Since the lockdowns were enforced, so much has changed within the digital marketing, mobile marketing and CX mix.
We speak with Matt Hunt, CEO of leading mobile CX company Geronimo about the challenges the industry is facing now, and how he's leveraging the right partnerships to strengthen and scale his business.
Geronimo focuses on mobile CX and is passionate about how they can work with brands to better connect with customers in a mobile-first world.
Hunt told AZK Media there are two big challenges facing the industry. Firstly, it's COVID-19 and what that means for the economic outlook and recession. Secondly, there's issues around consumer privacy.
"There is a huge amount of movement going on that will fundamentally change the way we act as consumers and operate as brands," Hunt says. "Especially around Apple, Facebook and Google, there will be huge implications as we move forward."
"These changes are putting a heightened focus on the things we are doing already, but you really have to demonstrate a positive return on investment - which is one of the reasons ecommerce is so huge right now. We work with our clients to demonstrate how they drive top-line growth, which has never been more important."
The importance of strategic partnerships
Hunt agrees strategic partnering has never been more important, because it means you can focus on the core elements of your business and at the same time, be able to scale up or scale down core support functions.
"There are two benefits of partnering", he explains. "The first is access to specialist capability that a company might not have internally. The second is risk management: partnerships give you the ability to scale up or scale down depending on how the market plays out over the next months and years."
"It's access to key skills or capabilities we think will complement our core skills, which allow the brand, in turn, to work with their clients and give them what they need in a faster way."
Customer retention and the power of referrals
With the current climate, it's challenging for businesses to retain and gain new customers, so priorities have shifted within many agencies and organisations.
Hunt says at Geronimo, they are focused on a straightforward idea around reputation, results and referrals.
"For us, it's about customer advocacy," he says. "In order to get that, you need to have done great work. It's around what is it that we can do to have one of our clients refer us to somebody else. The success rates are very high and it's a nice, fun way to do business."
"We're also mindful that customers are being inundated with insane amounts of content right now, probably more than ever before. Businesses need to work on their reputation to differentiate themselves from the competition."
This article was also published in Little Black Book Online, one of the world's leading publications for marketing, media and agency news.
This article was written by AZK Media's Content and Communications Specialist, Athina Mallis