500 NEWS

By Wynand Smit, CEO of INOVO

South African businesses are faced with an exceedingly difficult task. They have to find ways to survive in the face of ongoing political uncertainty, fast eroding business and investor confidence, and declining consumer spend. From large retail banks to small consultancies, local businesses have to fight hard to win customers – and even more so to retain them. Indeed, as competition intensifies amidst a slowing economy, brand loyalty is becoming a thing of the past. Today, consumers switch between brands at the slightest hint of better prices, more responsive service and higher quality outcomes. More than ever before, businesses have to stand out – they have to have a clear differentiator in order to survive (and thrive) in a tough environment.

But how do you stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace? The answer is straightforward: provide outstanding customer service.

Instead of looking to change or adjust their service or product offering, South African businesses can attract and retain customers simply by providing seamless and efficient customer service. In an environment in which quality customer service is infamously absent, this can be an almost instantaneous (and relatively easy) way for businesses to gain a critical competitive advantage.

Get your customer service right, and you will instantly stand out from the crowd.

Beyond the buzzwords
There can be no doubt that modern businesses have lost touch with the consumer and end user. While this can be attributed to many factors (urbanisation, the loss of the ‘corner store’, retail chains, hyper connectivity, and so forth), the end result is the same: businesses no longer have a personal, ‘human’ relationship with customers. They have no knowledge of who they are dealing with, what that person’s needs are, their historical relationship with the brand, etc. All intimacy and connection has been lost – the essential link has been broken.

Some companies have recognised this, and have taken steps to repair the broken link. In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of myriad technology solutions and platforms to help businesses get it right. Arguably, however, many ‘solutions’ have been sold on the back of attractive buzzwords (cloud, virtualisation, AI, Big Data, chatbots) that have seldom translated into positive and measurable outcomes for businesses.

Yet the problem doesn’t lie within the technology itself: the problem lies with the simple fact that businesses still do not understand who their customers are.

Get back to basics
To provide world-class customer service and thereby differentiate themselves, businesses have to get back to the very basics of engagement. Forget the technology for now, and place the emphasis on restoring the lost link with the consumer.

There are four key steps to take on this journey, and to provide a strong foundation for growth:

1. Consolidate all interactions – In an attempt to stay ‘relevant’ and trendy, businesses are adopting multiple channels and touchpoints without understanding how to integrate them properly. We are seeing the use of WhatsApp, chatbots and social media to engage with customers, yet with no ability to track, measure and follow through on queries.

To avoid providing lacklustre service on these channels, make sure that you consolidate and bring all the mechanisms into the same queue, i.e. into the measurement environment. If they cannot be consolidated, rather remove certain channels than allow them to dilute the brand.

2. Identify the customer – Once your channels have been consolidated, the next step is to learn to identify the customer across all the various mechanisms. To provide great service, every interaction must quickly and easily reveal who the customer is.

3. Harness the data – Once the identification piece has been solved, you can then begin to gather historical data and create a holistic view of the customer. This data can be used to predict behaviour and thus empower call centre agents with the ability to personalise their service and meet individual needs.

4. Create accountability – The final and critical step is to create accountability. Make the customer a promise and then put mechanisms in place to track and measure if that promise is being fulfilled. Without a culture of accountability, any attempt to enhance customer service will fail.

This also means reassessing and changing existing metrics. Today, efficiency and productivity is often measured according to the number of calls answered in a time period. Yet this means nothing in itself. Were the issues resolved? Were there promises made, and were these promises upheld?

Basics drive profit
By getting back to the basics, understanding their customers, and creating a culture of accountability, businesses can quickly transform from within – without major investment or internal upheaval. There is no doubt that creating a winning customer service proposition is one of the fastest ways to drive bottom line profits today.

With the ‘always on’ culture a major factor impacting work-life balance, Amy McKenzie, responsible for business development at Tétris South Africa, explains how the JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) concept is making its presence felt in progressive South African office spaces.

We’re under constant bombardment. Emails can arrive in your inbox at any time of day or night – and if you’re into wearables, you’ll ‘feel’ them on your wrist. We all belong to several work WhatsApp groups, one more distracting than the next. Then there are our social media timelines and must-read, latest breaking news. The ‘9 to 5’ work culture no longer exists – we are constantly connected. Observe the behaviour of your colleagues at your next meeting – who is actually focused on the subject at hand when that phone or laptop beckons, one intrusive notification after the other?

Our digital habits have become so entrenched that we are at risk of losing the art of concentration in this on-demand, distracted work culture we all operate in. We’ve become too accessible, too prone to interruption. If research says most of us (Millennials in particular) check our phones on average 150 times a day, imagine what that is doing to our productivity levels.

We know we are in trouble when people go into panic-mode when their phone says ‘low battery’, and that there is an actual term for the irrational fear of being without your smartphone – it’s nomophobia!

In the corporate office fit-out industry, get-ahead companies are saying we need to push the pause button. Enter ‘digital dead zones’ – spaces in the modern office where there is no Wi-Fi coverage.

This dedicated disconnected space provides the perfect venue for no-tech meetings. Imagine how effective and efficient your next meeting could be without any digital distractions. This is a great idea for creative brainstorm sessions and forums that require focused attention.

A Wi-Fi-free space gives employees permission to escape to a place where they can fully concentrate on a particular report, important email, or to plot a planning process without any kind of digi-interruption.

These spaces can also be used as relaxation rooms – promoting breaks from prolonged screen time. A digital-free zone is an ideal on-site location for mindfulness activities, like meditation training or yoga classes, adding to the employee experience in the workplace.

At the very least, it can simply encourage face-to-face conversation among colleagues.

Added to this are other initiatives growing in momentum where employees have the right to disconnect from their smart devices at the end of a working day. It’s got everything to do with how you value the work/life balance of your staff.

While it may seem counter-productive to be encouraging a break from the tech we rely on every day to be effective, it sends an important message about employee wellbeing. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that ‘switching off’ regularly is good for our psyche, and with the human experience such a hot topic in the workplace, a space to take a digital detox says a whole lot of good things about a workplace culture.

Who is going to win the Rugby World Cup? Ask any supporter for their opinion and they will tell you exactly what they think with a degree of certainty backed by a number of reasons to justify their forecast. Regardless of their knowledge it’s quite easy for the amateur pundit to put together a rational argument for their prediction.

However, it’s not so easy to act on your opinion when there is money on the line. When emotion mixes with money, things start to go awry. Suddenly that ardent Springbok supporter feels less confident about South Africa beating the All Blacks.

According to Philip Bradford, the Chief Investment Officer of Sasfin Asset Managers, you should think like an investor.

“The global sports betting market is big business and is remarkably similar to the stock market. The odds are set by a combination of professionals and amateurs placing their money on a particular outcome. And as with financial markets, the larger the bet, the more it affects the odds. Therefore, the betting odds are effectively the combined opinions of punters all over the world, but importantly dominated by the big money and the professionals. So, if you know nothing about rugby and want to have a chance at winning the office RWC pool, then just copy the betting websites. It’s as close as you will get to an expert opinion.”

This means it’s unusual to find an opportunity where one of the favourites is offering good odds. The All Blacks are currently offering odds of only 1.2:1. This means that if you correctly pick the All Blacks you will not make much money. However, about two months ago you could get 10:1 on the Springboks winning the tournament because everyone was negative towards their potential to win. That would have been a good bet. Today their odds are 4:1.

“Picking the favourite to win may be the safe option but it is seldom very profitable,” says Bradford. “Financial markets are very similar, and the weight of investor money means that the low-risk investments usually offer low returns and the ‘outsider’ offers high potential returns but with high risk.”

“However right now, like the Springboks a few months ago, our markets appear to be priced incorrectly with the lower risk investments (SA bonds) offering similar returns to the high-risk investments like equities. It’s a bit like getting the All Blacks to win the RWC at better odds than Australia or Wales. In our Sasfin BCI Flexible Income Fund, we are currently earning between 10% and 12% on the bonds we hold. Both cautious and aggressive investors should really look to take advantage of an opportunity like this before it disappears.”

Want to know a sure thing when it comes to building an investment portfolio? “Bonds are the next step up from cash when an investor is looking for extra return with only a little bit of extra risk. They are basically the same as a fixed deposit,” says Bradford. “Fixed income assets in South Africa are currently providing equity-type returns without the uncertainty and are likely to continue to comfortably outperform inflation and cash.”

“In my opinion, South African investors tend to have too much exposure to equities in their pension funds. Stocks performed unusually well in the 1990s and early 2000s and investors assumed that it was normal to get 15% to 20% a year. Unfortunately, it is not. Over the last 30 years SA bonds have returned inflation plus 5% on average which is also a good return.”

Bradford says the outlook for equities is uncertain and the bonds they are holding are yielding over inflation plus 6%. Therefore, he is holding much more bonds in the funds he manages than his peers.

“With a local economy on the ropes, a lot of uncertainty in global markets and the back end of the longest US bull market in history, the potential returns from equities for the next five years are not expected to be good. So, with the low-risk investments giving my investors over 10%, it’s really an easy decision. It’s like getting the All Blacks or the Springboks at 20:1.”

SA Innovation Summit winners given a jumpstart towards transforming Africa.

Three days of pitching, across five competitions, has seen 78 of the world’s most innovative start-ups compete for their share of prizes, valued at over R20-million at the 2019 SA Innovation Summit.

The SA Innovation Summit took place from Wednesday 11 to Friday 13 September 2019 at the Cape Town Stadium. The annual summit brings together over 3 500 delegates from 32 countries and facilitates over R1-billion in deal-making.

The Africa Cup
The Africa Cup in partnership with the Unicorn Group is open to innovative ideas, start-ups and early stage companies in tech and tech-enabled sectors. Finalists in the Africa Cup pitched their businesses in front of an esteemed panel of judges on the final day of the SA Innovation Summit.

The following start-ups were announced as winners:

In third place, Origin Dynamic Systems’ Updraft, which merges artificial intelligence and legal expertise, won a R1-million investment offer and one-week acceleration in South Africa.

The second prize was taken by Vegetal Signals, an enterprise that uses plant electrical activity to monitor stresses in crops, won a R2.5-million investment offer and two weeks acceleration in Silicon Valley, Lagos or Budapest.

The winner, Asilimia, took home a R5-million investment offer and three weeks acceleration in any of the three locations. Asilimia offers financial services to informal traders in Kenya, offering them affordable insurance and payment options.

ANDZA Entrepreneur competition
The ANDZA Entrepreneur competition, in collaboration with the SA SME Fund, aims to find the top investment-ready businesses in the country to fast track them to success and provide a platform to help accelerate their innovative ideas to greater heights and further develop the South African economy.

The winner of R250 000 in cash was offered to LiquidGold Africa, an enterprise that produces a toilet with a nutrient recovery solution to create fertilizer from urine.

Winetech
The Winetech Pitching Den looks for disruptive, innovative, cost-effective and practical solutions for reducing the wine industry’s impact on the environment. The winners of the Winetech Pitching Den will receive exposure to more than 650 industry representatives in South Africa, along with business development to the value of R150 000 to be taken up in South Africa. This prize was awarded to Vegetal Signals.

SEDA Pitch & Perfect
The Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) Pitch & Perfect Masterclasses and Competition provides SMMEs across the country with professional tools on how to present business cases effectively and efficiently, in persuasive pitches to potential funders, improving access to market, technology and finance.

Intelligent Safe Technologies took the first prize of technology incentives valued at R300 000. Intelligent Safe Technologies produces a smart, computer controlled high security dispensing system for high value retail stock.

The TIA Inventors Garage
The TIA Inventors Garage is aimed at innovators and inventors with demos, working prototypes or products that are in the early commercialisation stage. The enterprises are evaluated on originality, need for their invention, growth potential, practicality and creativity.

Shuri, an enterprise that detects and monitors water leaks using satellite imagery and deep learning technology, took the prize of R10 000 in cash.

By Adrian van der Merwe, CEO of North Wind Digital

The Finance Factory and the Augmented Worker are the future of finance functions within every business. The Finance Factory is going to see processes across the finance function of a business productionalised and either fully or majority-automated, with the automation either run internally or outsourced. The more specialised functions that aren’t part of the Finance Factory will be covered by automation tools that make accountants’ day jobs easier – making them ‘Augmented Workers’. Accountants will employ Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to eliminate the manual, repetitive parts of their job to allow them to be more productive and add value to the function that they’re actually performing.

Either way, the reality is that business finance functions are not going to exist without automation. And if those finance functions are outsourced to a Finance Factory or based on simple RPA, the business doesn’t need to worry about developing, maintaining or operating the processes, which results in lower costs and the opportunity to focus on other vital business functions, instead.

The immediate reaction from most businesses is ‘we couldn’t possibly outsource something as vital as our finance function’ – but they’re already outsourcing vital functions to operators around the world by adopting cloud tech. Where the real leap of faith comes in is that right now, there’s a massive lack of education around what robots are and aren’t capable of. The problem is that clients don’t know how to discern between what is automatable and what isn’t – and where a robot can save them time and money. The internet itself is a great analogy – 99% of people who use it, can’t explain how it works. That’s RPA – there’s a use case in everyone’s life, but they don’t necessarily know how to apply it.

One of the major reasons that businesses aren’t sure how to implement RPA is because they think their processes are unique. In our experience, everyone thinks they’re unique until they discover that all the software vendors out there have modelled best practice into a solution and that they either have to fit in or rather not adopt cloud tech. A lot of organisations have realised that, in the face of the high cost of developing and maintaining a customised solution, it’s actually better to adapt their processes to what’s becoming a universal SOP and enjoy the flexibility and savings, instead. We’re currently automating the same process for different clients, having discovered that they all actually have the same general ledger system. This means that everything we automate for one, we can automate for the other two. These reusable processes utilise the same underlying tech, which has cost-saving implications for all our clients.

We believe that 83% of finance functions within a business can currently be automated. The 17% that can’t are the elements that rely on human interaction, like business development, interpretation of analytics and decision-making. In the B2B space, the decision maker on each side is still a human being and so a lot of decisions are made – with the support of tech and loads of data – on the basis of ‘feeling’. In 5 years, we may see AI selling to AI, in which case they’ll be making decisions based on hard variables like quality, price, track record, potential for success and the like. In the face of such overwhelming benefits, can any business not afford to be adopting outsourced RPA?

Book: Mall Maker by M. Jeffrey Hardwick
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Reviewer: M.E. Jacobs
My thoughts: 9 out of 10

Mall Maker chronicles the life and career of Victor Gruen, the architect and urban designer who almost single-handedly transformed the American way of life. More specifically, the book delves deep into his philosophies behind revolutionising the downtown store front of the 1940s, the popularisation of shopping malls in the 1950s and the revitalisation of city centres in the 1960s. His concepts have in part been adopted and implemented worldwide, showing how truly influential one man’s ideas can be.

Having fled Vienna in the 1930s due to Hitler’s invasion of Vienna, Gruen used his European background to transform retail and public spaces in both downtown and the relatively new phenomenon known as the suburbs. The author manages to give the reader a glimpse into Gruen’s mind while still being unbiased by disclosing contemporary critique and arguments against his ideas.

Victor Gruen arrived in the United States in 1938, just in time to be part of the groundbreaking 1939 World Fair. America at that point had not yet entered the war but was still very much in the grip of the Great Depression. There were many factors at play in the new environment he found himself in and they all seemed to fit him perfectly. Having been an architect in his beloved Vienna, Gruen now had to reinvent himself in this new country. With American architects having a somewhat narrow-minded view of storefront design, Gruen was one of only a few architects working in the field. Ironically, in Europe, storefront design was seen as a very respectable profession and with his experience, was seen as an expert.

When the United States finally entered World War II in 1941, it signalled the beginning of a residential revolution. Partly because of the war and the popularisation of the automobile, suburbanisation started to rise. Suddenly there were thousands of new households living far away from downtown who needed a place where they too could enjoy shopping. Gruen had an amazing knack for designing retail spaces that catered to both the motorist and the pedestrian, something we take for granted today. He wanted to recreate his Vienna, where people came together at the European arcade or piazza to wander the streets and sip coffee while watching the goings-on of passersby. His suburban shopping centres proved to be so successful however, it drew retailers, and thus customers, away from the city centre.

With downtown now in decline, Gruen set his sights on the “suburbanization of downtown”, bringing his tried and tested shopping centre back to the city. Although he did have success in this field, the suburban domination of retail was there to stay, due in great part to Gruen himself. In the end, Gruen became disillusioned with America and moved back to Vienna. He had tried to influence American values to be more in line with the European way of life, but ultimately failed.

Mall Maker is an absolute must-read for anyone working in retail and urban development, if only to understand the problems around today are by no means new.

What I learned from Mall Maker:

With the shopping centre’s dominance having come to an end in the United States, it is a fascinating read on where it all started, and why. Gruen’s eventual objection, and rejection, of the shopping mall stemmed from developers having copied only part of his concept. The shopping mall, in his mind, was to be part of a larger development, always with the community and pedestrian first and foremost in mind. It is also interesting if not somewhat disheartening to see the same problems still milling around, sixty-five years later. Urban renewal and retail development was big business in the 1950s and 1960s yet somehow we seem to believe they are new issues to be tackled and solved.

It is also quite interesting to learn why many shopping malls worldwide followed the same architectural design, which initially was solely meant as backlash against the American 1950’s flashy if not gaudy retail strips. The book also conveys the message of why shopping centres, which some once believed invincible, are in decline. They are by no means new, almost three generations of people have grown up with the concept of the shopping mall and very little will impress a public who has seen almost every possible shopping centre design. Some new developments do seem to be more successful, in part because they follow Gruen’s complete plan, which included residential and office developments, not just the shopping centre alone.

Selected quotes:
● “Your property is no better than its environment” – Victor Gruen
● “In Gruen’s mind, little separated public benefit from private profit.” – M. Jeffrey Hardwick
● “You (Victor Gruen) should have left downtown, downtown.” – Architect Frank Lloyd Wright
● “I refuse to pay alimony for those bastard developments.” – Victor Gruen, commenting late in his career on the changing face of shopping malls.
● “For Europe, the thoughtless copying of the American shopping centre has been truly catastrophic.” – Victor Gruen

Dr John Demartini explains how stress accelerates the ageing process and offers advice on how to combat this

Experiencing high levels of stress can make you age prematurely. You probably know at least a few individuals who have experienced what they imagine to be highly stressful events; maybe a divorce, the loss of a loved one, a reduction in income, debt or the discovery of a serious health issue that has accelerated their ageing processes quite rapidly.


I remember a young man who found out that his mother had metastatic cancer. Within a few weeks he began growing a patch of white hair. It was quite amazing how quickly his hair aged. I watched a young 20-year-old girl find out she was pregnant, without knowing who the father was, and saw how she felt the pressure of the social and financial implications. I literally watched her face age at least five years in just a few weeks. It’s scary how quickly stress can take its physiological toll.

So what can you do if you find yourself experiencing circumstances that feel emotionally distressing? Having a close friend or a professional to communicate with would be ideal. Meditation and stilling your mind to enable your inner solutions to arise can also assist. Exercising to channel off some extra tension will maybe assist temporarily. Making sure you eat quality, nutritious food during such times is certainly wise. Also, ask yourself: how could your perceived stressful situation actually serve or benefit you now and in the future?

To perceive only the negative side of the emotional equation and not even attempt to search for the accompanying positive side can further exacerbate the stress and keep you perpetually bound to the so-called ‘stressor.’ This will certainly drain your adrenal gland reserves over time and age you. Balancing the equation dissolves the charge of the ‘stressor.’ A balanced mind is more timeless and ageless.

Ask yourself what the drawbacks would be if this emotionally stressful event had not occurred? Sometimes we assume that our life would have been ‘much
better’ if things would have turned out differently.

Sometimes people compare their present realities to falsely optimistic fantasies. Having unrealistic expectations about the world or yourself can add to your stress perceptions when life doesn’t match your ideal fantasy. Be sure your life expectations are balanced and realistic. Life offers a balance. One-sided events don’t occur.

Since many stressful situations involve personal interactions with others, it’s wise to ask where and when you have participated in such an interaction with someone else who perceived you as being the source of their stress. This question can humble you and make you think twice about unwisely judging others, since a lot of stress involves exaggerated judgments about others. Self-reflection is wise and honest introspection often reveals humbling histories.

When you become reflective your expectations often become more realistic. 
Since every action involves an equal and opposite reaction, try to find the exact opposite or ‘anti’ event taking place in your life right now. If someone is criticising or rejecting you, ask yourself where someone is simultaneously praising or accepting you, although maybe not within the same location. This takes deep inspection, but it is worth the moment of exploration. A great discovery is revealed when you take the time to honestly probe the initially unseen world that balances every event.

Experiencing high levels of stress can make you prematurely age. But there are a few sensible actions you can do to remedy such stress-induced ageing dilemmas. By applying the above few outlined approaches to dissolving or reducing stress you can keep your more youthful energies.


Dr. John Demartini is a human behaviour specialist, educator, international best-selling author and the founder of the Demartini Institute.

www.DrDemartini.com

Flight Centre Business Travel launches travel competition to help SMEs reach their potential

For the first time in South Africa, Flight Centre Business Travel has launched the ‘Corporate Travel Grant Competition’, offering small to medium-size enterprises the opportunity to win R150 000 in travel credits to help them achieve their business goals.

To stand a chance of winning, South African small businesses need to answer two easy questions in a video of one to two minutes or in a Microsoft Word, Powerpoint or PDF document (maximum 1,000 words). The questions are:

1. What does travel mean for your business?
2. What will this Travel Grant allow you to do

Andrew Grunewald, FCBT Brand Leader, says: “Flight Centre Business Travel (FCBT) was once a small business. We know the unique challenges SMEs face, and just how powerful a grant like this can be for continued growth and success.”

Research shows companies that spent more on business travel saw profits soar by as much as 47%, Grunewald adds. “And, companies with a strong travel culture – where the leaders see corporate travel as an investment rather than an unnecessary cost – experience much better business results compared to those with a weak travel culture,” he explains.

“Travel is an essential component of growing a business. But, too often, growing SMEs are concerned about the pressure travel expenses will put on their cash flow and profits. By awarding this grant, we want to allow one fortunate SME the opportunity to experience the full benefits of business travel.”

The winning SME will receive:
• R30 000 Avis car hire and transfers
• R30 000 City Lodge Group accommodation credit
• R10 000 Mariott International accommodation credit
• R15 000 Meeting Room credit
• Lounge access to the value of R5 000
• R20 000 TIC annual travel policy coverage
• R30 000 worth of international flights
• R10 000 worth of domestic flights

Plus, the top 10 finalists will be announced on Hot 91 FM, generating some excellent radio exposure for their businesses.

Applications close on 18 October 2019. The winner will be announced on 22 October.

For more information, visit https://www.flightcentrebusinesstravel.co.za/business-travel-grant

By Paula Sartini, founder and CEO of BrandQuantum

Today’s customers are tech-savvy, have access to brands across a global marketplace, are not restricted to trading hours and they know what they want. To compete in this market, brands have to evolve to meet customer’s needs and exceed their expectations. This can only be done by implementing technology solutions that provide a seamless experience whether in-store or online, local or global. Technology is imperative to connect with customers, improve experiences and drive customer loyalty.

Technology savvy customers
Customers rely on peer reviews before making purchasing decisions. They search, browse and research products online and make purchasing decisions before they have even walked into a store. In some instances, with instant access to the internet via smartphones, they compare products and prices in store before making final purchasing decisions.

Customers also aren’t limited to trading hours or geographical boundaries as online and mobile shopping presents a convenient alternative to spending time in stores. They are able to find the brands they are looking for and make purchases instantaneously without the hassle of shopping around first and standing in queues. This is supported by research from Nielson[1] which states that 30% of global retail sales will be made through an app or software by 2020.

Using data to make decisions
Technology isn’t only available to consumers. Brands should be using technology to improve customer engagements and drive brand loyalty. This can be achieved by starting with the data. For years companies have collected customer data, now they have technologies to analyse the data and make informed business decisions.

Starbucks[2], for example, has implemented technology that enables it to instantly track and aggregate sales and other data to determine which products are the most popular with customers and understand when and where customers are making purchases. This data is then used to determine which new offerings it should introduce according to customer preferences.

While companies are able to use data that customers have provided, companies need to be considerate of adhering to regulations such as the POPI Act and protect their customer data. This is supported by the PWC Global Customer Insight Survey 2019 which cautions that “customers want the companies they interact with to protect their personal data, and indicates that they’ll take their business elsewhere if they don’t trust that a company is safeguarding their personal particulars.”

Customer experience is key
According to the Interbrand Breakthrough Brands survey of 2016, leading brands are customer-centric and comprehensive in approaching their touchpoints. This means that companies need to focus beyond product launches and marketing campaigns and pay attention to the entire customer experience in the initial planning of their go-to-market strategy.

Brands need to consider the holistic experience delivered across all devices from direct customer engagements through to online and mobile experiences and ensure that they are all aligned to the brand. However, it is equally important that brands are also looking inwards to ensure that they are considering how they are engaging employees to deliver the brand experience consistently in every customer engagement.

This is supported by findings from the PWC Global Consumer Insights Survey 2019[3] which highlights that companies are moving towards the ‘return on experience’ which means that they are measuring the return on experience based on how customers interact with their brand and how employee experience contributes to the overall experience.

Technology solutions can be helpful in empowering employees to exceed customer’s expectations by automating repetitive tasks that are time intensive. For example, customer statements could be automated, while more intensive customer queries could be handled by employees that no longer need to search for statements for clients.

Personalisation
Human interaction is a key factor that will differentiate brands from other offerings on the market. While technology can be used to change the way brands work, it cannot be used to establish relationships of trust with customers. As such the most critical differentiator for customers will be the human touch. Technology and customer data work hand in hand to help deliver personalised experiences that meet customer’s needs.

Customers no longer want an SMS or email with their name on it, they want information that is relevant to them, they are looking for personalised experiences and they want to feel like companies know who they are and what they want based on their previous behaviour with the company. This means reaching them at a time that is most convenient or relevant to them with information that is specific to their needs rather than bombarding them with content that is designed for everyone.

For example, if a customer purchases pizza every Wednesday, they should be targeted on a Wednesday with a special offer and a prompt which suggests having the order ready for them at the usual time of collection rather than sending messages to them on other days with deals that aren’t relevant to them.

Weave technology into the brand
With tech-savvy customers brand cannot afford not to embrace technology solutions as part of their offering. While traditionally companies needed to incorporate their core values and mission throughout the brand, today technology needs to be added to this mix. According to Sidney Harman, “the more technology is woven into your values, the more likely it is to be used wisely.”

The wise use of technology is critical for businesses to succeed in today’s global market. No longer is technology a nice to have or can it be incorporated for technology sake. It has to meet the specific needs of customers. As such the customer should be at the centre of every business decision and determine which technologies are incorporated to streamline engagements and delight customers.

Technology, which should serve as a competitive differentiator in aiding brands to provide superior experience and connect with audiences, should integrate into existing systems to ensure that is it is easy to use and used regularly and effectively.

To achieve this marketing and technology departments can no longer work as silos within an organisation. They need to sit at the boardroom table and make decisions together to develop solutions that ultimately enhance experiences and delight customers.

Whether you’re a business offering a particular service or a professional working in a professional practice, regular communication with your customers or clients can go a long way to keep your appointments book filled up. Merely relying on clients to contact you when they need your service or product is not nearly enough to turn your business or service into a household name.

While large businesses understand this, it’s not often that smaller enterprises contact customers they have dealt with previously. We all receive communication from our banks about new products but when last did you hear from your plumber or the roofing firm that you used five years ago?

There are numerous reasons why it makes good business sense to build relationships with customers. Reducing customer churn, lowering the costs of acquiring customers, and creating a differentiator for your business are just some examples of why ongoing communication makes sense.

In most businesses, there’s every reason for customers to make multiple purchases. Take roof repair, for instance. It shouldn’t be a once-off contact just when the roof actually leaks – the roof needs to be checked regularly and there may be a need to repaint the roof with waterproof paint every five or 10 years. The roofing contractor should make contact with the client at an appropriate time to remind them of the need for the next service. Otherwise, the roof won’t be checked and maintained – and the next time it leaks it’s quite possible that the customer will call in another service provider to do the repair.

The upcoming shift in seasons represents a great opportunity for small businesses to contact people who have previously interacted with them. For handymen, the message could be about it being a perfect time for painting or repairing broken gutters because the rain is now largely over. Gardening services have myriad potential offers to make with the move into summer, while sports clothing and equipment stores could be promoting their stock for summer sports.

According to Greg Chen, the founder and CEO of mobile communication tool Mobiz, “The benefits of ongoing customer communication makes it a no-brainer. But, what’s less obvious is the way in which that communication could take place for it to be most effective. And importantly, how one can start to collect customer data with minimal friction.”

Traditional methods include outbound calls from call centres, emails and SMSs.

“However, while these are established methods of making contact with customers, it’s also important to analyse their success rate,” explains Chen. “After all, it makes no sense to make a thousand calls if you achieve only one sale.”

Chen advises that the best bet is to opt for a communication tool that will promote more engagement between the business and its customers. “You want to be sure that significant numbers of recipients of your communication respond positively to the contact you’ve made – be it through opening your email, replying, or ideally actually making a purchase,” he says.

Chen favours the channel of Smart SMS. “Firstly, research shows that people will open an SMS 98% of the time, compared with 22% of emails, 29% of tweets and 12% of Facebook posts. So, this already shows that using SMS as a communication tool makes great sense.”

Then, if you are able to personalise the SMS – by including the individual customer’s name, for example – your response rate is immediately likely to be higher. Plus, if you include a response mechanism via the SMS, you’re much more likely to get a response. So you can use the SMS as the first stage to get the customer interested; then add a clickthrough to a web page with more details and with a response mechanism like making a booking or purchasing online.

“We have seen a 400% improvement in engagement rates for these sorts of Smart SMSs as opposed to other forms of communication,” Chen says. “That means that the investment in the service more than pays its way.”

This method of communicating with customers is particularly easy to carry out – and it needn’t cost very much either. For around R200 one can be set up with mobile marketing automation to start growing their customer data organically and reach hundreds of these customers via SmartSMS.

As a small business owner, you can make your business stand out from your competitors. Good service is definitely a differentiator and communicating with customers is one element of good service.

A change in the way we see, and deliver, healthcare has been a burgeoning investment in start-ups in the sector. In 2017 alone, the estimated global investment in healthcare start-ups sat at around US$12-billion.

Some of the brightest and best ideas transforming healthcare have been born on our continent: Drones delivery of medical supplies, systems that transform diagnosis and apps that connect remote medical workers to resources at nearby hospitals.

This year’s Africa Cup finalists include some of this next generation of innovative healthcare startups who all share the same sentiment: They believe Africa’s healthcare issues can be solved by using technology.
The next generation of new ideas
The SA Innovation Summit’s Africa Cup is open to innovative ideas, startups and early stage companies in tech and tech-enabled sectors. Finalists will pitch their businesses in front of an esteemed panel of judges on the final day of the Summit, with the winner set to receive a R5-million investment offer and three weeks of acceleration.

The cup has 11 finalists from a range of categories, including Fintech, Big Data, Social Entrepreneurship and Healthcare. The three healthcare finalists are:

1. Curacel, a Nigerian AI-driven platform, that fast tracks claim processing and detects fraudulent claims for health insurance companies. Curacel provides a web application to health insurance companies for collecting, processing, and paying health claims.

2. South African-born BIIS has developed Cyber Guardian, an early depression detector mobile application built on machine-learning algorithm. Cyber Guardian uses access to end user’s mobile device activities such as social media lifestyle, chats, searches and emails to analyse an individual’s mental health.

3. Proudly South African 3D Prosthetic Hand is a low-cost, robotic prosthetic hand which senses the intention of the user, allowing them to hold a variety of objects as well as do intricate tasks like tie their shoelaces. The machine learning techniques enable the amputee to feel the objects they are holding.

Over 80% of start-ups at the SA Innovation Summit competitions are from the continent, and the majority have a revenue of less than R2-million, explains SA Innovation Summit chairperson Audrey Verhaeghe. Of the entrants, 7% are in the field of Biotech (healthcare) and 22% are classified as social entrepreneurs.

The Summit, taking place from Wednesday 11 to Friday 13 September 2019 at the Cape Town Stadium, aims to facilitate more than R1-billion in deals between investors and startups.

“There is a yearning among African startups to disrupt the current healthcare industries on the continent through technology and innovative ideas. The healthcare industry is ripe for disruption and investors should be looking to the next generation of innovators for the ideas that will transform our continent,” says Verhaeghe.

Healthcare from the heart
One of the reasons the healthcare industry is perfect for tech disruption, is that many startups are driven by passion, with their founders looking to address a need close to their hearts.

Henry Mascot, co-founder and CEO of Curacel, developed a passion for healthcare at a young age after feeling helpless when he lost his father due to a “moribund healthcare system”. For Mascot, technology is the key to help Africa solve its healthcare challenges.

“We can see the massive impact of mobile phones in Africa. I am a big believer that for healthcare’s issues some can be leapfrogged using technology. We have limited resources and cannot follow the path other parts of the world used in getting to where they got to. We have to be lean, agile and leverage technology to build better healthcare systems that mirror African cultural behaviours,” he says.

3D Prosthetic Hand was also born as a passion project, says Project leader and Biomedical Engineer Abdul-Khaaliq Mohamed, after encountering many people in wheelchairs and those who have lost limbs.

“Our education and professional journeys have led us to apply cutting-edge technology to benefit the human body. Our 3D prosthetic hand simply aids upper limb amputees to do everyday activities again as well as hobbies which they have had to put on pause,” he says.

BIIS’ Khutso Bapela believes technology provides efficient solutions to improve quality of life on the continent.

“Through our company we were able to contribute to the development of a variety of technologies that are currently improving how we live on a daily basis. Technology has been consistent in providing high quality healthcare and has played a crucial role in taking precautionary measures. A human life is a precious gift and once it’s gone, no one can retrieve it.”

The US, Europe or Asia are all enticing markets for many SMEs and corporates looking to expand, but the barriers-to-entry in competition, nevermind cost, are in many cases insurmountable.

Dig a little deeper and what’s evident is the smart money is actively prospecting and breaking ground on the content of Africa. As to why there is a growing appetite to invest where many have failed before all comes down to a combination of timing, technology and broad-based innovation.

With its rapidly growing population, coupled with the fact that it’s getting younger – in 10 to 15-years-time the business sector opportunities to break into this market will equal those of today’s most competitive markets.

The pace of investment is ramping up fast already. So much so that five-out-of-10 of the world’s fastest-growing economies will be well-entrenched in Africa before 2024, and by 2034 Africa will have a bigger working-age population than India or China.

The impending arrival of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, is also another compelling reason to ready a business for continental growth. Add to that the fact that labour costs are one-third of those in the lowest-cost European countries, and all signs point to the continent as an attractive destination for businesses looking to scale, reduce overhead, and grow bottom-line returns.

Savvy South African-based SMEs are reading the signs and many have begun their journey north. James Hedley, co-founder and co-director of Quicket, one of South Africa’s most dynamic and pioneering businesses, is one such company looking to expand its African ticketing footprint.

Africa’s Business Revolution, published by McKinsey, has been a further inspiration for Quicket’s commitment to embracing all things African in the months and years ahead. “I think what you have to be most excited about is the exponentially growing, young up-and- coming population,” Hedley enthuses.

Historically African expansion has been hindered by logistical realities. Today, due to technological advances, the bigger challenge is more operational than it is competitive. “This creates a massive opportunity for people who can innovate to come up with uniquely African solutions,” Hedley says. “The best example here is Mpesa, which flourished in Kenya because there was no proper banking infrastructure. There are however countless other examples in every sector from electricity to agriculture.”

As with any new market, what’s enticing is its potential to scale. “It’s essential that we can be super-efficient and innovative in rolling out our solution,” Hedley says of Quicket’s new-market considerations. “This all about creating systems, building partnerships and solving payments in a way that simultaneously works across all of the most important markets.”

“The challenge is to set up a viable operation that works for a lot less money,” he adds. “Key to this is using existing hardware (Android phone, web applications, etc.) and making things easy to use and self-managed, so you don’t need to invest vast amounts in training and support.”

Rapid expansion is possible with digital solutions, compared with the traditional bricks and mortar requirements of old. With even the most basic of smartphones getting into the hands of more and more African’s the opportunity for engagement and conversion is ripe.

The caution, before entering any new market, however, is not to assume that one size fits all. A classic example of success, sighted in Mpesa’s case earlier, is not a guarantee that it will necessarily travel well. In the case of Mpesa, Vodafone looked to capitalise on its north African success in South Africa, and the market simply didn’t embrace it. Not even after two failed attempts, supported with strong marketing support.

Innovation is absolutely key, but on the ground knowledge and respect for the audience you intend appealing to is equally critical. “Companies that can adjust to these challenges, and innovate around them, should have enormous potential to tap into the world’s most significant growth market,” Hedley concludes.

The famous quote from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism, reads: ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Simply put, in an African reality, before you venture into new markets, make it your business to know if he even eats piscis first.

James Hedley is co-founder and co-director of Quicket and is at the forefront of the company’s brand strategy and vision. He has been deeply involved in growing the company into a major player in the African online ticketing space. Since founding the company, his key responsibilities have included business development, strategic planning and managing expansion into Africa.