The past few decades have seen a technological revolution within the developed world. With the internet and apps having woven the strands of their global web through every aspect of our lives, we use our smartphones and computers for everything from dating to shopping to staying in touch with friends.
According to the statistics, this means that a customer now downloads an app from Apple every millisecond. It’s a perfect sign of the times. With ever evolving technology to aid us in our every endeavour, the world around us is being transformed, and this applies to the commercial sphere as much as any other area.
All around us, the pace of our lives is speeding up. How? Let’s take a look…
#1: Business On the Go
The advent of online and app-based retail and commerce is a key factor affecting the ever accelerating speed of business. Allowing anyone who’s connected to the internet to perform any task at any time, it means that we’re all so much more capable of filling our days with a thousand different things. Those downtimes that people might once have had between tasks – during their daily commute, on their lunch hour, or in the evenings – is no longer enforced by not being physically able to liaise with service providers or purchase goods. With clients and customers able to access services 24/7, businesses are forced to reflect this, speeding up the whole cycle.
#2: Instant Communication
Our ability to communicate instantaneously, with both clients/customers and fellow employees or business contacts, is also quickening the pace. All that it takes is a simple email to get in touch with anybody you wish to, delivered directly to their inbox with a loud ‘ping’ to let them know it’s there. In the same vein, online or app-based purchases or enquiries can also be immediately communicated from one arm of a business to the next, helping to significantly shorten turnaround times.
#3: Around the Clock Opening Hours
Technology has had an additional effect, whether or not businesses actively recognise it: it has forced them to be open around the clock. So long as an enterprise has an online presence, purchases can be made and services enlisted at any time of the day or night. From organising a parcel delivery at midnight to buying a new pair of shoes at three in the morning, consumers can shop without restriction, so that come nine am and opening time, a backlog of orders will already be awaiting fulfilment.
The fallout from this is simple: the speed of business is increasing apace. With further technological developments utterly inevitable, how long will it be until turnaround times are almost non-existent?
