The business environment in the world today is characterized by intense competition thereby forcing industries to look for measures that will enable them to retain their competitiveness. Businesses are therefore looking for ways in which they can shift from the traditional forms of business practices to practices that will create value for their consumers thus enabling them to retain their customers. The competitive nature of the business world has grown with the advent of technology. Issues such as advancement in digitization, smart materials, and biotechnology have played a very important role in terms of influencing the competitive nature of the business world.
Therefore, most businesses today are investing a lot of their resources towards improving their production processes by ensuring that the technology they use to provide goods and services is up-to-date. This way they can ensure that their production processes compete effectively with those of other firms. However, this measure is not very effective today since most businesses can manage to invest in new technology thereby making it difficult for businesses to realize a sufficient increase in the consumer base and profitability (Kraft 13). This is because technology has also enabled other competing businesses to strengthen their competitiveness.
Most countries in the world today have opened up their markets and this state of affairs has influenced how countries catch up with globalization. Globalization, on the other hand, has exposed businesses in different nations to competition from other businesses from outside countries. With the intense growth in globalization, competition has become global thereby forcing businesses in all parts of the world to come up with ways that can enable them to cope with the competitive international pressure.
They are therefore looking for ways that can enable them to create value to their customers so that they can manage to keep their customers as well as increase their profitability. Firms are thinking of how they can develop ties with their customers and therefore be able to create value for them. It is therefore important for businesses to gain experience on the needs of their customers so that they can manage to deliver products and services that meet the expectations of their customers. It is because of this that various organizations are investing a lot of resources in research to enable them to understand the attributes of their customers so that they can tailor-make their products in a manner that can make the customers make repeat purchases.
Innovation in experience environments is the new way in which firms can become effective in the activities that they perform. Innovation in the products and services is being described as a traditional practice. When companies concentrate on experience, they can trigger a co-creation experience which would enable them to design their products in a manner that would enable the customers to gain maximum benefits from them. Firms believe that customers need to have a personal experience with the products that they buy (Schmitt 25). They are therefore designing products that have a variety of features that they believe the customers would need thereby improving the experience that the customers have with the products.
With the rate at which technology is advancing, firms are today concentrating on adopting the concept of co-creation to enable their customers to have rewarding experiences with the products that these companies manufacture. The experience spaces that firms are concentrating on are acting like the future of innovation. Companies are therefore adopting this concept to enable them to remain relevant and competitive in the market. For example, the concept of telematics has served as one of the indicators of innovation in experience environments. This field makes use of the concept of mobile information services to facilitate auto-driving (Schmitt 43).
For example, General Motors (GM) launched OnStar services in the year 2000 to enable it to provide a series of emergency and safety services to its customers thus enabling the customers to experience the new phase of driving. The OnStar services are designed in such a manner that it is possible to access all the internal sensors of a vehicle. With the implementation of the OnStar service, it, therefore, becomes possible to continuously monitor all the functions that the vehicle performs and to provide assistance to the customers whenever a need arises. For example, if a person locks himself inside his car, OnStar can open the door for the customer remotely. Also, when the airbag of a car is deployed, OnStar cannot only be able to detect the accident, but it can also assess the severity of the accident. OnStar has also helped the police to keep track of any vehicle that is stolen (Lockwood 52).
Whenever a customer is involved in an accident, OnStar can contact a service representative who then contacts a local emergency service so that either the police or an ambulance can be sent to the place where the accident has occurred. With the success of the OnStar service, General Motors is today considering ways in which it can improve the overall driving experience so that it can be more convenient, entertaining, informative and fun (Lockwood 53).
The ability of organizations to pool technological capabilities together has served as a way of improving the experiences that customers have with their products. For example, the adoption of technology in electronics has enabled companies to design products that are much smaller and portable. For example, Sony invented the Walkman which enabled a person to make music with him wherever he went. However, digitization has facilitated the compression of music files (Sundbo 13). Also, the increased storage capacity of devices and its combination with microprocessors has made music to be completely portable.
For example, Apple Computer Inc. has been able to design the pocket-sized iPod and it is capable of storing more than1000 songs. Today, the new brands of the iPod can store more than 5000 songs. This move by Apple has been able to improve the entire music experience of the customer whereby many people have shifted from the Walkman to the iPod (Kraft 27). Therefore, it is true that today’s competitive world combined with technology has made it necessary for firms to shift their innovativeness from goods and services to experience environments so that they can create value to their customers thus sustaining their customers and profitability. To be successful in shifting innovation to experience environments, firms, therefore, need to ensure that they keep abreast of the recent advancements in technology and hence improve the experience that the customer has with the firms.
Works Cited
Kraft, Christian. User Experience Innovation: User-Centered Design that Works. London: Apress, 2012. Print.
Lockwood, Thomas. Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience, and Brand Value. New York: Allworth Press, 2009. Print.
Schmitt, Bernd. Customer Experience Management: A Revolutionary Approach to Connecting with Your Customers. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2003. Print
Sunday, Jon. Creating Experiences in the Experience Economy. New York: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008. Print.