Digital first Smartphone solutions for Business
Social media is perfect for distributing APP’s for your clients to smartphone phone.
A Progressive Web APP or PWA
No download required
change-requires-a-decision
And the information lag to implement change is costing business a fortune.
Research conducted by:
Fliplet.com
Maltix.co.uk
Research dissertation UWE Bristol Dr Phillipa Coles
Many more startling facts within research paper:
And why Estate Agents simply cannot keep up with he demands of the Smartphone user.
In the high-stakes world of home buying and selling, understanding the path to a purchase is both an art and a science.
Our analysis shows that the average home buyer requires 52 touchpoints, spanning from initial research to contact with an Estate Agent to actual purchase.
What were our top findings?
There’s an average of 52 touchpoints from first inquiry (like a smart form submission, chat room query ) to completion.
The Metrics.
If one sales agent sells two homes per month, that’s 24 buyers per year x 52 touch points = 1,248 touch points a sales person has to manage in a year.
And that doesn’t include all of the other inquiries and contracts that cancel.
Average time from first inquiry to close was six months for primary residence and 15 months for secondary homes.
80% of Clients submit a smart form to start their enquiries, mostly off their Smartphone.
Drip email and newsletter campaigns can increase traffic by as much as 5%
But our research suggests a Progressive Web APP with no download required will increase enquiry traffic by as much as 20% using a combination of free notifications and SMS
How did you determine the amount of touchpoints in a single home buying transaction?
What are the top most crucial touchpoints? MIND MAP
Progressive Web APP notification advocacy
Online and QR based smart form submission
Email, CHAT and TEXT
QR based appointment booking
Bespoke Smart Brochure interaction EXAMPLE
Video interaction via Smart brochure and window QR
How can Estate Agents make the most of each touch point?
Speed is critical.
The probability of reaching an online lead goes down the longer you wait with a follow-up email, call or chat reply.
The Millennials insist on absolute immediacy on their Smartphone and the killer is that whatever platform they touched, they expect you to have a record!
Your Smart Brochure, Smart form pages, Company email, telephone calls and texts, QR links, Chat room, and Progressive Web APP have to be joined into teams within a CRM
The rule for the Smartphone user now is a maximum of 10 minutes on any medium, or they drop you like a stone.
Within the first 10 minutes of inquiry — 98% chance of reaching them
Contact 4 hours later — 95% chance of reaching them
Contact 8 hours later — 92% chance of reaching them
Contact 12 hours later –80% chance of reaching them
Contact 24 hours later — 60% chance of reaching them
Contact 48 hours later — 5% chance of reaching them
This is why it’s critical that sales people get immediate notifications about hot leads and that follow up is relevant and automated.
Depending on the stage of where the buyer is in the purchase cycle, personalisation is important.
Estate Agent Touch Point MIND MAP
Link to Smart brochure functionality
I decided to start writing a lot more about my life, my job and my office.
I’m a 32 year old medical secretary from Long beach New York, originally from London England, married to a baker and our household is awake at 4 am every morning!
I finish at 5 pm, so quite a long day, but my husband is home by 2 pm.
Our time apart is a good time for me to write, so here goes
Becoming a medical administrative assistant was a challenging position with significant responsibilities, but my degree leant itself to this kind of job and the salary is excellent.
Although my job isn’t medical or overly patient-facing it doesn’t mean it isn’t one that requires a significant amount of dedication!
The responsibilities of being a medical administrator are rewarded with above average pay, and there is a reason for that!
I have identified some touchpoints I would like to share and I wonder how many other people have similar problems in their office environment ?
Communicating with patients very often means dealing with scared, confused, and angry people and the Consultants and doctors themselves can be very demanding in their own right!
Running a healthcare facility comes with a lot of paperwork and there is my gripe, thats the nub, that’s the rub, this is my complaint.
In a world of wireless internet and smartphones, I fail to understand why its all so complex and why the Printer still seems to be the shrine.
It’s like the kitchen space in a house where everybody congregates next to the coffee machine.
I have inherited a mish mash of paper written doctors notes, a central management system that was commissioned in 2004, files galore and paper doesn’t talk to computers !
It’s not joined up and feels cobbled together rather than strategically compiled.
Why is this a problem when ostensibly, we allegedly have a paperless office.
There seems to be a trust problem, as if “if its not written down it might be lost” culture
The paperwork is an important part of my job to keep the gears turning behind the scenes, enabling everyone else to do their job professionally.
But my day is impeded by file chasing and haulage !
As with most clerical roles, working medical administrative assistant is mostly a desk job.
While there is nothing wrong with working at a desk, most of us do it, being entirely desk-bound can have a negative effect on your health.
If you’re proactive enough to fit in the right kind of exercise to stave off the problems associated with office work, thats ok, I run almost every day, the park is beautiful, that bit I have overcome.
A constant never ending stream of requests and telephone calls with zero automation !
Clients cannot book into a central diary and the booking system still relies heavily on incoming telephone, very often into a disorganised Consultants diary shared with a private diary, its a constant problem with return calls and new arrangements .
And here we are.
I identified about 10 areas I could implement QR codes, independently of the office metrics, and it has worked !
It has worked because my workload is much more manageable.
Here is what I achieved:
A Brochure with QR linking to a dedicated booking email.
Parking ticket redemption
Clinic map
Covid rules
Toilets
WiFi
Emergency ( on brochure as well )
Map geo code
Opening times
Staff
Payment ( links to website)
Clerical ( 10 codes )
Advisory ( 20 codes linked to you tube mainly )
Thank you for listening, maybe we will eventually go paperless, but for now using paper to connect to the Smartphone has been an outstanding success for managing my time !
Jasmine Woodward Newswire article August 2021
For the first time a modern APP is affordable for small business.
A simple user interface and reporting system.
PWAs do not require different versions for various devices.
Significantly reduced build time.
Dramatically lower investment.
Acts as an APP and a Website in one application.
Two entry levels:
Less than 200 users £499 plus hosting
Up to 900 users £999 plus hosting and support
Smartphone users prefer apps to browsers as applications.
The Millennials actively look to do A to Z business on a PWA
Operates offline which clients adore.
A familiar simple navigation interface shared with all PWA’s
An advanced user experience, combining the look and feel of mobile applications and the best of website performance.
Search engines index them, which is why systems such as Google or Bing can find PWA pages so easily.
The pages of these applications found on the internet will dramatically increase the number of page views.
Driving down variable costs in small business.
Pushing down marketing costs.
Users just download an app, quickly and directly to their devices.
Do not need to go to the App Store or Google Play.
Significantly reduces user abandonment.
Once downloaded, they can access it via a desktop icon.
No required installation, users can easily access the PWA via a URL.
Very high share ability, referral and advocacy on local social media.
Tiny memory requirements on the Smartphone.
PWAs cache and serve text, images and other content in a specific and efficient manner.
Ultra fast operation with impeccable performance every time.
Adopting Smartphone first technology will improve retention and customer loyalty.
PWAs work everywhere.
A single app can satisfy the needs of various consumers and provide a uniform user experience on different endpoints.
Customers can switch between their devices for a continuous experience.
Because users can access an app that has the same settings and data on another device.
They adapt instantly to various screen sizes and Smartphone users love that.
PWAs have a specific functionality that allows them to update automatically, without notifying users and bothering them with permission requests.
These apps update themselves every time when users visit them.
Small business owners have full control of the information and content at all times.
Operate offline.
PWAs much more convenient than websites, which require a proper internet connection.
Built-in service workers cache, progressive web apps features and information update automatically.
This eliminates the necessity to download it and allows users to access it without an internet connection.
Deals, awards, vouchers, discounts, book now rewards, call to action
Fill quiet times, promote new lines, latest property, financial offers, customer benefits.
Use the in built hosting tools for a variety of really cool Smartphone oriented information.
Look to build trust and above all Advocacy on local social media.
All of the above are compelling reasons to adopt Smartphone first PWA technology.
Or their clients problem ?
Thank you Right move UK for the Calculator
£421 billion ( Yep, you got it , thats £421,000,000,000 ) plan to tax rising house prices to pay for the Coronavirus crisis
Seriously though, apart from the customer paying a hefty tax on an asset that may well go down in price over the next few years.
Do you see this as a problem with Government taxation?
Or is mortgage amortisation going to flatten things out and remove the issue?
Talking to Agents in more than one country helps a lot.
Continents rather than just Countries !
Lots of different problems and worries, but one common denominator
Distributing snippets of quality information on a regular basis is going to be very important for building trust and future sales.
And the ability to communicate on all sorts of platforms but retain the touch points of the eventual sale is becoming critical in this disparate world.
I guess you are sending newsletters and publishing on the website etc
But is that going to be enough in the new digital high street ?
The preferred communication channels for the smartphone generation are changing at lighting speed.
And your website probably doesn’t get a look in
It’s a much broader brushstroke than that to future proof communications in the world of property sales.
We get the problem, we understand and the statistics compound that.
But taking the right action from a Property market Directors or owners perspective requires a bit of joined up thinking.
And its not particularly expensive, its more organisational but with the right tools.
Will Nicholls newswire Maltix.co.uk
Because of old practices, Estate Agents ”still operate in an organisational Cul de sac”
Newswire, Medium Daily Digest and general property press. August 2021
Advocacy and the referral are now at the beginning of the sales cycle.
The sales cycle has been completely up-ended by the Millennials.
Mortgage moments of opportunity occur much earlier in the
process than they used to.
Ref: Maltix March 2021
They used to be at the end !
Activity based marketing has shifted to the relevant activity.
Invariably that’s on the Smartphone !
“Today’s cross-touchpoint experiences are broken“ Will Temple explains:
Because of old practices, estate agents ”still operate in an organisational Cul de sac”
They generate enough revenue to neglect their future proofing, but this can turn in a instant.
And thats a huge problem for management that’s generally too young to make good judgment on future proofing their business.
New rules:
“They trust advocacy on social media, explore their wants on a website, but buy and engage on an APP”
Executives must shift their approach to ” identifying
high-value cross-touchpoint tasks – and then design those
touchpoints to support those tasks…”
“Brands must focus on optimising the
journey, not each individual touchpoints”
Think A to Z business, think APP in APP solutions.
All the touchpoints related to the detail, e. g, financial documents, bank statements, mortgage quotes and their decision should be chronologically incremental.
And evenly spaced in the time frame.
Say 10 weeks to sale, then 10 bitesize increments is good.
Perfect for the logic of Progressive Web APP.
Perfect for the two way communication methodology of a Progressive Web APP.
In both vehicle lending and mortgage lending, the
moments of opportunity occur much earlier in the
process than they used to.
By the time the savvy Millennial are in contact with an Estate Agent they are much closer to fulfilment than most Agents realise.
It can be said, that the Estate Agents role is completely changing and the variable costs of the traditional model are changing obsequiously and inexplicably.
Changing enough to affect Fixed cost models as well!
“Every loan purchase is a journey for the borrower”
It’s critical to map that journey and understand when the
moments of opportunity occur.
Then your financial institution can open timely dialogue about product choices.
Over 80% of the completion journey focuses on the geographical area to purchase and physically looking at the property.
The Millennials put huge trust on quality videos, they have a brilliant skill set of spatial awareness, absent in the pre Smartphone generation.
A property without a top quality video is tantamount to neglect as far as the Smartphone generation are concerned.
Meeting with an estate agent is easily abandoned when they have access to video.
The clues of A to Z needs of the Millennial are already obvious, they already and painfully have a disjointed 65% internet journey with plenty of reasons to abandon the process.
Ask your team to conduct all their business on a Smartphone for a month, ban big screens and PC’s
Then you will begin to see the problems you are presiding over inside your business.
Talk to a Partner today.
APP operational within 3 months.
A weighty article from Will Nicholls, Founder of Maltix: Newswire 04-08-2021
An over weight business can carry many words.
Fat, Obese. Corpulent, Stout, Fleshy, Podgy, Paunchy, Portly and Plump !
But it’s the Digital diet Obesity obsession that doesn’t have a word to describe it, thats the most illuminating.
This Digital Diet eats up your time and engulfs your waistline for a truly “Well upholstered ” small business nightmare.
The Diet to avoid here is the Business Website.
A thankless never ending task of updates and inclusions and a thousand ways to waist ( pun) countless hours of your life without any real sign of a return on time investment.
And thats just half of the pain.
Arguably the bigger waist ( sorry ) of time and effort with zero reward is marketing the website.
A futile pointless demeaning and fantastically complicated Digital Diet to avoid.
An over weight business can carry many words.
Adopt the Smartphone professionally and leave the PC behind !
The Millennials have !
Get off the Digital Diet, leave time for more pleasurable exercise.
It’s what Social Media was built for.
Why the Millennials would never buy a contract like this today.
Maybe I’m an opportunist, perhaps it was luck.
My visions and dreams manifested in just one day.
I was back packing in south Africa 20 years ago and stayed at a timeshare reserve in Kruger park, on a cheap travel deal.
The restaurant was awful and the beer limited, but nonetheless, after a gruelling 18 holes on the golf course I was ready to drink and sleep.
I wasn’t playing, I was picking up stray balls for a pittance.
The guy I was working with that day came from the township, he told me he was so poor they couldn’t afford the mortar between the blocks in his house.
I though he was joking, but one day I saw him carrying bags of carrots from the mall to peoples cars for one rand ( 50 c in those days )
When I visited a couple of days later, I had to step over the electrical cables in the mud that supplied their intermittent electricity.
But he was sharp, he listened and he listened and smiled a lot.
He shared with me that the South Efrican Eccent people with the beards were unhappy with their timeshare at the park.
He said it was a secret, and I had to listen, so I did.
After a whole day of banter, it emerged that the timeshare contracts that the wealthy folk from Johannesburg had signed up to were onerous.
He had taken a crumpled contract from a bin after a heated and angry debate from the sales office which was next to the clubhouse.
Truthfully, he couldn’t read it, but he knew the big guy on the golf course that day was super angry, and he was a lawyer !
I listened and I read, I read it so many times, oh my word.
But buried in the contract was an interminable termination date, in fact it was in perpetuity, which means no end date. I had to look that up!
In addition, on a page un associated with the the contract page, the owners of the park can legitimately add 6% every year to the ‘maintenance charges’ of the property.
At school, I learned about compound interest, my master, Mr Harding, kept on and on about the importance of the rules of compound interest.
It just pieced together in my mind, this contract was designed to collect compound interest forever !
That’s why the Lawyer guy was ready to commit murder, he hadn’t read the contract but instead became obsessed with the dream property on the Golf course.
After extensive negotiations with the Developer, I explained that the value of contracts was in the change of the contract.
It took 3 years to talk to nearly every contract owner, usually in the bar area on the complex.
We charged more than the original value contract, by and large , the additional benefits in the contract outweighed the extra investment.
In conversation with the “wired magazine” Tam Duran talked ‘off piste ‘ about the savviness of the Millennial generation using the smartphone as their life tool.
He has identified a massive shift into the trust of strangers on social media.
He claims that it would be infinitely more difficult to sell a contract like this in the first place.
The first sniff of an problem would be shared and re-shared, or as Tam highlights, made more searchable and more searchable.
Tam Duran spoke of generational digital divide and the consequences that invoke digital inequality.
Put another way, the Millennial’s have developed an in-built ability to rapidly close any knowledge gap.
They are comfortably self sufficient leading their lives on the internet.
And they actively and rapidly dismiss tech platforms that fail to deliver their considerable needs in a blink of an eye.
The vast majority of Websites are included in that dismissal.
The Millennial crave for the simplicity and responsiveness of an APP
An not just any APP, they hate downloading APP’s that impinge on their precious Smartphone memory.
They also search and work on the APP that can be shared on their social media.
It feels like a fabulous opportunity for small business with vision because the production and hosting costs of this new technology are so dramatically lowered.
And before too long the GEN Z generation spending power will impact the digital high street in many shattering ways.
Look out business people, adopt or die.
Tam Duran trend adviser and coach in the new digital high street
Tam Duran a Maltix board member and support partner.
Newswire article 31-07-2021
Kevin Edwards, business development director at Alliants says properties should better use the tech available by Kevin Edwards Reprint on newswire July 18, 2021
The Middle East has become the primary destination for obtainable luxury when it comes to the hotel sector globally.
The continuous development of hotels continues to drive the bar higher in terms of facilities, amenities, and technology.
However, with the pandemic hitting, the expected impact on top-line spending isn’t necessarily keeping pace.
When we look at the demographic and segment changes in hotel occupants over the last two years, have the hotel operators hit the mark when it comes to savvy technology investment to drive revenue?
For the 12 months prior to Covid, hoteliers had a sharp focus on key technology areas such as revenue management, and with Expo 2020 it made sense.
How can you optimise your inventory for the period of the event? Room nights, meetings, and events were the core revenue generators.
The guest drivers changed overnight and people wanted home comforts.
In-room TV streaming, room service ordering online, electronic keys, and contactless check-in and out.
And if they couldn’t get it from the property they would do one of two things:
The first option became a clear opportunity as rates plummeted and with them access to properties with little demand and low occupancy.
The second option is a more complicated issue best explained by a recent real-life stay.
I arrived in typically efficient Middle Eastern style through the airport to a five-star business hotel with 800 rooms split between residences and hotel rooms.
I approached the front desk where service was diligent and warm as they checked me in and cut two keys.
Upon arriving at my room I noted that it had been cleaned to the brand new Covid cleaning standards, but there was no mention at the front desk of the mobile key that could have enabled me to ditch the plastic cards.
Having worked closely with this hotel, I am aware that the owner has invested significantly in mobile key technology (circa US$1m+) but there was no communication before my stay alerting me of the ability to utilise this innovation.
Nor was it mentioned on arrival. The experience wasn’t bad, it just missed the chance to be something better.
As I am now stuck in my room for 24 hours while I await my PCR test result, I am further disappointed by the fact that whilst there is a QR code to get to room service it is just a menu which means I have to pick up the telephone to place an order and hope that I can accurately convey what I require.
Alternatively, I could just follow what everyone else seems to be doing and order from Talabat or Deliveroo and do it all on my device.
Food ordered, work completed for the day, time to catch up on another box set on Netflix… Or not as I cannot stream a thing so it looks like I’m going to have to concentrate on that five-inch screen a little longer.
Putting this all in perspective, Covid has probably simplified the guest journey.
However, it has now enabled a significant revenue opportunity in ancillary spend which many are missing out on due to technology adoption.
In my opinion, the operators have focussed on the whizzbang of technology rather than focus on the business case.
Meanwhile, the Talabat and Deliveroo drivers mount up in the hotel reception giving the hotel guests more triggers to order from them.
As prices continue to fall the value of your money goes up….. correct ?
Technology is incredibly disruptive and causing deflation.
Technology that used to cost millions to build can now be rented for pennies.
The smart phone is literally replacing the high street.
Since Covid, technology is doubly accelerating this trend.
The value of our money is going up because prices are going down…… now do your agree?
Government panic is accelerating the reaction to the point that money printing is at the point of by passing banks all together because banks are failing to lend.
Call it furlough, call it helicopter money, our Chancellors are not sleeping properly.
Most people do not understand the difference between a million and a trillion, its time you looked at the 12 zeros in a trillion.
Two party politics has produced an unprecedented dichotomy for the electorate.
Do we vote for socialism for the rich or socialism for the poor?
Both political divides sit on a system that historically relies on inflation to pay off historical debt.
Covid is forcing us into a scarcity mindset, the abundance mindset is long gone.
But stocks and property are our salvation right ?
Without 220 Trillion of printed money being printed what would the value of your UK property actually be?
Would your stocks actually have increased?
The notion of deflation goes against our education.
It also flies in the face of everything in our fiscal life, even if we are 90 years of age.
Questioning the economic picture from the inside is impossible.
It’s like trying to invent a new colour..
Government is preventing a free trade fiscal economy
The clues are all around.
Cash is out of favour.
PROOF: They even stop you on your travels if you carry too much !
The opportunity for business to adapt quickly is only hindered by FEAR.
The tools to adapt to the new digital high street, to conduct A to Z business , remove Fixed costs and survive are in the palm of your hand.
You just have to grasp it before the wind blows it away.
Mary-Ann-Dougherty Maltix Partner.