frustrating slow upload and download speeds we endure now will pass. The 5G mobile network is on the way. It won't happen overnight. There will be a lot of broken promises. Overall speeds are getting faster, much faster, not slower. (2)

TECH

A woman was preparing a leg roast. She sawed off the end of the bone. Why do you do that she was asked?

"Because it makes it taste better." Really? "Yes, my mother taught me that."

They went to her mother and asked where'd you learn this secret? She said she learned it from her mother. 

They went to the grandmother and asked the same question. She said, she too, had learned it from her mother.

The great-grandmother was still alive so they went to her.

Why does sawing the end from a leg roast make it taste better?

The great-grandmother said, "Well I don't know about the taste but - and she spreads her hands twelve inches apart - my oven was only this big."

Day to day utility isn't romantic but it drives much of what we do in our lives. Why you need to become 21C video literate all comes down to basic physics.

More people own a mobile phone on the planet than own a toothbrush (3) There’s a conversation starter for you. The number of mobile phone users in the world is expected to pass the five billion mark by 2019.  (4)

We have become addicted to the convenience of the smartphone. We can't stand in line without pulling out our smartphone to ‘check-in' or ‘check on' something. It is how we consume information these days. 

Text on smartphones is small and fiddly and our fingers, by comparison, are large and clunky. Unless our fingers mutate into five thumbs on each hand, then video is simply the easier way to communicate on smartphones.

Just like a big leg roast wouldn't fit in a small oven, big fingers won't fit on a small screen. That is the ho-hum, garden-variety, matter-of-fact reason why you, me, we will be ‘speaking video' to communicate more and more.

TRUTH

The world hungers for truth. Feed it.

We are not immune to the winds of politics blowing through our times. The voice of the international resurgence of political populism is straight talking. Look at the President of the USA

There is a return to speaking ‘public' language. 

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.” - George Orwell

Your customer would love to have a chat with you about their needs. Stop making it so hard. Speaking simply and directly will improve your K.L.T. factor. That's your Know Like and Trust. How's yours?

TRIBES

Generic responses don't cut it anymore. The internet has allowed us to group into tribes of people who have become used to, and expect, personalised service. Amazon gives us personalised readings lists, Youtube suggests videos we might like, dating apps show ‘our type' of partner.

Per the 2017 Epsilon Research online survey of 1,000 consumers ages 18-64, the appeal for personalisation is high, with 80% of respondents indicating they are more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalised experiences and 90% indicating that they find personalisation appealing. (5)

Like a handwritten card, many people assume personalised videos take time, effort and investment to create. Think of how you feel when you get something handwritten these days?  The software for personalised videos, that currently exists, is so easy to use … and it is just going to improve.

Personal video is very good for initiating and closing deals.

People Purpose Pipeline

You already have everything you need to start giving your customers what they are asking for and, in the process, get a jump on all those businesses that ignore the signs that this is a smart thing to do.

Right now, as you read these words, without spending an extra cent, you could send a personal video to a client and connect in a genuine way, that is good for you and good for them. Now multiply that by the number of people you have in your business. 

You have Purpose, People and the Pipeline. You have massive potential, literally, at your fingertips.

PURPOSE

What so many individuals yearn for, businesses don't have to look for. It's built into their foundations: purpose. You know why you exist. Your business was created to solve the problems of people who had a problem that needed solving. 

PEOPLE

All those beating hearts that sit behind the desks have smiling faces and intellect and empathy. They've walked in other people's shoes before. They understand people's problems. Using your humans to humanise your company is a sound strategy.

PIPELINE

What's your telecommunications bill?  All your $1500 smart-devices, phone plans, internet connections? You already own the pipeline to your customers.

Start connecting. The opportunities are there.

Sources

(1) https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/complete-white-paper-c11-481360.html

(2)https://www.whistleout.com.au/MobilePhones/Guides/5g-in-australia-what-you-need-to-know

(3)  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/really-more-mobile-phone-owners-than-toothbrush-jamie-turner/

(4) https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/

(5)https://us.epsilon.com/pressroom/new-epsilon-research-indicates-80-of-consumers-are-more-likely-to-make-a-purchase-when-brands-offer-personalized-experiences

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