JT on EDM

Ginger Conlon had a little piece on mobile marketing that caught my eye. This post highlighted the growing importance of mobile devices as both a customer support channel and as a marketing vehicle. I completely agree with this assessment but I think it means that, for both customer service and marketing, we will have to change our thinking. Mobile devices are never going to allow the interaction quality of larger ones (though constant improvement means that we will have mobile devices better than todays desktops by then the desktops will also be better). As a result we must be more proactive when dealing with those users. In support this means we must serve up actions not just information to those devices. In marketing it means we must make a more complex decision so we can deliver a more tightly focused, timely and location-aware offer. Decision management – focusing on and then automating and improving these decisions – will be critical to taking maximum advantage of these devices. It won’t be enough to take what you do now and simply make it display on a mobile device, you will have to do more.

This was written in advance and scheduled for posting while I am on vacation.