When we think of E-commerce strategies, the ones that immediately come to mind are the large, expensive, and impressive ventures such as reverse auctions, supply chain integration, online stores, etc. etc. All of these are potentially of huge benefit to any organization, yet none of them are what we’d describe as an easy first step.
Combine the financial risks of the above ventures, with the well-deserved scepticism generated by the Dot.com bust, and the result is a determined reluctance to experiment with anything to do with the E-Economy. Many, thankfully not all, companies have decided to throw the baby out with the bath water.
One of the most overlooked capabilities of the electronic age is perhaps e-mail. Obviously it isn’t suitable for every application. I don’t know if we’d want our bank statements e-mailed to us every month, but even when we trim away all the applications sensitive to privacy, security and timeliness issues, we’re left with a host of viable applications.
Open up the mailbox and most of the items are ideally suited to e-mail: A note from the car dealership reminding me of an upcoming tune up; A similar one from the optometrist regarding my eyes; Frequent flier updates; Sale notifications; School announcements; Association newsletters … the list goes on and on. Most of this information is useful to me, expensive to mail out, and mailed out according to some pre-determined computer suitable schedule. Having it come to me via e-mail is a win/win for both me and the sender.
Yet I get very little of this type of useful e-mail, and a vast amount of SPAM mail. Unfortunately the spammers have discovered the right strategy, but are using it for the wrong purpose.
NTUC Income of Singapore (http://www.income.com.sg/) is an insurance company and they decided that staying in touch with customers, both existing and potential, makes economic sense. Over the years they’ve collected approximately 170,000 e-mail addresses, and on a regular basis use this to electronically touch their customer base. For them, this list is both a guarantee of future business, and a way to retain existing customers.
How much value can you assign to 170,000 e-mail addresses? If they have all chosen to be kept informed of issues relating to insurance (NTUC assures me they are all on the list by request) then the list is fully qualified. Similar lists on the internet are available for $25 per ID. Whether they are actually worth that much, or more, would depend on how the list is used and how well it is maintained over the years.
In one sense, what NTUC Income did is very impressive. They are a leader in the Insurance field in their use of E-mail to stay in touch with clients and seek out new business. In all the years I’ve held policies with several different insurance companies, I’ve never received an e-mail from them. Some would describe NTUC Income as being a leader in one small aspect of the new e-economy.
Yet in another sense, what they did is awfully mundane, even boring. They’ve done nothing more than address a problem common to every business and merely found a readily accessible, cost effective way to address the issue. Running an e-mail list application is hardly high tech. There’s no glamour to it. No glitz. No sizzle. There is certainly very little risk. Yet they created a corporate asset worth about $4.25 million.
There are always at least two ways to explore a new technology. The first, and most exciting, is to use it to do things we’ve never done before, to explore new worlds etc. etc.
The other approach is a bit more conservative, a bit more cautious. Find something you’re already doing and understand fairly well, and then use the new technology to become more effective at that task. In other words, work within the context of what we already know. We know e-mail inside out, but mostly we ignore it.
