Forbes ran a feature yesterday asking experts what tech trend are here to stay. Most interestingly, nearly all of them relate to giving the customer more control. It’s not the brands anymore that dictate time and place. It’s the end user.
Therefore, the tech trends cited include more digital transactions, a growing telehealth market and more of us working from home. It doesn’t take an expert to see these trends as lasting. The COVID-19 pandemic forced all of us to find ways to complete our tasks from home. And those are the results.
But there’s bigger movement at play here, though. The trends were already gearing up before COVID. The pandemic just sped them up.
Tech trends before COVID
We were already doing more digital transactions before COVID. We were becoming more accustomed to telehealth and working from home there too. All of us just made a fast-forward leap over the past year.
Think about this. The two most impactful tech innovations in the last decade (or more) are the iPhone and Netflix.
Let me explain.
The iPhone changed our world by giving us access to, well, everything, right from our own pocket. The result? You order food delivered to your doorstep by DoorDash, GrubHub and others. No need for maps with GPS ready and waiting. And on and on.
Apple’s invention gave us a tool to control our world. You may argue it hasn’t always been for the better. But we now receive everything we want instantly instead of inconveniencing ourselves to find it.
Then there’s Netflix
What Netflix brought to the equation was allowing viewers to stream whole seasons at once. Audiences were no longer beholden to broadcaster’s timeline. WE chose when to watch. And how much of it. It’s all in our control.
In fact, as other streamers toggle back and forth from the binge or dropping episodes once a week, viewers find waiting a week for a new episode to be broadcaster arrogance. Who are you to determine when and now much I can watch?
Netflix still remains the top streamer in the US and the world, even if its offerings are lukewarm. Why? Because it gave us control.
What happens going forward?
The tech trends mentioned in the Forbes feature point to the wave that was already rising. Being able to deposit a check from your phone means most of us never have to go into a branch again. Companies now allow their workers to work from home. The mix of going to the office and working from home is here to stay. (You can add Zoom to the iPhone and Netflix list.)
Telehealth represents a very interesting case. Of course, there are times when it simply isn’t feasible. But most of our appointments are simply checking in with the doctor. In Forbes, Joe Rubinsztain of Chron Well, Inc., suggests there are greater opporutunites in store. Like medical algorithms paired with virtual caregivers.
Brands must always look at things from the perspective of the end user. Now, they must consider something else. Who’s in control? The brands or the audience?
If these long-lasting tech trends tell us anything, brands keeping control is how they become losers in the new world.