Johannesburg, 26 Oct 2020
All businesses have had to change – or have had change forced upon them – as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. One way in which their suppliers can ensure they’re offering them the right solutions is to regularly survey their changing requirements and adapt their own business accordingly.
Kemtek Head of Marketing, Karen Stretch, says: “Companies are having to reinvent themselves, and in order to do this successfully, they need insight into their customers and their needs. This might require them to change the way in which they sell existing products, but it might also require them to introduce new products to align with their customers’ shifting needs.”
Just such a survey was carried out among Kemtek’s national network of resellers, and some of the results were unexpected, says Stretch.
Not only did the survey identify new technologies in demand across all sectors, it also uncovered previously unexplored opportunities at existing customers, particularly around safety and security, which has come to the fore as a priority regardless of sector.
The verticals explored by the survey included healthcare, retail, automotive, mining, agriculture and manufacturing, and across all of these sectors, opportunities were identified around access control, track and trace, personnel security, person and asset tracking, PPE and software security.
Three main pillars came to the fore in the survey: healthcare, industrial security and industrial safety. Stretch goes on to clarify: “In healthcare, the demand is very much around mobile computer systems, patient tracking, laboratory test results and tracking, and sample tracking – as well as the printers that go with them. With the advent of COVID-19, healthcare has obviously become a key issue, with the emphasis on supplying solutions that are built and designed specifically for the healthcare sector.”
She goes on to say that industrial security encompasses workforce management systems, access control, quality control, operational security and workplace security management software – pretty much anything to do with personnel and asset tracking. This pillar is about knowing where your assets are and protecting your business assets, using software and systems to track both products and personnel.
The third pillar is industrial safety, which falls into the personal protective equipment zone and is the smallest market of the three.
Key considerations highlighted by respondents when purchasing technologies include, in order of importance:
- Price;
- Quality;
- Tech services and repairs;
- Sales support and tech advice; and
- Ease of ordering.
Stretch says: “Businesses need to review ways in which they can perform even better in these areas if they want to stand apart from their competitors. For instance, B-BBEE status can prove a barrier to customers doing business with you, so companies need to push hard to improve their status over the long term as this will become increasingly important.
“It’s also become apparent that customers want to be advised of software and technology updates more frequently, and companies need to consider how they do this, using online tools such as their Web site, e-mail, social media or LinkedIn and even implementing an easy-to-use e-commerce site.”
Measures such as making brochures and tech data sheets easily available online, sending out mailers with bundle deals and providing customers with easy access to training via the company Web site are all ways in which businesses can better service their customer base. One core issue that came to the fore was access to technical services, and one way in which this could be addressed is by having a central e-mail address for all technical queries.
Stretch also suggests implementing sector-specific marketing strategies that address each sector’s outlined areas of focus – which, as mentioned previously, is currently safety and security.
It’s key for businesses to maximise all opportunities within the sectors that they target to improve the distribution of their existing portfolio of solutions while identifying opportunities to bring in other technologies that their customers require.
“For instance, the survey reflected growing demand for facial recognition technology, thermal temperature testing equipment and PPE, all of which can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. It would be remiss of any business to overlook this potential new market segment and opportunity to supply items that their customers are specifically asking for.”
In conclusion, Stretch points out that it’s vital to ensure that 21st century technology is sold using 21st century methods. “If people want to deal with you using social media or chatbots, that’s what you have to enable. Businesses that don’t meet their customers where they want to transact may lose business to those that are already there.”
Share