Over the past twenty to thirty years, we have been experiencing the most rapid growth of accessible technology than ever witnessed before in human history. Day after day, year after year, more technology comes out that surpasses the previous model in terms of convenience and effectiveness. Sure enough, it can sometimes feel as if we’re in somewhat of a twilight zone, with such capable technology surrounding us everyday that it may feel like we barely have to do anything ourselves.
As technology has progressed, businesses have used this to their advantage to grow the capability of their company, change the way they interact with their consumers, and overall help themselves form solid business plans over the years. Sure enough, modern technology is reaching a point in time in which it can perform some of the duties that humans have traditionally done, but with much better efficiency and punctuality. Regardless, many aspects of modern technology make businesses much easier to run, and more convenient for both the consumer and the business. Without a doubt, digital services have the capability to re-shape the way we think about running land-based businesses.
Ability To Communicate Instantly
If a business can get in contact with a customer that has a question or complaint right away, this can go a long way in terms of that given business’s reputation and mission. Nowadays, messaging apps are some of the hottest things going around, with apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. With these apps and another business-based group/one-on-one messaging apps, businesses and their representatives can instantly get in contact with a customer of theirs.
Traditionally, a cell phone call would have to suffice, but it may take a long time until one party or the other was able to talk on the phone. With instant messaging, conversing back and forth can be done quickly and easily. No longer do people need to come in and talk face-to-face with a company representative to get an answer.
Abundant Data Information
Years ago, consumer data and information alike was not too feasible to find. It would require much more effort and time to be able to obtain the amount of information you can receive in about twenty minutes today. With modern technology, marketers can gain an extensive amount of knowledge about their business’s customers. For this reason, it may not be as necessary for some businesses to go out and hire research analytic firms and agencies to do find out information about their customers for them.
Replacing Certain Jobs
Artificial Intelligence and digital services alike have grown wildly in capability throughout the past ten years. Undoubtedly, artificial intelligence can replace many jobs that are traditionally done in land-based businesses, such as receptionists, clerks, couriers, and as previously mentioned, market research analytics. With automated phone and scheduling systems, much of the work done by receptionists are now being done by digital services. Most bookkeeping is now done in applications such as FreshBooks and Microsoft Office. If digital services and AI are replacing many jobs at a land-based business, it’s only a matter of time until the whole business may be moved to an online model.
We’ve all heard about how drones and robots are now being used to deliver packages to the homes of customers, with the most notable drone delivery being done by Amazon. Courier services may be heading toward full automation within the coming years. If all courier services become automated, then it’s likely you can say goodbye to any physical satellite locations that companies such as UPS and FedEx may have.
Travel companies that have traditionally hired abundant amounts of human travel agents will no longer need to do so. More and more, travel companies have shifted to a primarily online presence, and this will continue to grow for years to come. Even entertainment within hotels you travel to can now be enjoyed online, such as playing Vegas online casino games.
Rideshare services, such as Uber and Lyft, are online-based companies that have overtaken traditional taxi cab rides in terms of convenience and affordability. With cell-phone apps, users are much more easily able to get a ride within minutes, as opposed to calling a taxi service and then waiting. As online rideshare services grow more and more in popularity, land-based taxi services will continue to see sharp declines in service.
Culture-Based Changes
Certain areas of countries and the world at large will likely be slower to replace their land-based jobs and businesses with digital services than other areas. In areas where modern technology is slower to be reached, digital services will not replace land businesses for some time. But in high tech areas with rapid innovation, such as Silicon Valley and other tech-crazy areas, digital services will take over as soon as it is made convenient and financially feasible to do so. For the most part, it comes down to dollar-efficiency, and how quickly companies can make digital services affordable for most.
Technological Assistance Without Training
The biggest appeal about modern technology and its capabilities to business owners is that the pieces of technology can perform their pertained duties right away, and don’t require any training as a traditional employee does. Digital services and pieces of artificial intelligence can be used right away for their task and can work weekends without complaining. Even if the digital service is still to be controlled by a user, this puts the less technologically-intuitive people at a huge disadvantage behind other people who know modern technology well. Not only are digital services replacing jobs done by people on land-based businesses, but they are also putting certain groups of people much further behind than other groups.
Conclusion
It doesn’t appear that the rapid growth of accessible technology and digital services is going to slow down any time in the foreseeable future. As the years have progressed, digital services have come out that have made the business switch from a land-based setting to a primarily online platform. If companies can save time and money with digital services, why shouldn’t they?