The connected customer has emerged as the driving force in a world of constant innovation, mobility, and disruption. New technologies have put customers in the driver’s seat of the marketplace giving them power over which brands sink or swim in the digital age. Businesses that treat customers with awareness and intelligence and put the customer experience at the centre of their business strategies will succeed in this new connected world.

Technology has given people more choice than there has ever been before. This choice has created an environment where excelling at delivering an outstanding and integrated customer experience is the new battleground for differentiation. The consumer now demands that businesses create a personalised approach to customer experience, that's not disruption, it's improvement. 

Developing strong customer acquisition and customer retention strategies are extremely important to your business’ longevity and to your online reputation. Though the cost associated and overall time spent to acquire customers is typically higher than that of customer retention, both elements have a direct effect on a business’ success and should be regarded equally. With the ever-growing Internet and Social Media space small and large businesses alike have enormous opportunities to reach new prospects and hold on to their established clients.  

The connected customer has emerged as the driving force in a world of constant innovation, mobility, and disruption. New technologies have put customers in the driver’s seat of the marketplace giving them power over which brands sink or swim in the digital age. Businesses that treat customers with awareness and intelligence and put the customer experience at the centre of their business strategies will succeed in this new connected world. So what defines the connected customer and how can businesses keep up with their evolving expectations?

Being small doesn’t mean going unnoticed.  Think about David and Goliath.  Smaller in size, David strategically used his slingshot to attack Goliath’s weak spot.  And, just as in business, small businesses need to maximise their strategic strengths to enable their business to appear larger than it actually is while still celebrating their competitive advantage over their larger counterparts.

The New Year sees many of us many goals we aim to complete by the end of the year, and 2016 saw the girls at Connect Plus Plus make some lofty goals.  So how did we go?

There is no stopping it now, Christmas is coming and with it the opportunity to make 2016 your best yet by rolling out a Christmas campaign based on the feeling of Christmas rather than yet another discount-driven promotion or having your customers shop elsewhere. We've pulled together a few of our favourite things, Christmas Blog style, to help you through the Christmas planning for your business. No time to delay!

Last week we headed off to the Taking Care of Business Roadshow which has been travelling the country over the past month.  If you weren't able to get along here are some of the tips which we picked up. Thanks to Craig Foss, Minister for Small Business, the Government has rolled out a series of initiatives to help the small business owners in New Zealand.  It's great to see the Government start focusing on small business, after all, 97% of businesses in New Zealand are classified as SME. Here's what we learnt.

When was the last time you added to, updated or reviewed your website?  Your website is more often than not the digital face of your business but does it reflect your business in it's the best light?  We are getting more businesses and organisations asking us to review their digital footprint and it's surprising how often their website is not delivering either a high customer experience, is not optimised to capture web traffic and is not delivering their business goals.   

Social Media is Easy … Really?

For those of you posting for your business without a social strategy stop immediately!  We have a saying in the Connect Plus offices, “Doing social media is easy. Aligning your social investment to business goals to drive desired outcomes takes more than a pretty Facebook page!”