Help! I forgot my smart phone!

I’m now at my 4th cell phone. The last two were “smart” phones. It’s crazy how this small tool can be so useful and even indispensable today. What I’m about to tell you might seem banal, but it demonstrates the growing importance of mobility in our personal and professional lives.

Connected mornings

Very early one morning, I participated in a meeting with a group of communicators, of which I’m a member, near the Mont-Royal Plateau. My smart phone in hand en route from Longueuil, I:

• – Read my emails;
• – Surf the net to read up on the conference speaker that I’ll meet in a few minutes;
• – Consult the latest articles shared by my colleagues and friends on social networks;
• – Send a text to one of the meeting attendees to see if he’s arrived;
• – Get directions to the meeting via Google Maps.

After the meeting, I call the office and check my emails. Everything is good, the sun is shining and I’m feeling great!

Disconnected afternoons

It’s the afternoon and I have an appointment with a client at the Old Port of Montreal. I’m in a hurry; I get to the closest metro station. When I change lines, I take two minutes to check my client’s address with my smart phone.

PANIC! I can’t find my phone; I forgot it at the office. No problem, I’ll call my colleagues at Exo. But I don’t have my phone! I remembered that there are still public payphones, but what is the number of the office?

And so it goes, up until my tardy arrival at my client’s office because, with my legendary sense of direction and not having access to Google Maps, I was a bit lost! Nothing is going right, it’s hot and I’m stressed!

When my meeting was over, I decided not to go back to the office to get my smart phone after this mishap. It was Friday, and you know what? People found my home phone number and I survived until Monday morning without my cell.

Mobility: an essential part of your strategies

As a result of this adventure, I would like to show you some figures. Did you know that:

• – 62% of Canadians have a smart phone?
• – 50% of Canadians surf the net, use various applications and download content via their smart phones?
•  30% of commercial emails are now opened on mobile devices versus 70% on office computers?

The importance of mobility in our personal and now professional lives should definitely be considered during the development of B2B marketing strategies. This is because a client or prospect that opens an email or a website isn’t used to viewing it on his smart phone or tablet and will close it right away. If you don’t take fact this seriously, your prospect to client conversion rates will drop over the coming years, and even the coming months.

Give it a try. With your smart phone, open your website or the last email you sent. How do you find them?

If you feel the time has come for your company to optimize its tactics by making it more mobile, call me on my smart phone. I almost always have it on me!

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