Customer Convenience: The Denominator of Safaricom’s My App.

Convenience: The cornerstone of customer loyalty

The telecom industry has been in the news for a lot of reasons and I can bet you, few have to do with the consumer but the industry players themselves and this is a worrying trend because the consumer should be the focus of such news constantly.

In the age of social media and available options at the click of a button, crafting of customer experiences, the perception of convenience is as important as the actual benefits of saved time and effort. This is something that brands seem to be grappling with.

How does one define convenience considering that what one person perceives as convenient may not be all that convenient for another, or that what was convenient in the morning may be inconvenient in the afternoon? How do you define convenience in the face of thousands of options that seem to shock your system of choice?

Factors that define Convenience;

To be able to understand and be able to elucidate what convenience is, one must understand the factors that define the term and how it applies to different individuals. One man’s meat is another man’s position and hence the need to find a common ground to help brands create the perfect convenience eco-system. These attributes include;

1. Effective time utilization,
2. Portability, and avoidance of unpleasantness in a service,
3. Time,
4. Place,
5. Acquisition,
6. Use, and
7. Execution

Technology and innovative design have made many products and services more predictable and efficient and this has been made possible by the fact that with social media, it’s easy to map out and study consumer behavior and patterns and see how best to leverage on that and plug into their needs and wants.

Convenience is the quintessence of customer experience, which is a critical factor in determining how customers make decisions about what to buy, what services to use, where to go, and with whom to engage. Technology has made this easy and yet very difficult at the same time.

Conventional wisdom says that convenience is a factor of time and effort. On the surface, that’s true, but if you dig a little deeper to fully understand service convenience, you need to consider another factor: perception.

How many apps does one have on their phone? For me, I have an average of 65 apps on my phone and they are all designed for a purpose, either for work or social media or gaming and this is where perception comes in.

A 2002 study found that something is known as convenience orientation—a customer’s general preference for convenient goods and services—has a major impact on buying decisions. The study also found that the perception of a service’s convenience affects the overall evaluation of the service.

A separate study in 2007 also found that convenience was the most relevant factor in the use of mobile devices for Internet shopping and payment of bills.

The most popular camera used for Flickr photo uploads isn’t actually a traditional camera, it’s a phone. On a random day this year, 65,000 media items were uploaded to Flickr by over 5,000 iPhone 4 users alone 9.

This is clearly not because the iPhone takes superior quality pictures. The smartphone’s ubiquity, connection with online services, and relatively simple camera functionality make it a low-hassle choice for the experience of photo sharing. For Flickr, that equates to more content and more users, which in turn brings extra revenue. The convenience of uploading via the iPhone 4 is boosting Flickr’s bottom line.

We have known for a while that self-service applications create higher levels of perceived and actual convenience for the user. Just look at how many apps Kenyans are downloading to make it easier for them. From banking to music to cooking to security. Tech is disrupting how we live our lives and for most part, it’s for the better.

The mobile phone has amalgamated over 64 different, independent gadgets into one. This merging of diverse gadgets has created the need for ecosystems that can be able to synergize them, be able to leverage their positive aspects and make it convenience and usable to the consumer.

A telecom like Safaricom becomes the catalyst that makes the ecosystems come alive. The adaptability of convenience is what defines a consumer’s loyalty to a brand and the usage of its products and or services. Asking your customers to be part of the solution and not viewing them as part of the problem is one way to create brand loyalty and honest consumer feedback on services and products.

#MySafaricomApp is one product that has tapped into the quintessence of convenience and adaptability of a consumer, making the life of the user more easy, cost effective and predictable. Adult life is a scam.