In less than 300 words..
I was going to pick on a particular segment of Precision Ag, but I think producers saying “I don’t have time for this” holds bigger weight than that.
Time is money no matter what segment, sector, or industry you’re talking about. In a world of smartphones, smart devices, and a bombardment of notifications from them, you’d better provide real value and you’d better do it in a very short time.
If your product or service can’t do the following within 10 minutes you’re going to lose half or more of producers:
- Exactly what it does and preferably what it doesn’t do.. BE HONEST ABOUT IT’S CURRENT CAPABILITIES!
- How it benefits the producers.. financially, saves them time ACTUALLY SAVES THEM TIME!, etc. AGAIN, BE HONEST!
- And either do a thorough walk-through or get them started and actually do something productive
And maybe most importantly, once you get them in, you’d better keep them active and learning:
- You product should “just work“.. I’m not kidding, I hear it all the time.. Said product / service had better not take more than 30 seconds to get booted up / logged in and ready to go
- If you’re going to promise some kind of automation you’d better provide some. If you have an app, push a notification once and a while. Or send an email. Let producers set their own options for frequency and content, but don’t bombard them with options. Make options simple, set them up in a reasonable manner by default
- Don’t go changing the user interface or the fee structure every month, six months or even every year. Producers have long memories when they pay for things, especially intangible ones. You’d better keep it simple and fair.
Thoughts on time in technology? Comment below or tweet me @AaronBobeck