How the Mobile Revolution is Changing Business

Featured article by Jessica Oaks, Independent Technology Author

Smartphones, tablets, phablets, laptops and connected devices have begun a mobile revolution that is impacting society, specifically changing business as we know it. How companies operate, market themselves, interact with customers and understand their consumers has been completely affected by the emergence of mobile everything. Business today isn’t as usual—the practices taking place within as a result of mobile technology are in the midst of normalization.

Optimizing Operations

Mobile technology has made running a business a smooth operation for many. Organizations have been able to streamline processes thanks to advancements like synced technology and cloud computing systems. Instead of relying on physical servers where employees must receive software updates and information from a set office location, businesses can now access files from the cloud via their mobile devices. This helps to optimize operations because employees can continue to work without having to be at the office as well as receive any necessary work device for maximum efficiency.

Having the ability to file share and receive/send email remotely has also made collaboration and doing business B2B and B2C faster. The real-time communications cut the bottleneck of the old-school way of waiting to get to a computer. Mobile devices are the new desktop.

Changing Customer Experience

On the customer side, satisfaction is also improving because of what mobile has provided businesses. For retailers, customers can now shop online at their leisure versus in stores, a practice that is becoming the standard more and more, as apparent with holiday shopping trends in the past few years. Even at brick-and-mortar stores, mobile devices such as tablets are changing the way store associates interact with shoppers—small business vendors can ring up a purchase directly from their Square attached to the iPhone and department store employees carry around tablets to instantly see if an item is in stock while customers peruse the aisles.

Customer service has experienced an evolution. Finding out information about a product and tweeting a brand on Twitter with problems are being done via mobile and the response is almost immediate. The outcome has helped brands succeed in the marketplace and win customer loyalty.

Increasing Customer Data

With more mobile activity comes more data being recorded. Businesses can track where their customers and potential customers are going because of GPS locators built within mobile devices, not to mention, all online mobile behavior can be captured. These analytics can be leveraged to a brand’s advantage when trying to understand its consumer, which then translates into smarter marketing.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing has offered endless opportunities for brands to reach their customers. As mobile processors continue to advance so do applications and mobile technology in general. The recent introduction of the Snapdragon 820 is just one example of how the future of mobile can run—smooth, immersive and engaging. It’s these progressive processing chips that allow people to spend so much time on their phones, which directly has affected marketing strategies.

Companies are pouring more money into mobile advertising, whether it’s within mobile games, on YouTube videos, in Facebook ads or email marketing, all of these activities have shifted to live on mobile. Where the eyeballs go, so do the marketing dollars and with superior visual experiences that engage consumers, businesses are beginning to capitalize and intertwine their brands within.

Doing business has seamlessly molded to integrate the mobile technology that now shapes and consumes our lives. The mobile revolution has made businesses better, smarter and customers happier—the impact has been enormous.