Samuel Morse first used his novel telegraph in 1843. One contemporary author praised the devised as a “the greatest marvelous achievement of modern science” that would unite all nations together. This primitive technology allowed someone on the East coast to send a message in the morning to someone on the West coast, who would receive it in the afternoon. The technology was mind boggling at the time, but in the modern business world, there’s an abundance of time saving technologies that are still revolutionizing how consumers interact with businesses.
Globalization has fueled industries and companies to expand beyond their borders to different countries. Many businesses have different branches in different parts of the world that work in different time zones. For example, customer service departments are being outsourced to countries like India, Mexico, China and even Ireland. Chat software such as Skype and Microsoft Lync allows companies to call and interact with coworkers from around the world. In addition to this, smart phones are almost a universal standard in the business world. Customers can access customer service, company web pages or purchase products or service all while commuting home from work or at checkout line. Business employees can respond to company and customer problems at the same time through their smart phones. Technology allows a customer and company employee to potentially sit next together on the commuter train and communicate about the same issue without ever meeting or speaking to each other.
Every business needs to have concrete shipping an inventory practices to help get their products to their loyal customers. Many companies use things like pallet jacks to move product around in their warehouses. Some companies, like Garland’s, Inc., realize how helpful it is to have equipment in the warehouse to make it easier to move things around. This is especially true if your warehouse is a busy place and locating the correct product for shipment is hard. The amount of product you move depends on sales obviously, but having an organized shipping area can help the business run smoother and make things much easier for employees and managers.
Online shopping is transforming the consumer/business relationship. One no longer needs to travel to a physical store, ask the clerk which item is popular and make a purchase. Instead, consumers can read online reviews, review social media posts and shop online. Customers can simply email customer service at their confidence. Social relationships are being replaced by digital transactions. Technology is evolving to even reduce the amount of time a consumer interacts with technology itself. Consumers can now take a picture of their desired product through visual search technology such as Google Goggles. This technology bypasses language based search queries to simply provide visual based results. Customer relationship management is now changing into a completely digital, inorganic experience.
Technology is changing both consumer and business behavior through 24/7 availability, evolving flexibility and online shopping platforms and customer service.
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