The Telephone - It's Still Good To Talk

British Telecom (BT) famously told us, "it's good to talk".

There are some things that are just better if done over the phone. 

Transactions and information transmission suit online and text, synchronous conversations work well on the phone or face to face.  Asynchronous conversations suit chat or text.

So far this year, I found the phone (voice) to be my channel of choice when; enquiring about holiday options, discussing sensitive work topics, ordering a taxi, speaking with my family arranging for a decorator to work on our house.

There are many high value transactions that are initiated over the phone.  High value, offline leads.  Buying a car, buying a house, booking a holiday, finding a tradesman, purchasing financial products.  Conversations convert.

Apart from talking, my phone has been my preferred device for the following activities; emailing friends, reading updates from family on their travels (Facebook / Blog), ordering groceries, renting DVDs, making bank payments, checking the weather, reading the news, tuning my guitar, finding out how to get somewhere, selling second hand goods, buying movie tickets, reading a book on the train, following content of interest (Twitter, Quora), taking photos, checking train schedules and using a calculator.

I may be stating the obvious but we are all becoming heavier and heavier users of phones.  We all have them, 62% of UK mobile phones are now "smartphones" and we generally have them with us 24/7.  17.4% of global web traffic comes through mobile devices.  49% of UK adults access the Internet on their mobile and the average household now owns more than three types of Internet enabled device, with one in five owning six or more.

Call volumes have been declining slightly but there are still over 233 billion minutes a year made (2012 data: OFCOM).

If my personal experience is anything to go by, I have moved transactions online where I find it easier to do so, however I will always use the phone for more complicated transactions or where a conversation is involved.

It's not surprising that investors have been piling money into mobile.  Latest figures show that in the US, in Q3 2013, venture capital investors poured $1.12 billion across 150 deals into U.S. mobile & telecoms companies, marking the largest financing quarter to the mobile sector ever.

As we look to the future, here's 12 2014 predictions  for mobile by app development company Goldengekko.

My 13th predication is that measuring all of the phone activity (on voice and in apps) will become increasingly used and understood by businesses  as they calculate the return on investment they get on their marketing where the response (call to action is a phone call).

In the same way that web analytics is now commonplace and understood by almost all businesses with a web channel, phone analytics will become known and used by all businesses that rely on the voice calls for their inbound leads.

It's very good to talk.

It Took 7 Years to Kill The PC Era

The rumours of the first Apple iPhone were around in 2006.  Sceptics posted blogs such as "Why the Apple phone will fail, and fail badly"




For years phones were getting smaller, cheaper and with more and more functionality.  Here was a phone that was more expensive, larger and (for the first release), not that much in the way of functionality.  It didn't even have copy and paste.

I guess the sceptics were wrong.  Apple stormed the market with a new product and the world quickly followed.

I remember a friend bringing a new iPhone to work as soon as they were first launched back in 2007.  He was hooked, loved it! I was intrigued. I liked it but I considered it too expensive to switch.

He was an early adopter.  He bought to be ahead of the curve, cool, hip.  He was also prepared to take a product that wasn't really that great yet (only 2G, 6 hour battery life) and pay a premium.

In our household, the first smartphone appeared in 2009.  That was when the price came down and the network connectivity improved (3G).  I was in the "early majority" group.

Last week, for the first time, every adult in our household now has a smartphone for the first time.  An old phone was being replaced and the standard replacement now for a contract phone is a good value Windows or Android phone.  Smartphones are now in the "late majority" stage of consumer adoption.

This is born out by the stats.  In the UK we have;

62% smartphone penetration
87% smartphone users searching for local information via their phone
73% smartphone users researching products via their phone
39% smartphone users who have made a purchase via their phone

This is information gleaned from Google's Our Mobile Planet Report, which is is a really useful tool to check the above numbers for any country in the world.  You can also drill down by usage, age and gender.

The world has moved on.  The PC era is over.  The mobile era is here. 

Community 101, Drive Usage, Then Monetise

STOP PRESS!!!

Since I wrote this blog, my frustration and objections are now resolved, you CAN now hear what I really thought about location based services on video...


ORIGINAL POST....

Location based services. Buzz words. You hear them a lot right now. But what do they mean?

Simply put then, if I know where you are, can I offer you something that uses that knowledge in real-time?

If your mobile phone tells me your location co-ordinates...
- if I am Google I can show you a map of where you are and what is nearby
- if I am a restaurant booking app on your iPhone (e.g. bookatable) I can show you restaurants nearby
- if I am Foursquare I can present local restaurants and bars that you can "check-in" to and see who else of your friends are there

Three very simple examples then. But what of the future?

What are the implications for consumers and for marketeers?

At a recent plustechnology event run by London lawyers, Olswang, I committed my comments on this topic to video.

A company called Knowledge Peers were videoing peoples thoughts. Today I received an email with a link to a short video on my observations that targeted marketing can be welcomed by consumers rather than seen as obtrusive, and that location-based technologies help with accurate targeting.

Can I share it? No!

I really don't get it. I mean, I REALLY don't get it. What the? Uh?

Knowledge Peers is a members only site. I tried to send a share this link to a friend, they first had to sign in to Knowledge Peers. Fail. They STILL couldn't view the video. Doh - that sign up was for standard membership. Apparently I have full membership and that's why I can view it. Double Fail.

Look, if you want to build a community site, it needs to be viral, self-sustaining. You need to drive USAGE first, then monetise when you actually HAVE a community.

It's all upside down. I should be able to embed the video in this blog post, email it to friends. If they get value from the content, maybe they will sign up and subscribe.

The content on Knowledge Peers is pretty good. I mean, it's like a YouTube for business. But walling it in is route to oblivion.

So much for trying to share my thoughts on location based services with you. Sorry!

Find A Restaurant Near You

The guys over at lastminute.com labs have been busy.

Last year they brought us fonefood, a website especially built for a mobile phone that allows you to search and book restaurants. The restaurant booking capability is powered by Livebookings.

Now, they are testing a new service called nru (near you). It's a nifty device that can be used on the latest Android phone from T-Mobile.

It's a sign of things to come.

Not sure where to eat? Load up your phone to find and read about restaurants near you.

The video below shows it in action:

Mobile Online Restaurant Booking From fonefood (lastminute.com)

Booking a restaurant online on your mobile.

I'm excited. Today sees the launch of fonefood, a new beta mobile restaurant booking service from lastminute.com.

You want to find or book a restaurant. Nowadays one of the easiest ways to do that is online. You don't need to wait for the restaurant to be open, you don't need the restaurant to answer your call. You can book there and then online and in real-time.

Increasingly though people are taking the internet with them in their pockets and more of us expect to be able to get online anywhere at anytime.

That's what's great about fonefood. You can book tables on the move! You're on the train, you're in a taxi, you're at the airport. Wherever you happen to be it's easy to search and book with your web enabled mobile phone.

fonefood is available at http://m.lastminute.com/fonefood

Try it out. You are given descriptions of nearby restaurants, with currently over a thousand available deals, discounts and promotions. It uses Google Maps to show restaurants near your chosen location. Once you’ve chosen a restaurant there is no need to call, you just book directly on your mobile (for free!) and receive an instant confirmation via SMS. (This is especially handy if you're abroad and don't speak the local language).

It is available in 12 countries and gives users access to over 6,000 restaurants. The restaurant reservations technology is powered by Livebookings Network.

lastminute.com even put a cool little video together on Youtube to market the service....





I love progress!